Student protesters in other eras could shut down a college campus by holding a sit-in. This year, students could do the same by not wearing masks.
The University at Buffalo and SUNY Buffalo State College last week announced plans for students and faculty to return to campus for the fall semester under plans that include face coverings, physical distancing and a hybrid of online and in-person courses.
The approach sounds appropriately cautious and probably necessary for the SUNY schools to minimize losses they’ve sustained thanks to the novel coronavirus. Colleges need tuition-paying students in order to pay the bills. If schools move to online-only learning, students will rethink their options. A person living in Florida, Fresno or France might figure they don’t need to take Zoom classes that originate in Buffalo. Travel restrictions due to Covid-19 raise special concerns for foreign students.
Colleges across the country have been debating how to negotiate the fall semester. The best-laid plans could be derailed by students who refuse to heed the new protocols for distancing and hygiene. The president of Purdue University in Indiana, Mitch Daniels, pointed out that his school’s plans to bring back students depended on them changing their behavior. Students at Purdue will be asked to sign a pledge committing to “at least a semester of inconvenience,” with no concerts or fraternity parties, and adhering to new health guidelines.
“I will urge students to demonstrate their altruism by complying, but also challenge them to refute the cynics who say that today’s young people are too selfish or self-indulgent to help us make this work,” Daniels wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post.
A June op-ed in the New York Times, written by Temple University psychology professor Laurence Steinberg, argued that individuals in their late teens and early 20s are too prone to high-risk behavior to be counted on to pull off social distancing. Behaviors such as fighting, unsafe sex and binge drinking peak in those years, Steinberg says. Plans to safely bring students back to campus “are so unrealistically optimistic that they border on delusional and could lead to outbreaks of Covid-19 among students, faculty and staff,” he wrote.
The students themselves will have the last word on whether Steinberg’s predictions are too dire or were on the mark.
Canisius, Daemen and Hilbert have also announced plans to reopen their campuses. Niagara University and St. Bonaventure University are described as hopeful.
Most schools will begin their semesters in August and conclude in-person learning by Thanksgiving. The rest of the semester will be operated online. That will reduce the risks of Covid-19 exposure on campus by students who would normally travel for Thanksgiving, then return to campus.
The logistical challenges for colleges are considerable, starting with reducing population density all over campus – including in dorm rooms, classrooms, dining halls, gyms and student unions. UB is the largest university among SUNY schools and a major employer in Western New York. Our region is counting on the school to succeed.
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June 22, 2020 at 03:00AM
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Behavioral experiments and UB, other colleges, plan fall return - Buffalo News
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