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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 21, 2020 11:13:26 GMT -5
I think the fundamental disconnect here is going to be that you believe having students on-campus means they have adequately prepared and evaluated the situation, and others don't believe that is necessarily the case. Any school COULD have kids back on campus right now, it's a question of whether that SHOULD be happening. I lean on the side of no, but I do believe there are some schools who are actually trying the best they can to re-open safely. But just because La Salle isn't doing in-person classes this semester doesn't automatically mean they didn't prepare. It could also mean they did everything they could to adequately prepare, yet still came to the conclusion it's not a good idea. I hear what you are saying...and yes we disagree. There are parents on the La Salle Parents facebook page that, rightly or wrongly, feel duped. Their semester bills were due last week and they shelled out $7000 for room and board for the semester...not a small sum of money for many La Salle students. One parent said, if they thought this was a possibility, why didn't they wait to make housing payments due instead of changing it less than a week later. Some want to defer or transfer, but they already paid their $15K first semester tuition bill. They are bringing up Temple, St. Joe's, and Nova as open.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 21, 2020 11:22:22 GMT -5
correct. Flatten the curve never meant "eliminate the virus". Did they get it at St. Joe's or have it when they arrived? If they are wearing masks and social distancing, the odds are lower they will give it to other people and most schools have a "quarantine dorm" setup for positive cases. We can't close down the world for a year waiting for a vaccine to arrive next summer. We could eliminate all traffic accidents by making the speed limit 5 mph, but we don't. There is a calculated risk in all of this, and with the proper planning, schools can open.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 21, 2020 14:26:27 GMT -5
This is what leadership looks like in an email and video that went out today to all students and parents. Villanova is using this as an opportunity to teach their students to hold themselves and others accountable for their individual actions and their campus community as a whole. Father Peter is basically saying in the video, "Screw up, be selfish, and the campus is done not just for the fall, but the year, so do it right." What I hear on this board in the past 24 hours, and from La Salle's administration, is that there is less faith in La Salle students to rise to the challenge of being smart and being safe. That's a shame. Explorers may never be lost, but this administration seems to be when it comes to teaching responsibility and accountability. vimeo.com/449929866/62628f51e2Attachment Deleted
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Post by calsufan on Aug 21, 2020 14:44:26 GMT -5
This is what leadership looks like in an email and video that went out today to all students and parents. Villanova is using this as an opportunity to teach their students to hold themselves and others accountable for their individual actions and their campus community as a whole. Father Peter is basically saying in the video, "Screw up, be selfish, and the campus is done not just for the fall, but the year, so do it right." What I hear on this board in the past 24 hours, and from La Salle's administration, is that there is less faith in La Salle students to rise to the challenge of being smart and being safe. That's a shame. Explorers may never be lost, but this administration seems to be when it comes to teaching responsibility and accountability. vimeo.com/449929866/62628f51e2View AttachmentSomeone will be proven right and someone will be proven wrong in the next 3 months. It's premature to say who quite yet. The schools made their choices and we'll see how things play out.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 21, 2020 14:51:10 GMT -5
Someone will be proven right and someone will be proven wrong in the next 3 months. It's premature to say who quite yet. The schools made their choices and we'll see how things play out. Is it your conjecture, then, that La Salle shouldn't at least be trying to hold the students accountable for themselves and each other? Wouldn't, as a young adult, you rather be told, "Show us you can do this" rather than, "We've already determined you can't because we saw that others can't either"?
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Post by calsufan on Aug 21, 2020 15:04:55 GMT -5
Someone will be proven right and someone will be proven wrong in the next 3 months. It's premature to say who quite yet. The schools made their choices and we'll see how things play out. Is it your conjecture, then, that La Salle shouldn't at least be trying to hold the students accountable for themselves and each other? Wouldn't, as a young adult, you rather be told, "Show us you can do this" rather than, "We've already determined you can't because we saw that others can't either"? Frankly, I don't give af to get into a back and forth with you about this. You're relentless, always have a driving need to be right and will play ping pong with this all day long. I'll take a pass. I posted what I did because it's factual. It's too early to say.
