(08-20-2021 07:24 PM)Barney Wrote:  On a slightly different note:
If I were the Rice coaching staff, I'd continue to emphasize the Covid safety protocols as a #1 priority entering the season. I'd think that a team that could stay fully healthy in this regard, and not deal with so many quarantines etc., would have a sizable advantage in several games. Or put another way, every Covid case is almost like a major injury in effect.
Of course you couldn't beat the teams that decide to cancel on account of Covid...

Also more on topic: University of Hawai'i announced today that they will not have fans at athletic events to start the season to be re-evaluated "in the coming weeks". The islands are off on their own, so the state is exceptionally aggressive at keeping the illness within hospital capacity.

Oregon just announced that vaccine or negative test will be required for attendance at Ducks athletics events this fall.

About to head out with my Excelsior Pass for a night of clubbing... Big vaccine passport proponent here.. But then let us live our normal life. That's why I don't feel like I have a "tribe" in this conversation. Abbott's borderline anti-vaccine rhetoric is stupid, but so is the Boston mayor reinstating a mask mandate in the 2nd most vaxxed state in the country when hospitals have tons and tons of capacity.

University of Memphis is going to mandate vaccination once the Pfizer vaccine is FDA-approved next week.

The University of Virginia did the right thing by disenrolling students who would not get vaccinated.

(08-21-2021 09:22 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  University of Memphis is going to mandate vaccination once the Pfizer vaccine is FDA-approved next week.

I can see the headline now:

"Registrar to Students: Pfizer or Pflunk!"

(08-21-2021 01:12 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(08-21-2021 09:22 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  University of Memphis is going to mandate vaccination once the Pfizer vaccine is FDA-approved next week.

I can see the headline now:

"Registrar to Students: Pfizer or Pflunk!"

That could put them in a pfunk.

(08-21-2021 01:12 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(08-21-2021 09:22 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  University of Memphis is going to mandate vaccination once the Pfizer vaccine is FDA-approved next week.

I can see the headline now:

"Registrar to Students: Pfizer or Pflunk!"

It’s the U of Memphis, so I’m sure some of the students have plenty of experience with the former

Western Carolina assistant football coach John Peacock dies of Covid. He was 32.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...ck-dies-32

I don't know where they're getting their info, but apparently current students on another Rice board I follow are saying that a large number of the positive results recently reported on campus were actually false positives. They're going to carry through with the remote-only start, but they probably won't extend it.

(08-22-2021 12:27 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  I don't know where they're getting their info, but apparently current students on another Rice board I follow are saying that a large number of the positive results recently reported on campus were actually false positives. They're going to carry through with the remote-only start, but they probably won't extend it.

Saw the same info on Instagram.

(08-22-2021 12:27 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  I don't know where they're getting their info, but apparently current students on another Rice board I follow are saying that a large number of the positive results recently reported on campus were actually false positives. They're going to carry through with the remote-only start, but they probably won't extend it.

Rice posted a lengthy description of this issue yesterday. Basically one of their testing providers changed their protocols and it looks like it resulted in a number of false positives. Rice did a great job of QA/QC here and identifying the abnormality in the results.

Based on this, and the rather large crowd at the soccer stadium, I do believe that Rice admin are trying to revert to in person.

https://coronavirus.rice.edu/news/covid-...-august-22

(08-20-2021 06:10 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(08-20-2021 05:57 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.keranews.org/education/2021-...plications

College College Dean of Nursing dies of Covid.

Do you really blame college professors and staff members everywhere for being a bit nervous still? The vaccines give you tremendous odds on not getting serious symptoms if you do get Covid, but they don't prevent you from getting it altogether.

Personally (as a parent of two college students now), I think universities need to put their money where their mouth is and pretty much offer substantial financial breaks for students if they're vaccinated. That would be the most effective way to up the vaccine percentages everywhere.

Why do college professors and staff act like they’re exempt from going to work like people from so many other professions (including other white collar professions) have been for the last 18 months?

I work in sales strategy for a CPG company and have been visiting our retailers since last summer (we took a three month hiatus in Spring 2020 when we couldn’t secure PPE). Did I think that everyone in the loading dock I was at three weeks ago in a Pittsburgh Wal-Mart was vaxxed? Nope. But I have a job to do and we need to fix our go-to-market system… So I went knowing that even if I got covid, my odds (because I’m vaccinated) of dying would be higher driving to the airport the next morning…

It’s because of how close many of them have to be to a large group of undergraduates for an extended period of time (50+ mins), and the very real likelihood that the undergraduates have ignored any sort of social distancing or COVID protocols because they’re a bunch of 18-20 year olds. Imagine if your loading dock was a 100 person amphitheater crowded with 19 year olds who had been at a house party last Friday, which turned out to be a super spreader event, as opposed to, you know, a loading dock.

I get why faculty are more nervous than many other professions, and it’s interesting to me that some don’t understand the concern.

That being said, I do think there are sufficient mitigation methods - from masking, to increasing ventilation, to adjusting class room locations - to reduce the risk to a point that is manageable and relatively safe. And while there may be nerves, they shouldn’t be keeping people from the classroom anymore, so long as mitigation methods are employed.

Yeah I get the impression that a lot of folks here who are pretty obvious 'get off my lawn' types seem to be annoyed that the professors are telling students to get off their lawns.

That said, the latest developments seem to be trending better (at Rice at least).

And the fact of the matter is that a lot of students will continue to take classes online even if they are on campus. My daughter at Purdue is taking all of her classes online this semester. After a year (really two now) of asynchronous learning, she prefers the option of sleeping in and going over the classes and classwork on her own time schedule. That's not an option for some majors, but it works fine for her.

