Bluecat_Aggie94 said:

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I work at a university and 1) I am very interested in what college your son attends that is testing everyone. and 2) Our mentality has been...how do we make it to December.

Despite the many conspiracy theories (and our own faculty probably contribute to these more than anyone!):

-we are NOT of the mind that we KNOW we will have to shut down,
- we are NOT motivated just to keep $ coming in
- we care about MANY things besides just saving the football season
- we have no other diabolical plots that we are concealing from the public.

We generally think we CAN get this semester in, we generally are trying to give the students as normal and robust of an experience as we can, and we have NO INTENTIONS of shutting down based on an EXPECTED flurry of positive cases at the beginning of the semester.

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Rather not say the school but it has less than 2,000 students and they are rotating by the day. . . .

Look, I am as concerned about this as anyone for my child. Believe me, as parents we have debated what's going on and would remove them in an instant. But the logical side of me just has a hard time reconciling the risk. It's tough

Quote:

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never went to football games (even early 90's - wow)

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Never missed a home game. Never lost one either (23-0-1). Was also a student the last time the Ags won a game in Omaha.

But the Chicken? Yeah, you're right. I'd rather have latrine duty at cholera camp than go there.

I wasn't really asking you to post the school. I could probably snoop around my network and figure it out, but I am indeed curious. We don't have the testing capacity to test everyone, but we are not quite that small.

I think the mentality of most administrators is similar to ours, but I do see some differences. The biggest issue is managing faculty, who are far more risk averse, and let's face it, mostly at far greater risk than our students.

What I've learned from our first week back is that students are HUNGRY for social activity. We have had record numbers at some of our opening events (which have all been modified to make them as safe as possible) We often have lots of students skip welcome events, and they are coming in droves this year. Makes sense, the freshmen missed prom, graduation, orientation... don't blame them.

The upperclassmen are hungry to see their friends.

On campus, our students have been VERY willing to comply with our mask rules and other changes that are COVID related. Off campus, we are seeing some issues, but thus far, that has not resulted in a widespread outbreak.

While we are not testing as extensively, we do have ample testing capacity. We have had 2 TOTAL new student cases in the first 10 days of the semester. I feel like if we make it to the middle of next week, our odds of making it to the end of the semester improve from cautiously optimistic to probable.

Cepe said:

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My youngest is a junior in college (not A&M) and attends a small school and have been on campus for a week or so. They have a testing program where they test all the students on a daily rotating basis. So far, a small subset of the students have tested positive, but still under 1%.

We are part of a parent FB group for the school and several of the parents are kind of flipping out and wondering if they should bring their kids home.

As far as I know, the students who tested positive didn't even know they had it and had no symptoms. And I'm thinking "if there wasn't a testing program would we even know?"

I will say I am ok with how the school is handling it. They have space for the students to separate and protocols for return to the general population, so fine, its being managed.

I just don't understand the logic of shutting down schools and sending kinds home to their parents and grandparents who actually are at high risk. Why are they overthinking it so much?

I guess the fear of a lawsuit overrides critical thinking of what the data shows for that age range. . . .

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How do you get asymptomatic people to submit to having a pike shoved into their brains periodically?

94chem said:

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Cepe said:

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My youngest is a junior in college (not A&M) and attends a small school and have been on campus for a week or so. They have a testing program where they test all the students on a daily rotating basis. So far, a small subset of the students have tested positive, but still under 1%.

We are part of a parent FB group for the school and several of the parents are kind of flipping out and wondering if they should bring their kids home.

As far as I know, the students who tested positive didn't even know they had it and had no symptoms. And I'm thinking "if there wasn't a testing program would we even know?"

I will say I am ok with how the school is handling it. They have space for the students to separate and protocols for return to the general population, so fine, its being managed.

I just don't understand the logic of shutting down schools and sending kinds home to their parents and grandparents who actually are at high risk. Why are they overthinking it so much?

I guess the fear of a lawsuit overrides critical thinking of what the data shows for that age range. . . .

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How do you get asymptomatic people to submit to having a pike shoved into their brains periodically?

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There are many different tests. Only one is the nose yuck one.

Keegan99 said:

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KidDoc said:

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Maybe the national news is overlooking the mental health aspect but medical societies are not. As already mentioned the CDC had a report on it recently and I get almost daily reports of increasing depression and anxiety in teens. I have started more referrals for therapy & SSRIs in the last few months than I have in my entire 20 years of outpatient practice. Thank God no suicides so far.

If there is a beneficial side effect for mental health it is equal reimbursement for televisits. This has greatly increased access to mental health facilities in Aggieland as they can see any counselor in Texas in their network and the families don't have to deal with the hassle of travel. Hopefully that will continue to be the case and there are local and national pushes to continue to allow telehealth as an option.

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It's a near mathematical certainty that the marginal increase in suicides for Americans under age 25 will exceed COVID fatalities.

And it very well could end up being true for all Americans under age 45.

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when the likelyhood of dying from a confirm case of COZVID for those under 40 is .2% (PERCENT), you;re undoubtedly correct.

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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I'm sorry. Part of a Facebook group for parents of college juniors?!?

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A school that size probably has a parent group that is part of fundraising efforts or other activities, not the way you're reading it. That's actually not uncommon.

94chem said:

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Old RV Ag said:

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KidDoc said:

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94chem said:

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EyeBalz said:

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It's just sad that this special time in her life is being wrecked by this ordeal.

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It's just college. No more special than any other 4 year chunk of life.

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Wow sorry you had a poor college experience. For me that was some of the best years of my life!

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And we found someone who never went to the Chicken, never went to football games (even early 90's - wow), and never got laid.

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Whatever. Just don't need to over-dramatize it. Sure, it's your last chance to be part of a kid-centric world where you only have to look out for yourself, and shut the world out a bit longer.

But dealing with a little discomfort in college isn't all bad. Being a grown-up is nice, too.

I guess I liked college okay. I went to 4.5 more years of it.

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You mean over-dramatize it like Covid is being over-dramatized in the 18-22 year old demographic?

Ol_Ag_02 said:

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I'm sorry. Part of a Facebook group for parents of college juniors?!?

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Why not? My Facebook includes:
Aggie Parents
Corps parents
FTAB parents
Parents of outfit

Even at a sub 2000 school, the number of juniors is possibly larger than FTAB, certainly larger than a single FTAB outfit.

I will tell you that the Aggie parents has a lot of the same "waiting for school to go online only again". Over the summer, there were a lot of people really struggling with the thought of their kid going back to campus this fall.

It's for all levels and not just juniors. Mainly it's freshmen parents posting asking about what the dorm rooms look like and how to handle meal plans. Also ask for doctor recommendations fairly often.

Cepe said:

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It's for all levels and not just juniors. Mainly it's freshmen parents posting asking about what the dorm rooms look like and how to handle meal plans. Also ask for doctor recommendations fairly often.

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That is what the TAMU FB pages are like for the most part.