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Post by theneumann64 on Aug 21, 2020 15:14:39 GMT -5
Someone will be proven right and someone will be proven wrong in the next 3 months. It's premature to say who quite yet. The schools made their choices and we'll see how things play out. Is it your conjecture, then, that La Salle shouldn't at least be trying to hold the students accountable for themselves and each other? Wouldn't, as a young adult, you rather be told, "Show us you can do this" rather than, "We've already determined you can't because we saw that others can't either"? There's also a "It's just not worth the risk" argument. The risk to the students, to the school, to the surrounding community, to the families of the students at school. I get why the school tried to do it in-person this semester, I really do. I didn't think it was a good idea, and for the record, I don't think it's a good idea for ANY college this semester, but I don't think my position on this is an absolute morally correct one. I understand a bunch of factors have to be weighed, and a school like La Salle, which is not exactly in Princeton's position financially, is going to take a haircut they can ill-afford by not having on-campus classes this semester. And let's not paint any of these schools, anywhere, opening back up as anything more than a financial play. They all know it would be safer to do remote learning this year. I'm glad a lot of them are doing as much as they can from a health and safety standpoint, but it's an effort to stay open and make as much money as they can in Tuition. Again, I get it. But let's not make it seem like what they're really trying to do is teach a bunch of 19 year olds about personal responsibility. They're trying to keep their financials in good shape, and will be more than happy to let a bunch of 18-22 year olds take the fall if it works out poorly.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 21, 2020 15:17:17 GMT -5
Is it your conjecture, then, that La Salle shouldn't at least be trying to hold the students accountable for themselves and each other? Wouldn't, as a young adult, you rather be told, "Show us you can do this" rather than, "We've already determined you can't because we saw that others can't either"? Frankly, I don't give af to get into a back and forth with you about this. You're relentless, always have a driving need to be right and will play ping pong with this all day long. I'll take a pass. I posted what I did because it's factual. It's too early to say. So you posted a reply quoting my post to initiate a discussion, and then when questioned as to what your real opinion was, threw up your hands and offered no opinion. Congratulations! You just passed the interview to be the newest member of La Salle's executive leadership team.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Aug 21, 2020 17:37:35 GMT -5
I feel like you’d be more at home on the St Joe’s and Duquesne message boards. The school, in my opinion, made a good decision in a lose lose situation.
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Post by big5explorer on Aug 21, 2020 18:24:47 GMT -5
Let's just recognize the real victims of switching to online-only learning: the pets who won't get to live in a dorm room for months. ;-)
Here are what I view as the risks of continuing on campus learning through the semester:
For students living and staying on campus: Statistically, lower than or at the level of an annual influenza wave.
For commuting students: No higher than it would be for them working in an ER, as a cashier, a bus driver, or perhaps simply residing in their community.
For staff: Likely no greater than a healthcare worker, a cashier or bus driver. Especially if they were doing the course as a hybrid, or online already.
For families at home: Less, if their student resides on campus for the semester. Possibly less or equal to having had the same student at home, working a summer job, hanging with friends.
For the community at large (especially assuming we don't ever get a vaccine): Quicker build-up of overall herd immunity/saturation of the virus in a group of generally healthy individuals with a lower than average likelihood of getting very sick or dying from this virus.
Did I forget someone?
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Post by big5explorer on Aug 21, 2020 19:51:19 GMT -5
I feel like you’d be more at home on the St Joe’s and Duquesne message boards. The school, in my opinion, made a good decision in a lose lose situation. I'm curious how it is lose/lose. If a campus keeps kids on campus all semester, and they don't get really sick, that is a win for the students, and a financial win for the University. Not bringing the kids to campus is, in my opinion, wrongly adopting a War Games philosophy -- thinking that the only way to win is not to play the game.
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Post by coqui900 on Aug 21, 2020 21:14:27 GMT -5
I'm taking a MBA class this semester that's in the hybrid online/in-person format. We received word that we're still going to have our in-person sessions. They are going to have some sort of barriers and distancing in place.
