No sports for Bowdoin until 2021

friends sent that to us this afternoon, as we have a soccer playing friend who is devastated.  One son had an offer for baseball and interest in hockey there.  Unclear if the rest of the NESCAC conference will follow.  

This is really tough news for all.  

students living off campus will not be permitted to participate in on-campus workouts

Is that a money grab?  I don’t like it!

Very pleased my daughter chose to NOT play hockey at Bowdoin...not saying her season won't be effected where she is attending/playing but at least it is not cancelled...yet?

@RoadRunner posted:

students living off campus will not be permitted to participate in on-campus workouts

Is that a money grab?  I don’t like it!

Most students are required to live on campus ...

An inclusive and dynamic residential community is a central element of the Bowdoin experience. All first-year and sophomore students are required to live on campus. However, due to fluctuations in enrollment numbers and changing on-campus capacity, the College does allow a limited number of juniors and seniors to live off campus. These students typically live in houses or apartments in close proximity to the campus that are neither owned nor managed by Bowdoin.

Wow.  Hope this isn't the first domino.

@RJM posted:

Most students are required to live on campus ...

An inclusive and dynamic residential community is a central element of the Bowdoin experience. All first-year and sophomore students are required to live on campus. However, due to fluctuations in enrollment numbers and changing on-campus capacity, the College does allow a limited number of juniors and seniors to live off campus. These students typically live in houses or apartments in close proximity to the campus that are neither owned nor managed by Bowdoin.

This is typical for many schools. However, I’ve never heard of excluding athletes that live off campus. 

Bowdoin: First years, transfers, and few seniors will be on campus, others will remain at home. It will be hybrid online learning for the first semester.  This drove dropping fall and winter sports for the 2020 season.

Middlebury just released a statement yesterday: all classes will be back to the school Sept 8, eliminated fall break, end the first semester Nov 20, virtual classroom for a week then online exams. So, it will be a long Dec break.  Their Jterm (one class for the month of Feb) is at risk as well. Sounds like winter sports could be at risk. 

Isn't Bowdoin D1 for hockey? 

no D3 for hockey, like all the other NESCAC schools but all very competitive usually.  

I hope the NESCAC schools aren't in lockstep athletically, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are.  I know Amherst's schedule this fall is roughly the same as Middlebury's.

I wonder how much of Bowdoin’s decision is media induced. The fear factor in Maine has been fierce led by the governor and hammers home by the one news media organization in the state.

All the papers are owned by the same company. From day one we’ve been barraged with a NYC sized COVID problem in Maine. The number of people afraid to go anywhere is incredible. It’s been hammered home when people from Massachusetts come to Maine we’re all going to die.

Ironically, while the governor and the media are playing up the death march visitmaine.com ads are playing on Massachusetts tv hourly.

Things not looking great at Amherst for fall sports and for the whole year, perhaps. Which realistically may apply to all NESCAC schools, and probably every D3 in the NE.

Seems there's no room for EVERYONE to return in the fall and be safe so parents and students are being surveyed about their preferences. looks like first years may have preference to be on=campus, which I understand but does that mean the seniors don't get any time on campus with their cohort their whole senior year?  And if kids can't be on campus how can they play?

I'm thinking about a gap year for my guys, frankly.  On-line for liberal arts schools is purely half-assed academically, and whole-assed socially and athletically.  Why not give Covid a year to settle down and then back at it on campus in Fall 2021, assuming an effective vaccine is in place.  Big assumption, I know, but kids don't need to rush through this part of their lives  just to graduate into an iffy job market.

On the other hand, my rising college senior is working on line for his internship at a private equity firm. If they like him and he likes them (which is really hard to know since EVERY contact with them, interviews, hiring meeting, current training, everything has been via zoom, FaceTime, and Skype) should he just go ahead, finish his degree, and plunge into full adulthood.

I am the absolute worst person to be giving that advice.  I resisted adulthood kicking and screaming until I got married at 40.  Anyone care to step in and parent my boys for me?  I promise I'll stay in touch.

Smoke, as you know we're kicking that issue around here as well.

Is all the cool stuff you do on gap years still happening?

My kid really doesn't want to attend online, and is highly dubious of some sort of "in-person light" program where there is no real social life.  My stance has been  -- if you have a good, in-person internship or even a good in-person job, sure, take the fall off.  But if you don't, hang in there and get your degree ASAP and start your career if you can.  If the job market sucks when you graduate, then go to grad school (and play another year of baseball!) or maybe do another internship.  Sounds like your senior has a great thing going, so I'd say the same to him.  