(08-23-2021 06:01 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-20-2021 06:10 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(08-20-2021 05:57 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.keranews.org/education/2021-...plications

College College Dean of Nursing dies of Covid.

Do you really blame college professors and staff members everywhere for being a bit nervous still? The vaccines give you tremendous odds on not getting serious symptoms if you do get Covid, but they don't prevent you from getting it altogether.

Personally (as a parent of two college students now), I think universities need to put their money where their mouth is and pretty much offer substantial financial breaks for students if they're vaccinated. That would be the most effective way to up the vaccine percentages everywhere.

Why do college professors and staff act like they’re exempt from going to work like people from so many other professions (including other white collar professions) have been for the last 18 months?

I work in sales strategy for a CPG company and have been visiting our retailers since last summer (we took a three month hiatus in Spring 2020 when we couldn’t secure PPE). Did I think that everyone in the loading dock I was at three weeks ago in a Pittsburgh Wal-Mart was vaxxed? Nope. But I have a job to do and we need to fix our go-to-market system… So I went knowing that even if I got covid, my odds (because I’m vaccinated) of dying would be higher driving to the airport the next morning…

It’s because of how close many of them have to be to a large group of undergraduates for an extended period of time (50+ mins), and the very real likelihood that the undergraduates have ignored any sort of social distancing or COVID protocols because they’re a bunch of 18-20 year olds. Imagine if your loading dock was a 100 person amphitheater crowded with 19 year olds who had been at a house party last Friday, which turned out to be a super spreader event, as opposed to, you know, a loading dock.

I get why faculty are more nervous than many other professions, and it’s interesting to me that some don’t understand the concern.

That being said, I do think there are sufficient mitigation methods - from masking, to increasing ventilation, to adjusting class room locations - to reduce the risk to a point that is manageable and relatively safe. And while there may be nerves, they shouldn’t be keeping people from the classroom anymore, so long as mitigation methods are employed.

It has been forever since I was in class, but IIRC, the Professors in the larger classes were 15-20 feet from the first row of students. Even in the smaller classes, they were 6-10 feet away from the front row.

Office hours, OTOH....

(08-23-2021 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Yeah I get the impression that a lot of folks here who are pretty obvious 'get off my lawn' types seem to be annoyed that the professors are telling students to get off their lawns.

That said, the latest developments seem to be trending better (at Rice at least).

And the fact of the matter is that a lot of students will continue to take classes online even if they are on campus. My daughter at Purdue is taking all of her classes online this semester. After a year (really two now) of asynchronous learning, she prefers the option of sleeping in and going over the classes and classwork on her own time schedule. That's not an option for some majors, but it works fine for her.

You are welcome to get on my lawn anytime, FBO. Mostly it is just the deer and other wildlife. Just watch out for the rattlesnakes.

(08-23-2021 06:55 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Yeah I get the impression that a lot of folks here who are pretty obvious 'get off my lawn' types seem to be annoyed that the professors are telling students to get off their lawns.

That said, the latest developments seem to be trending better (at Rice at least).

And the fact of the matter is that a lot of students will continue to take classes online even if they are on campus. My daughter at Purdue is taking all of her classes online this semester. After a year (really two now) of asynchronous learning, she prefers the option of sleeping in and going over the classes and classwork on her own time schedule. That's not an option for some majors, but it works fine for her.

To your point, professors were starting to flip the classroom pre-COVID. So profs were developing learning content that students used on their own time, and then class room time was dedicated less to lecturing and more towards group work, Q&A, deep discussions, lab-esque activities, etc.

COVID has potentially accelerated the move to this model (which has a lot of merit) as professors were forced to develop content that could be taught remotely. The key, though, is that it relies on in-person content to supplement and enhance the traditional teaching methods.

Here's the Rice communication about the false positives.

https://coronavirus.rice.edu/news/covid-...-august-22

(08-20-2021 07:55 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Oregon just announced that vaccine or negative test will be required for attendance at Ducks athletics events this fall.

LSU just did the same. Rice needs to follow.

(08-21-2021 11:00 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  The University of Virginia did the right thing by disenrolling students who would not get vaccinated.

What if they CAN not get vaccinated (medical reasons)?? I won't get into religious objections... but how is this not discrimination based on health? It's like saying you can't attend college if you have a disability?

(08-24-2021 11:16 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(08-20-2021 07:55 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Oregon just announced that vaccine or negative test will be required for attendance at Ducks athletics events this fall.

LSU just did the same. Rice needs to follow.

What if we require attendance at athletic events for all unvaccinated students? Given the generally high lack of student interest, this might be a big incentive for them to get vaccinated.

While it wouldn't be a problem for us.... how would a 50,000+ seat stadium administer this??

(08-24-2021 03:12 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(08-21-2021 11:00 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  The University of Virginia did the right thing by disenrolling students who would not get vaccinated.

What if they CAN not get vaccinated (medical reasons)?? I won't get into religious objections... but how is this not discrimination based on health? It's like saying you can't attend college if you have a disability?

(08-24-2021 11:16 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(08-20-2021 07:55 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  Oregon just announced that vaccine or negative test will be required for attendance at Ducks athletics events this fall.

LSU just did the same. Rice needs to follow.

What if we require attendance at athletic events for all unvaccinated students? Given the generally high lack of student interest, this might be a big incentive for them to get vaccinated.

While it wouldn't be a problem for us.... how would a 50,000+ seat stadium administer this??

What's the big deal? Simply need to show your vaccination card at the gate along with the game ticket. Don't be surprised if in the very near future proof of vaccination is required to fly. Again, no big burden as we already have to show drivers license/passport along with ticket to pass through security.