Meanwhile Gov Northam, a physician, has ordered Virginia's schools closed for the remainder of the school year.

[www.nbcnews.com]

This @#$%& is @#$%& dangerous. It will bring us down.

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Fine. Quarantine in place. Barricade the campus exits until the disease has run its course. How many ventilators do they have in there?

I just hope that most of the students and their parents have common sense and stay the hell away. They have online classes, there is no reason to be back in dorms and dining halls and professor's offices now.

The President of Harvard and his wife both have coronavirus and don't know how they got it.

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Lemon Drop
The President of Harvard and his wife both have coronavirus and don't know how they got it.

Well, I can easily speculate about how one of them got it.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

I'd bet it's to forestall having to refund dorm/food costs. Since classes are online students don't have to come to campus. But given that the campus, dorms, and food service are open for students, then those who choose not to come to campus don't have a cause to demand refunds of those costs.

The Liberty website shows a dorm cost of $3580 per semester (shared room) and food costs of $2225 per semester, totaling $5805 per student per semester. If the semester is 15 weeks plus a week of exams, that's $362 per week. Times 57% of 47,000 undergraduates who live on campus (that's 26,790 students) is more than $9.7 million per week. There are probably about 8 weeks left in the semester; if so, Liberty is looking at saving more than $77 million in refunded costs by opening the dorms and food service. The article said that 1100 students came back on the first day after spring break so they'll be paying for the food for those students and any others who show up. I'd be very surprised if more than 10% of the students came back to campus. They'll be saving a boatload of cash.

Follow the money!!!

Quote
Michael
I'd bet it's to forestall having to refund dorm/food costs. Since classes are online students don't have to come to campus. But given that the campus, dorms, and food service are open for students, then those who choose not to come to campus don't have a cause to demand refunds of those costs.

The Liberty website shows a dorm cost of $3580 per semester (shared room) and food costs of $2225 per semester, totaling $5805 per student per semester. If the semester is 15 weeks plus a week of exams, that's $362 per week. Times 57% of 47,000 undergraduates who live on campus (that's 26,790 students) is more than $9.7 million per week. There are probably about 8 weeks left in the semester; if so, Liberty is looking at saving more than $77 million in refunded costs by opening the dorms and food service. The article said that 1100 students came back on the first day after spring break so they'll be paying for the food for those students and any others who show up. I'd be very surprised if more than 10% of the students came back to campus. They'll be saving a boatload of cash.

Follow the money!!!

I'm sure that's what they are thinking. And it makes the behavior that much more reprehensible. I expect a number of private universities to lay off many staff and professors, if not close altogether. That is being discussed a lot in higher ed right now. Some were on the edge already due to declining enrollment and this loss of revenue this spring could push them over.

Jesus will save them.

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Steve G.
Jesus will save them.

They are in for more of an "Old Testament" treatment… guaranteed.

I looked a little further into this. Not as bad as it might be from the headline, but I wouldn't want to go back to campus if I could avoid it.

* All classes are online. It's mainly housing that's at issue.
* Cafeterias open for take-out only; tents being used for distribution
* It's optional for students.
* Roughly 20% have returned? Not sure where I got that figure.
* Claim it's not a money thing. "Actually, our costs are more to operate with a lower number of students on campus because we had to create this special hybrid online educational platform and we have to clean a lot more often" Color me skeptical, but maybe.
* International students who have no other place to go are mentioned, and this has been a problem for many closed campuses.
* "Accommodating" the requests from faculty and staff with health risks. No specifics, of course. Maybe someone should ask those who have been accommodated how that's working out.
* State limits of 10 people or less gathering are being observed. Campus events canceled.
* Campus closed to visitors.
* Not so good: Fitness centers are open, observing the 10 person limit.
* Effectively useless if you are touching the door ten minutes behind Covid Kyle: Cleaning high-touch surfaces every hour.

The University's strained logic side of the story: [www.liberty.edu]

My niece is home - college sophomore, school closed. Already 3 residents of her dorm floor have tested positive just in the couple of weeks since the school closed. There is no valid reason to put students back in dorms even in small numbers. They have places to live, they need to stay there.

After they all die off at Foulwell U., are their parents liable for their loans?

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Steve G.
After they all die off at Foulwell U., are their parents liable for their loans?

Is a parent who sends their child to a place like this guilty of a form of child abuse?

Universities are in theory at least a place to expand ones exposure to other people, their ideas and learn how to draw conclusions and then think independently. These places are more akin to a Stepford Housewives sort of training.

George W. Bush populated government political positions with it's graduates. How'd that work out for him us?