My wife REALLY wants me to drop the class as:
1) She has really bad asthma, so any sort of lung illness can really devastate her
2) She works at a charter school. The students are home for at least the first few months. But she still has to go into her school building to do her remote teaching from there. They have spacing measures in place.
3) Our one-year-old is back in day care. We have no other childcare options. That adds to the exposure.
I also just had a COVID scare myself. I had some symptoms last weekend. Thankfully, the test came back negative. I wasn't that sick but it was still a bit nerve-wracking. My aunt and uncle both had COVID a few months ago and described it as the worst two weeks of their lives. They didn't need hospitalization or anything, but it was really brutal.
I'm not going to drop the class. I really like the material and professor and, especially, the sense of (sorta) normalcy it will provide. But I am really nervous about getting sick.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 21, 2020 22:16:22 GMT -5
2) She works at a charter school. The students are home for at least the first few months. But she still has to go into her school building to do her remote teaching from there. They have spacing measures in place. I also just had a COVID scare myself. I had some symptoms last weekend. Thankfully, the test came back negative. I wasn't that sick but it was still a bit nerve-wracking. My aunt and uncle both had COVID a few months ago and described it as the worst two weeks of their lives. They didn't need hospitalization or anything, but it was really brutal. My wife is a teacher as well - 4th grade at a Catholic school in Chester County. They are still planning full-time in-person instruction and the school received a grant for face shields and masks for the teachers. in June she was due to have 8 kids in her class. As the public school districts around us started closing, enrollment went up. She's at 14 now and expecting 1 or 2 more before classes start on the 31st. Public school districts closing from teacher union pressure has been a boost to the non-union Catholic grade schools. My youngest is at a private Catholic high school and will be in hybrid mode for at least a month. I had the scare myself in June. Fever for 2 days and got the swab (OUCH)...isolated in the house away from everyone for 3 days waiting for test...came back negative...although my doc said it could have been a false negative and I might have had good T Cell resistance by possible exposure to other corona variants from a lot of international travel over the years (lots of research out on that in the past month...my company is in the middle of running almost 50 clinical trials on vaccine and treatment options, so I'm surrounded by the data and medical research). Like you..I had a family member with it...18-year old niece who spent most of the summer masklessly partying down the shore with the other maskless Covidiots...I think 4 people in her senior week house got it..none of their parents did. For them is was like having the flu and fatigue for a few days...nothing too long lasting at their age. Good luck in your MBA studies. I know from experience going back to school with young ones is tough, but also rewarding.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Aug 21, 2020 22:17:15 GMT -5
I feel like you’d be more at home on the St Joe’s and Duquesne message boards. The school, in my opinion, made a good decision in a lose lose situation. I'm curious how it is lose/lose. If a campus keeps kids on campus all semester, and they don't get really sick, that is a win for the students, and a financial win for the University. Not bringing the kids to campus is, in my opinion, wrongly adopting a War Games philosophy -- thinking that the only way to win is not to play the game. You have what, 2000 kids living on campus? 1500 commuters? What percentage of the on campus kids go home at least once a week. 25%? 50%? So let's say you have an outbreak in a dorm housing 250 kids and nobody knows about it for 5-7 days because that is the incubation (I think thats right whatever) period. So in that time, a lot of kids who are potentially exposed are going to be heading back to their parents' houses. Or they're going home and going out, potentially infecting that same dorm. It's lose-lose because people could die. I love La Salle, but we're talking about deaths here. And if not deaths, long term physical implications for some young people. There's a definite generational gap here. I just don't get how we can be so flippant with the lives of others.
