Friday, August 21, 2020

The No-Brainer Solution To The College Question

The question being, not simply "should colleges reopen this fall", but HOW should they reopen?  Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is waning in practically all of the USA, even in the Sunbelt whose most recent wave just peaked in July and early August per Worldometer statistics, the answer should be obvious given the relatively low risk that traditional college aged young people typically are from the virus.  That is, a return to near normal from the start:
  • Plan on reopening on time in August without delay.
  • Compress the fall semester between opening day and Thanksgiving break, with no breaks or long weekends in between, and remain closed from Thanksgiving until early January, limiting the back-and forth.
  • Allow the option of online coursework in addition to in-person classes.
  • Require masks and/or social distancing only in classrooms and certain other publicly accessible buildings, otherwise don't force it.
  • Limit dining hall occupancy to 50% of capacity.
  • Allow gatherings up to 500 people outdoors, and 50 people indoors or 50% of a room's capacity, whichever is lesser. (That would be about a handful of people in a typical dorm room, or about 25 to 50 people in a typical house party.)
  • Put hand sanitizer stations and mask kiosks everywhere, and vigorously and regularly disinfect classrooms and campus buildings.
  • In the event of an actual outbreak on campus, simply cancel in-person classes for no more than two weeks at a time (mainly to protect commuter students), but do NOT close down completely and/or send students back home to infect their parents and grandparents!
  • Isolate the sick and those who were in direct contact with them.  No one else.
  • Make virus testing free and readily available for all upon request.
That's it.  Otherwise, it's back to the old normal for the most part.  And come the spring semester, hopefully 100% back to the old normal once again when they all build herd immunity if they don't already have it.  (How else are they gonna do it?)

And of course, make the 21 drinking age (and smoking and toking age) the absolute lowest enforcement priority.  And in general, treat college students as the young ADULTS that they actually are, and trust them to use their own judgment.  Why is that even such a controversial concept these days?

It is long past time to allow a typical (or at least near-typical) college experience to finally return.  No need for the sort of draconian or dystopian rules on campus that some colleges like Duke University are doing.  So what are we waiting for?

DISCLAIMER:  Neither Twenty-One Debunked nor the True Spirit of America Party encourage or condone the practice of "corona parties" or any other deliberate or grossly negligent mass infection-inducing behavior.  Seriously, now is really NOT the time to tempt fate!  Keep calm and carry on, live your life, and have fun, but still take precautions, use common sense, avoid excessive crowding in general, and if you have any sort of questionable symptoms, stay the hell home and don't have any guests over!  Young people, this means you too.

NOVEMBER UPDATE:   Three months later, Twenty-One Debunked still stands by what we originally said in August, with the added caveat that students should perhaps have all been initially tested for the virus upon arrival at college, which many colleges did not.  And perhaps exit testing before students leave for Thanksgiving break and/or winter break as well.

13 comments:

  1. As a 19-year-old, I appreciate your respect for personal responsibility and advocating for us to be treated like adults (if that's what they say we are).

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    1. Thank you, and you're very welcome. As a 36 year old myself, I have not forgotten what it was like when I was your age, nor have I sold out to the ageists and authoritarians.

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    2. I have supported youth rights, including lowering the drinking age for several years and I have no intention of selling out to ageists to trade for anything else.

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    3. I'm 32. I've been in this fight for more than a decade. I will stay loyal until the day I die.

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    4. I'm 35 and I generally support youth rights. While I accept the drinking age issue is complicated, I wholly respect what Ajax has to say on the issue, and I will oppose policies I think are excessive or unreasonable.

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    5. BTW, there's an Australian campaign to raise the drinking age over there to 21. I think you might like to give them a piece of your mind: https://www.21bethere.org.au/

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  2. Ajax,

    May I ask, how extreme is the drinking culture over there in America? I was always led to believe those in America who drank, drank only in binges, seldom in moderation, and drank hard liquor at least as much as beer. (And not much in the way of wine.) Am I wrong about this?

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  3. It's unfortunate that there's a campaign to raise the drinking age to 21 in Australia. Hopefully, legislators and people in Australia will be ardent supporters of the current drinking age of 18. Raising the drinking age to 21 would violate the civil rights and civil liberties of young adults who are 18-20 years old. Raising the drinking age to 21 would backfire as it drives drinking to unregulated places. Australia would see the same problems in regards to the United States if the drinking age were raised to 21.

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    1. Indeed. While Australia's ingnominious descent into police-state madness has of course dominated the news cycle lately, raising the drinking age would sadly not be too surprising over there as well. And indeed, it would be as much of a disaster as it has been in the USA.

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    2. Here as there, there is a movement trying to create a police state with religious zealousness, which should be avoided on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

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