Our school situation is a little different, I think. If the state lets them they will have most kids on campus, from what they're saying.  In a more urban area than your two guys are in, the school is also able to rent a lot of nearby housing so that they can decrease the dorm density.  With a warm climate and class sizes that are already really small, they can teach small groups in person, outside, pretty much year round.  I think they are working through their plans very well and very thoroughly, but if things continue to trend the wong way this summer, it may all be moot.

@smokeminside posted:

 

I'm thinking about a gap year for my guys, frankly.  

 

 

About a dozen of my friends took time off during undergrad (some even voluntarily)...every single one benefited greatly from the experience.

It's an excellent question about whether typical gap year experiences are even available.

Does surfing count?

The biggest problem with sending kids back to college in the fall is convincing them they can’t have a social life even if places are open. I’ve been out to eat six times in the past two and a half weeks. But it’s been outside, not in prime time and not in crowded places. 

There is an article in the WSJ today the biggest obstacle to sports coming back is bars and clubs. The pro athletes and college athletes know they’re not vulnerable to die. So many are getting out. And they’re getting COVID. 

@RJM posted:

The biggest problem with sending kids back to college in the fall is convincing them they can’t have a social life even if places are open.

I think you have to close campus. If campus is dry, good luck with that.  You ban parties of more than a certain number of  people.  10?  20? Outdoors only.  And maybe that group has to be from the same dorm or floor or whatever to make tracing contacts easier when people do get sick. 

I’ve been in three COVID trace lines a few levels down. All three traced back to friends of my friend’s young adult kids. The closest I came to getting COVID is a friend’s daughter got it. My friend tested negative. Only one of four kids in the COVID  trace lines who tested positive actually got sick. Ironically, he works for Abbott Labs. For those who may not know Abbott Labs makes the COVID test.

I’ll bet most people have been in COVID trace lines and were never aware because people were asymptomatic and not tested. 

@JCG posted:

I think you have to close campus. If campus is dry, good luck with that.  You ban parties of more than a certain number of  people.  10?  20? Outdoors only.  And maybe that group has to be from the same dorm or floor or whatever to make tracing contacts easier when people do get sick. 

How do you enforce a ban on parties?  You might have some success inside dorms, maybe even at on-campus apartments and Greek houses.  But at most schools, at least some students live off campus.  IMO, college kids will find a way to socialize (and drink, and generally make a mockery of any social distancing rules).

As for a gap year:  My kids will be a freshman and a junior in college this year.  Neither wants to spend the semester online-only, so I suggested maybe they take some time off from school.  Their response was emphatic:  "Online classes are better than nothing, and what else would we do?"  I think gap years are a great idea for a lot of kids--in normal times.  But right now very few countries' borders are open for travel or study, good jobs are scarce--online classes may be the least worst option for this fall.

Chico - I was talking about small LAC's like my son's.  94% of students where he is live on campus.  Small campus, plenty of security people and staff outside, plus resident staff inside -- I think it can be done. Not perfectly but well enough.  Clearly state schools with large numbers off campus are a different story.  I'm glad  my older son is done with UCSB -- tens of thousands of kids are packed into a tiny apartments and houses in a tiny beach town next to campus.  Not a manageable environment.

BTW  - have folks seen the recent news about the "pool testing" strategy being considered by the govt?  It sounds like a potentially useful tool for schools of all levels and types.

I agree you can forget about 'banning parties'.  I don't think I went to a single college party that was legal, as I was a minor at all of them (only had one month of being of legal drinking age before graduating).  I will also tell you that I would not have cared a bit about covid.  The only time a healthy kid will care about covid is when they have it or they can use it to get out of something.  It is up to the parents to police it, and when they are out of the house, you can forget it.

JCG, the presence of fewer temptations in a small town can only help; but unless colleges literally lock students in their rooms, most plans for social distancing on campus seem like wishful thinking to me. 

"Risky behavior" peaks in the late teens and early twenties:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0...archResultPosition=7   The campus combo of hormones and not-fully-developed prefrontal cortices poses a truly formidable obstacle.  (And consider how poorly many adults have taken requirements to wear masks and avoid large gatherings.) 