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Post by big5explorer on Aug 22, 2020 9:14:48 GMT -5
I'm curious how it is lose/lose. If a campus keeps kids on campus all semester, and they don't get really sick, that is a win for the students, and a financial win for the University. Not bringing the kids to campus is, in my opinion, wrongly adopting a War Games philosophy -- thinking that the only way to win is not to play the game. You have what, 2000 kids living on campus? 1500 commuters? What percentage of the on campus kids go home at least once a week. 25%? 50%? So let's say you have an outbreak in a dorm housing 250 kids and nobody knows about it for 5-7 days because that is the incubation (I think thats right whatever) period. So in that time, a lot of kids who are potentially exposed are going to be heading back to their parents' houses. Or they're going home and going out, potentially infecting that same dorm. It's lose-lose because people could die. I love La Salle, but we're talking about deaths here. And if not deaths, long term physical implications for some young people. There's a definite generational gap here. I just don't get how we can be so flippant with the lives of others. Let me give you my perspective as a physician. Anecdotal, and data perspective. I deal with keeping people healthy and alive everyday, so I'm not flippant about it. In our family medicine practice, just 1 hour north of Philly, and an hour outside of NY, we have roughly 5,000 patients. We have had 40-50 patients test positive. No deaths. None in the ICU. 2 patients in the hospital for observation for about 3 days each. All have recovered. We have seen no one, of any age, with long term health implications so far. Currently, in our 11 network hospitals, there are a total of 15 Covid patients in the hospital, only 4 in ICU beds. Currently, in the entire State of Pennsylvania we are currently averaging, over the last 3 months, just about 2 total Covid deaths per month per hospital. More than half of them over age 80. 2/3 of them nursing home patients. In the state of Pennsylvania, we have had zero deaths in the age 24 and under age group. Zero. So, for students themselves, being on campus is a minimal risk. A risk lower than dying of alcohol poisoning, dying during flu season, or from a car accident over the summer at home. And, for a student living and remaining on campus for the semester, the risk to their family is actually diminished. So, let's be honest, who are we protecting? Staff and the families of commuter students, and perhaps the community at large. So let's break their risk down: StaffFor professors, had they chosen to do online or hybrid courses, their risk would be minimal. Had they chosen to do their classes live, their risk might be that of most other people working other jobs in healthcare, in retail, in transportation, over the last 6 months. Or perhaps less so, as professors will only average about 15 hours of in-class time per week. Certainly far less exposure than a grade school or high school teacher. Far less risk than a hospital worker, or physician like myself, who on any given day could be standing toe-to-toe with an infected individual. As an aside, our hospital network conducted an internal study of infection rates of our 10,000 network employees over the last 6 months of Covid. It was half of the general population -- an indication that with proper protective equipment (for me, that is just a mask), Covid transmission can be mitigated to a degree. For the rest of the University staff, wearing proper protective equipment, tailored to their jobs, would likely be as sufficient as for anyone in working in retail or a similar job. Families of CommutersFirst, many Universities have provided an option for their students for remote learning. If this was an option, commuting students and families could take it. But should a student decide to attend live classes, wearing a mask, while on campus, and in class, should be sufficient to provide the same protection that young adult workers are afforded. Again, we are likely talking about 15 hours of in-class time per week. Compared to someone working 40 hours a week at Starbucks, the risk of bringing the virus home to their family at the end of the day is less. Community at LargeI will contend that having a student body on campus will ultimately provide better protection for a community at large. Having all the students at home, learning online, increases their time with their families at home. Most students will not be isolating in their houses during an entire online semester. They will be out socializing with high school friends, possibly working jobs at home, and coming back to that home everyday. While at home, they will likely be wearing a mask fewer hours in the day than they would on a college campus, and would likely be circulating in the community at home far more than they would in the community of North Philadelphia. Finally, a college campus might be compared to a cruise ship. Even if there is an outbreak on the campus, it is likely to be relatively self-limited in time, and less problematic in severity, and will likely only cause symptoms in a small percentage of these mostly young and healthy individuals, spreading mostly in dorms. Within weeks, the virus should saturate those it is capable of infecting, and numbers should fade quickly. Leaving a campus with a relatively good herd immunity level within weeks or months. If a vaccine or better treatment never comes, the college is better insulated against this virus for future semesters, and the student families at home have one less person at home to transmit the virus between semesters.
