Well our worthless unions don’t fight against conditions of employment. They act as liaisons for administration. Meet and confer is just a ceremony. It helps us to stay underpaid and overworked and vulnerable to whatever the university admin demands. I’m guessing it was tied to all of the federal monies they received.
Which universities had the most student-centered approach to educating students during the pandemic—colleges that recognized most students were at very low risk and needed social interaction more than mandates? Hillsdale has been mentioned (One of the first schools to admit anyone regardless of race, religion, or gender. Hillsdale doesn’t accept any government funding). Often times people will mention universities in red states or blue states, but let’s name names for those of us with kids headed to college soon. Who actually is thinking independently out there? Who will challenge our children to do the same? Who bravely refused restrictions?
Truthfully, very few. Purdue is one of the more recognizable and non-denominational names that comes to mind. Public Unis in GA (e.g. GA Tech), U of Iowa, Penn State, the public Unis in TX and FL, Alabama, Mississippi, Nebraska, West VA, Montana, the Dakotas--these were all exceptions to the mandate rule.
Support for the most draconian COVID restrictions, especially in the face of dwindling public health policy, is 100% bound up in progressive woke ideology.
Universities are the ground zero of progressive woke ideology.
They will be the very last to draw down, if they ever do. And they will call themselves the more caring, unselfish, and science-aligned all the while, for fear the most engaged of their student body will tear them apart.
As a university faculty member, I find the suicidal departure from basic community justice and from scientific principle in higher ed shocking, depressing, and enraging. But one thing I think very key here is to take a longer range view of the shifting social makeup of colleges/universities, and of how different university life is now from the Vietnam War era (not to mention earlier periods)--and to not simply blame "kids today" for being coddled, weak, deficient, deluded, or whatever epithet you want. Individuals on the ground have little impact; systems, policies, and patterns much more so.
Though college degrees (and even grad degrees) have increasingly become de rigeur for protecting/advancing socioeconomic status in millennials and Zoomers, a majority of Americans are still without college degrees (cue automatic cultural gap/ easy us-them politics here). The protesters in the 70s uniting against war pushed a heavily cultural agenda in addition to opposing the proxy war in SEA: us enlightened youths vs. the old school stodgy squares and stuffy generals directing warfare. But they, who are now Boomers, did not advance much of an economically progressive agenda. Massive de-regulation of the market, the consolidation of monopolistic powers in all areas including the cultural and education markets, *plus* innovations in already addictive and attention grabbing media tech: these are important factors underwriting the trends on university campuses toward illiberalism, intolerance of good faith disagreement, and now this COVID fiasco.
What you said about the problem with "protecting" the older faculty and staff proximally by restricting the younger, healthier demographic is exactly what has been bothering me so much with these mandates.
Let me give you some examples:
Someone I know says he will do anything to protect his family from covid, so he wants mask mandates to continue as well as other measures. However, at his business he still has not installed air purifiers. The lobby is only about 400 to 500 square feet, which a commercial-grade air purifier could easily handle.
When people tell me they want mask mandates to continue but still wear cloth or surgical masks, I can't take them seriously. The same goes for people with N95 masks who want continued restrictions but has large gaps in their masks.
At what point do we realize that we can't base all our behaviors on "protecting" others? For example, once the pandemic is over, will we be required to mask up in a classroom if just one person is immuno-compromised?
Look, I'm like VP and ZDogg on this topic: pretty much alt-middle.
Was in Uber and driver gave rant about younger people not wearing masks, as he went through very yellow turned red light. People have not gauged risks correctly for the last 2 years.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. It's like people see covid as the only risk out there right now. And lots of people act like it's the touch of death.
I know plenty of people who aren't using this pandemic as a wakeup call to take better care of their health, but I do understand that you can't "catch" obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. Taking care of your health requires a lot more commitment and doesn't have an end date, while protecting yourself from a respiratory disease is a lot easier in some ways: get the jab (though protection is quickly waning); wear a mask (despite reports showing limited effectiveness); avoid close encounters, social gatherings, etc. (although plenty of "covid-careful" people I know have no problem eating in a crowded restaurant or standing inches apart from someone else so long as they're both wearing masks ... smh).