I also think that if a school disciplines students for partying (especially off campus), some parents are going to complain.  Forcefully.  I'm not saying those parents would be justified, but the pressure they will bring to bear on administrators is going to be an issue.  "Snowplow parents" gonna snowplow... 

Yep.  Kids all know that social distancing won't work.  Professors know too, that's why they don't want to teach in-person.  And, there is nothing to do for a gap year.  I really want my son to go back to his campus, even if all his classes are online.  He needs to be around other students who are working on classes. 

Frankly, the universities' focus on social distancing and disinfecting is a waste of time and money, especially for schools with a lot of off-campus students.  What they should be doing is planning to convert gyms and other large spaces into wards for students who test positive.  I agree that most won't get very sick (those with pre-existing conditions are, of course, in a separate group), and you can't convince them otherwise.

Several months ago, I posted that I would think the resident population of college towns would be worried about a big influx of germy students.  Someone countered that they would rather keep their jobs.  I think that is true.  Large universities in small towns are huge economic drivers.

Right now the big concern about young people getting COVID is that they will infect old people and the vulnerable.  If the young people have the sense to wear masks in the presence of older and vulnerable people, at least, then keeping them all grouped together at colleges sounds like a reasonable idea.

Besides, public schools will be going back, they have to; there's a lot of pressure from parents who need the child care. 

As for college sports, that's a whole different issue.  The benefit of D3s is that football isn't such a financial factor.

@anotherparent, I can't decide whether I think gathering hundreds or thousands of college kids together as a potential reservoir of infected (even if largely asymptomatic) people is going to be the best available strategy.  It's a potential tragedy for staff and faculty, some of whom will not be able to avoid spending a good deal of time around students.  Also a potential tragedy for other non-students in the community.  But those same thousands of kids living at home aren't going to socially distance there either, I realize.  

I agree that if you ask someone today whether they are willing to take on these risks for the sake of their jobs, many would say "yes."  But I also think those same folks will feel very differently if they or someone they care about is hospitalized.  Right now, much of the willingness to bear the risk rests on an assumption that there won't be any serious costs.

I expect to send my kids off to college in August.  I have no idea what the fall will bring though.

What a pickle we are all in.  My senior's school is going to switch to quarters (from semesters) and have a rotation of students on campus. Not super clear how they are going to handle kids that live in a house next to campus (my son is in that group).  My Daughter's big state school is welcoming everyone back to campus but half her classes are online and the other half are in person.  She's moving into her sorority house in August and rush will be done both virtually and in person.  She will end the semester at Thanksgiving time and not go back until Feb - online finals.

Talked to my son about a gap year and he said no unless all his friends and teammates also take the year off...  Can't blame him. So we are going to muddle through. The administration is talking about spring sports happening but fall are in question.  However we think the baseball season will be about 20-25 games and not 30 -- with no Spring Break trip.  Just really want his last year of baseball to happen.  He (and I'd) be so disappointed if this is how he is forced to hang up his cleats.

I'm starting to see some HA schools take this route and it really sucks for their student athletes, especially when other schools plan on going back normally. If you're at a NESCAC your hands are tied as an athlete. There is very little upwards mobility academically, and even if you were to go Ivy it's likely that level of competition is out of reach as well. 

Then again, everybody thought these schools were being dramatic the first time around. Could be the same thing over again where there are no fall sports. Depending on who you ask, they should start tomorrow or everything should be cancelled until fall 2022. 

The sports programs bringing back players now are the laboratory for everyone else.  I saw yesterday that 37 of Clemson's football players have now tested positive, no hospitalizations; Texas Tech's football team has 23 cases so far.  It's not even July.  At Kansas State, it was because a group played video games in someone's room, while they were waiting for test results, and other group went out to bars.  So, typical stuff students do, not even from athletic activity.  Let's hope someone is keeping a close medical eye on those groups, it will give us more data about consequences. 

What's interesting about summer baseball is that there are so few leagues playing, and all are private organizations, so the level of testing and information is most likely non-existent.  I wonder if they will even tell anyone if players test positive?  That, too, would be really useful data to have, about a much more physically distanced sport.  However, covid information information impacts their business, so I would think they have an incentive to have as little info as possible.  Indiana has been pretty proactive about random testing, I wonder if anyone there is keeping an eye on their summer league?