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big5vet
Mop-Up Time
Posts: 103
Likes: 91
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Post by big5vet on Aug 22, 2020 10:35:10 GMT -5
Thank you.
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Post by glorydays on Aug 22, 2020 13:08:12 GMT -5
As Gnocchi would say: Nice piece of analysis.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Aug 22, 2020 15:04:45 GMT -5
Not going to copy the big thread that I thank you for writing it. I’m glad you’re seeing success in your practice and hospital. It is all about risk. And it’s not just about the kids but about their parents and the communities they’ll frequently go home to.
In PA, cases have been rising WoW for the last 7 weeks or so. Deaths have risen but only slightly, I’ll give you that.
It’s all about risk tolerance. Yours is clearly higher than mine in this regard. We are allowed to disagree. But the decision was not a crazy one. I hope you can at least agree on that.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 22, 2020 17:01:19 GMT -5
In PA, cases have been rising WoW for the last 7 weeks or so. Deaths have risen but only slightly, I’ll give you that. It’s all about risk tolerance. Yours is clearly higher than mine in this regard. We are allowed to disagree. But the decision was not a crazy one. I hope you can at least agree on that. Your statement is incorrect. The data shows that cases in PA have NOT been rising WoW in PA for the last 7 weeks. Let's look at the 7-day moving average of cases going back 7 weeks (the measure used to determine positivity). The peak occurred in July and has trended downward since: Jul 11 - 759 Jul 18 - 793 Jul 25 - 912 (peak) Aug 1 - 902 Aug 8 - 727 Aug 15 - 815 Aug 22 - 661 (low) During that same time period, testing has generally risen. Let's look at the 7-day average for testing: Jul 11 - 13,929 Jul 18 - 13,936 Jul 25 - 15,780 Aug 1 - 15,547 Aug 8 - 14,365 Aug 15 - 15,787 (peak) Aug 22 - 13,814 (low) The positivity rate went from 5.5% on July 11 to 4.6 % on August 22. The source for this data is : www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/03/pa-coronavirus-updates-cases-map-live-tracker/Big5 never said the decision was a "crazy" one. He contested your assertion that La Salle was in a "lose-lose" situation. Clearly from his medical analysis, they were not. From my perspective, it was a reactive one borne from poor leadership and poor planning. A plan was developed and communicated in July, then changed in early August (maybe because trends were up based on the late July peak), and then changed again this week even as positivity was trending downward because they saw people partying at other schools. This is reactive leadership. We won't have a vaccine by the start of the 2nd semester...so does La Salle stay closed again because it's not worth the risk? If Temple and St. Joe's (local schools that compete with La Salle for students) successfully navigate this, was it worth the risk? Incidentally...as this question arose on here. It is confirmed that the basketball team IS on campus. Some other sports are not, and parents of those athletes in other sports are upset (on the parents Facebook page) that basketball is getting special treatment versus other sports. One could argue they are a revenue-generating sport (maybe not this year), and should be treated differently...but wasn't there an argument made on here that it shouldn't be about money? So much for equality. I guess the administration feels they can safely house and mitigate risk for students who have basketball talent, but not necessarily accounting talent. Mixed messaging I think.
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Post by big5explorer on Aug 22, 2020 17:30:23 GMT -5
Not going to copy the big thread that I thank you for writing it. I’m glad you’re seeing success in your practice and hospital. It is all about risk. And it’s not just about the kids but about their parents and the communities they’ll frequently go home to. In PA, cases have been rising WoW for the last 7 weeks or so. Deaths have risen but only slightly, I’ll give you that. It’s all about risk tolerance. Yours is clearly higher than mine in this regard. We are allowed to disagree. But the decision was not a crazy one. I hope you can at least agree on that. Cases have not risen over the last 7 weeks. In fact, they are trending downward weekly over the last 7 weeks in PA, especially in Philly and in western PA. Deaths are stable at between 5-20 per day. There are many resources available, but for PA, one is: www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Cases.aspxNationally, should you need a good resource for numbers: coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-mapI am not contending the decision was a crazy one. Though in my opinion it seemed reactionary. While I am not fond of the Ivy League schools all deciding to go online early, at least they made a firm decision. Personally, if I were making the decision, I would have given it a go for my reasons mentioned above.
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Post by coqui900 on Aug 22, 2020 19:12:10 GMT -5
I will counter that great analysis with the following:
1) College kids are going to get it and give it to each other. It's just the nature of being irresponsible 18-year-olds. Very few people in that age group practice common sense. As I, and probably all of you, can attest when you acted that age.
2) Do you remember how tiny the nursing center is? I think there are three nurses who work there. Total. It will literally take maybe 10 people to have symptoms of coronavirus -- just the basic "bad head cold" symptoms and not gasping for air symptoms -- to overwhelm that facility over the course of a day.
3) I haven't seen the neighborhood numbers in a while, but the La Salle zip code (19141) had more cases than anywhere else in the city for a while. Where the hell are you going to go get help around campus if you get really bad symptoms that don't require hospitalization but still require some type of treatment? Einstein Hospital? No thanks.
4) If you have the basic symptoms and live near campus and need stuff like NyQuill and Gatorade and the basics, the Fresh Grocer and CVS right next to campus are the only spots. And while we've learned to mitigate risks in retail facilities like that, you're now increasing interactions between the La Salle student population and the local residents, which is a zip code already flooded with this.
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Post by blueandgold on Aug 22, 2020 19:23:18 GMT -5
I don’t envy anyone working in the education field at the moment. You’re not going to make everyone happy, because everyone’s opinion and personal situation varies.
When you boil it down, the school needs the money / cash. The Ivy League can ride this out without worrying about closing their doors permanently. Most other schools can’t. The administration must have felt they had to open their doors, and then they must have felt they had to go virtual, after the fact timing and financial impact be damned, as the least bad option.
Whether they should have stayed the course, we may never know for sure. I pray La Salle survives the pandemic. Count me in the camp for opening things up but also giving people a virtual option to do things where practical. The second wave that scares me isn’t the virus itself - it’s the true economic impacts that haven’t hit just yet but I’m convinced are coming, and we won’t be able to print enough money to resolve them.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Aug 23, 2020 6:13:39 GMT -5
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Aug 23, 2020 6:15:37 GMT -5
The gist of my thoughts is that the trend is going up. "Risen WoW" was wrong and I should have checked that. It was true three weeks ago.
But things aren't "getting better." And as it gets colder, they're likely to get worse. And Coqui's point on the nursing center is why we're closed and Villanova isn't. They have the money and space to enforce quarantines and administer help. La Salle definitely does not. Also, some of these schools are testing every student as they get in. I'm not going to pretend to know how much a test costs a Villanova, but at $20 per we're looking at $40k for 2000 students moving in.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 23, 2020 7:56:46 GMT -5
The gist of my thoughts is that the trend is going up. "Risen WoW" was wrong and I should have checked that. It was true three weeks ago. But things aren't "getting better." And as it gets colder, they're likely to get worse. And Coqui's point on the nursing center is why we're closed and Villanova isn't. They have the money and space to enforce quarantines and administer help. La Salle definitely does not. Also, some of these schools are testing every student as they get in. I'm not going to pretend to know how much a test costs a Villanova, but at $20 per we're looking at $40k for 2000 students moving in. Number of cases doesn't tell the story unless you overlay number of tests to get the positivity rate. You also have to look at severity of cases. Positivity rate has trended downward in that time period as the numbers above show, which is getting better. (In basketball terms..like focusing only on points instead of shooting percentage). Additionally, those getting it are generally less severely affected than the early patients. La Salle charges each student a "Wellness Fee" of $85 a semester. I don't know what that goes toward. But perhaps could have been used for the testing..or the $75 "Activities Fee" (what is THAT being used on this semester)..or the "University Fee" of $365 per semester. All on top of the $31,350 tuition for this year. Even if it cost $50K to do this, economically La Salle is losing more than $10M this semester not having residents on campus. The testing cost is a rounding error. Regarding the nursing center - they had months to plan and could have expanded that as needed...maybe take an area on south campus and create a second one. Again...other schools have done this. In addition, they touted in their July plan how lower enrollment meant they had more capacity in their residence halls and could separate people more effectively (single residents in double rooms for example was called out in the plan).