My understanding is that NCAA football workouts to date have been designed to keep players separated to a great extent. These aren’t even partial contact drills, so far as I know.  On the other hand, the little bit of info I have seen suggests infections are happening because of students doing non-sports things (like getting together in apartments or going out). That is good news for athletics, I guess; but not so good as an indication of how kids are going to behave once they all return to campus. 

@Chico Escuela posted:

It's a potential tragedy for staff and faculty, some of whom will not be able to avoid spending a good deal of time around students.  Also a potential tragedy for other non-students in the community. 

I hope that universities will be able to shield those employees who want or need shielding, by doing work online or remotely. 

I am very concerned about staff who can't work remotely, i.e. dining hall staff.  That often includes work-study students.  However, if you keep all students off-campus, all those jobs are lost.  Many students depend on those work-study jobs.  Where are those people going to work?  If they can find jobs at all, they are likely to be in less-secure places.  Universities, in general, are more committed to virus safety than many other employers.  Of course, this has a bigger impact on big universities in small towns, as opposed to smaller colleges in big cities. Many, many businesses either directly or indirectly dependent on the students.

It's just a mess.  I hope that there is more data in July.

Williams joins Bowdoin cancelling fall sports

Williams College on Monday became the second school in the New England Small College Athletic Conference to announce that it will not participate in fall athletics amid the coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.boston.com/sports/...0-fall-sports-season

Grinnell cancelled fall sports today

Swarthmore cancelled fall sports.

Only first years, sophs and transfers on campus in fall.

If they can’t take everyone back second semester, then first years and sophs stay home second semester. Jrs and Srs will be on campus.

 Likely no sports in Spring if all students can’t be on campus. 

Grinnell cancelled? Good lord this is ridiculous. My prediction is coming true. They will all be dumbfounded a year from now wondering why they overreacted, while scrambling to save their school and jobs. 

Dartmouth is doing something similar to Swarthmore:  Students in each class will be on campus 2 out of 4 quarters in 2020-21.  One quarter is designated for each particular class, and students get to rank their choice of an additional one. Sports status is on hold pending decision by Ivy conference. 

Johns Hopkins and Wake Forest announced plans today that look like most I have seen:  A mix of online and in-person classes; dorms mostly singles and extra housing in local apartments or hotels; students go home at Thanksgiving and take remaining classes and exams remotely. This model seems the most popular, at least for schools in places where additional housing can be had.

@ JamesG, There will be schools where that may happen but $ pockets are Mariana Trench deep at Grinnell, Williams, Bowdoin, and Swarthmore. They’ll get through.

Still, very tough already for these kids and will be brutal if athletes in the Classes of ‘20 and ‘21 lose two spring seasons. Fifth years at these schools would be financially, lets’s say, unappealing. 

If ‘21 spring sports are cancelled, then I think extra seasons are off the table and everything will reset. HS  Class of ‘21 may actually have a “normal” off-to-college experience with no (or smaller, at least) logjam of players ahead of them.

Just out of curiosity, Swarthmore is in a suburban area; do they have any idea whether groups of students will rent apartments in the area, and take their online classes from there?  I could see some doing that, although I'm sure that the college wouldn't want it.  Sort of what Cornell was afraid of.

Chico, Swarthmore can house 900 kids in singles so that’s why there’s a rotation planned.

No fall or Spring break. Bye bye Florida.  

Home before Thanksgiving. Introducing  a remote Jan Term. Back Feb1. 

SIGH 

AnotherParent:

If students do live off campus they won’t have access to campus. Effectively banished. 

That is just terrible.  Having half the students there - that doesn't even make classes very meaningful.  How do they even decide who gets to take which classes?

Cornell, which is large (22,000 undergrads) and in a small isolated town, just announced that they are bringing students back for fall.  The rationale was interesting; they have a renowned group of operations research modellers, who concluded that "resuming residential learning this fall would create a safer environment for Cornell and its neighbors than if classes were only held online. . . The analysis determined that two to 10 times more people could be infected with COVID-19 during a semester conducted entirely online, with significantly higher numbers becoming seriously ill. That’s because surveys indicated a large percentage of Cornell students planned to return to off-campus housing in Ithaca even if all instruction was conducted remotely. In that scenario, Cornell would have had no authority to mandate testing or restrict students’ behavior. Now, students living on or off campus will be subject to agreements to follow public health guidelines and an 'absolute requirement' to comply with a testing program."

It doesn't work for small residential colleges, but it's interesting about any schools with a lot of off-campus housing.  It only works if there is a testing program, though.