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Post by 23won on Aug 23, 2020 8:18:53 GMT -5
I question whether the school can survive when the administration makes decisions like this. Yes, there was an explanation that showed ongoing references to their dashboards in making a decision but not much meat in terms of data that drove the decision. There was a reference to one health care worker not returning being a factor and the perceived lack of health resources. That is a bit shocking when you are located in one of the largest cities in the country. We have medical transport services readily available and some of the top hospitals in the nation.
If I were a frosh or a sophomore I would have said adios to La Salle and enrolled at a community college. Save the bucks and either come back with far less student debt or set sights higher on a better school. I have to say the school has been underwhelming me. You have to make tough decisions and not be influenced by social media or mainstream media (which are incredibly distorted and biased). But that is the way they are running things so put your finger in the air and test the social media winds and that is the way La Salle is headed.
No reliance on real data Like Big5 laid out so well. You can build a distorted dashboard and manipulate data all day long to justify a bad decision, but this decision will lead to enrollment erosion and make kids wonder if the second semester will ever start on campus. I’d be looking at the student portal if I were enrolled.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Aug 23, 2020 9:14:34 GMT -5
Were you in the room? We’re all just speculating here.
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Post by GlitterBro #2 on Aug 23, 2020 11:04:16 GMT -5
Were you in the room? We’re all just speculating here. You speculated that La Salle made the right decision. Others speculated that La Salle made the wrong decision. The La Salle administration specualted that their students would not follow the rules. Other college administrations speculated differently. There is nothing wrong with speculation. Anecdotally, i was on Villanovas campus this morning taking my son to brunch. I did not see a single person without a mask on the campus or crossing Lancaster Avenue. Several groups of students out running were masked. I asked my son what the general vibe and reaction on campus was. He told me the juniors and seniors are holding the freshman accountable to not screw this up, RA's are doing more checking to ensure dorm rooms aren't exceeding limits on number of people. He said people want to stay on campus and are willing to comply if it means getting to be together even in this somewhat limited form. Contrast that with La Salle's approach of just speculating people wouldn't follow the rules. An opportunity to teach accountability and leadership was, dare I say it, lost at 20th and Olney this semester.
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Post by las71 on Aug 23, 2020 11:08:25 GMT -5
I really believe that the administration has a better understanding of LA Salle's situation than we. They recognize what obstacles the school faces going forward and certainly knew the negatives of whatever decision they made. I believe the administration made a good faith decision to open and a good faith decision to close. As you can see just from our board, there are at least two different camps on how this should be done. Both camps have some merits but in the end the decision was not ours to make. There are consequences to this action just as there's consequences if they remained open and there was an outbreak on campus. Surely the powers that be weighed the consequences of each choice and decided the decision to close after being open only for a few days was the best of difficult options. I wish there was more I can do as an alum to help.
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Post by hykos1045 on Aug 23, 2020 12:24:45 GMT -5
The A10 did the same as La Salle. Had a hybrid plan all laid out and then quickly disbanded fall sports. And that domino in particular may have set off a reaction that made it much more difficult for justifying the dorms as fully open.
Big Ten Football did the same as La Salle. Had a schedule release and then quickly scrapped it with a secret not so secret consensus call.
Drexel reversed course the same as La Salle and at about the same time.
So while I felt the same disappointment as many when the late change of plans rolled out, at least we can say we are not alone in this struggle.
I also refuse to believe that the administration purposely waited until deposits were in before making this decision. Some have speculated that. I still believe in my heart that the administration is working with families throughout this process and is not just looking for a better financial way out of this. That's why I have referred to our course of action as lose-lose. There is no savings in closing the dorms, that's for sure.
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