In the late 60’s and early 70’s college students held frequent protests against the Vietnam war. I was one of them. The Free Speech Movement that arose on campuses across the country challenged the universities’ restrictions on political speech and assembly. Why are we not seeing that today in reference to distancing, masks and vaccine mandates? Why are college kids rolling over to this nonsense without pushing back? Some students at University of Chicago have called out the administration’s draconian policies but the student body has largely gone along with the two tiered stupidity on the UC campus. What has happened to college student political activism and a healthy questioning of the status quo? This is not a battle that should be fought by us grey hairs. It is their battle to demand change, to instill common sense, to become activists for a cause. Our role should be to advise them and encourage them to counter the administration whose salaries they pay with their tuition. Put tuition payments in an escrow-like account until the mandates are lifted, then march maskless through out the campus.
What’s worse than the college students not pushing back on these inane policies? The college students are actually protesting getting rid of the mask mandates!!! What the…!!? They are scared sh**less bc they have been told to be. And because of the helicopter parenting, they don’t have the training or skills to ask analytical questions anymore. As mentioned in other comments, we have raised a generation of hypochondriacs. Safetyism brought on by helicopter parents is the name of the game now.
This generation has Tik Tok, smart phones, and assorted other electronic devices to use to numb out with. The grey hairs didn't. These electronic distractions take them away from their feelings and effectively take away their drive to protest or fight back. Some of them are scared of removing the masks and many more don't want to be perceived as not being a person who "cares" about others. It's a difficult situation to overcome.
They are products of "safetyism" culture. They have been coddled their whole lives and helped along by snowplowing parents and school administrators. Colleges continue this because it is the path of less resistance for the administration. Nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings or be left out themselves.
simple. Chinese owned Tik Tok has been brainwashing them it’s not okay to be a Karen. It’s better to not speak up for what is right than to be accused of being a Karen.
They are setting a precedent with the university students, I think. And it's disgusting. I'm so glad my kids aren't university age yet. I feel horrible for these families.
The thing is these policies have been hypocritical and unnecessary for college students for like a year. Which makes this guest essay kind of useless and a copout.
I would have welcomed this post one year ago. Now it reads like someone trying to rewrite their own history as a Covid sage. Does the author believe we need his permission or approval? From the tone, evidently.
Please don't stop fighting for kids too! My 11 yr old's K-8 private school is only going mask optional OUTSIDE - NEXT Monday (oops - he got in trouble today for taking his mask off, but apparently I didn't read the email from Friday closely enough). They will keep masking indoors "out of respect" for our community.
I am beyond beside myself and working on drafting a letter to push for unmasking indoors (at this point, there is not even a date at which they plan to discuss), but am getting caught in
1) WAY too much data to support the key arguments, but by quoting only 1 or 2, also easy to dismiss,
2) the TERRIBLE studies they MAY be basing their recs on (generally, it's follow the CDC, so I do plan to respond to an email from last summer saying they follow CDC guidelines, and throw in that now that President Biden has also endorsed mask optional in the vast majority of the country (including in Atlanta where cases are low, vax rates are high- in fact over 1/3 of students at our school have had COVID and the vast majority are vaccinated. Ages 12+ are not even considered fully vaxxed unless they get a booster (being fully vaxxed means less extensive and inconvenient testing when a student in the grade tests positive- yes the whole grade even if some kids never mix on campus).
3) and obviously it sounds snarky to pull in statements such as "now that the CDC and President Biden recommend"; I find it impossible to maintain a tone of respect and not show anger.
4) I WANT To be respectful of people who want to wear a mask (though I feel the school should really be advocating N95s for those who have risk factors or really afraid of infection). However, yesterday a classmate said "there's a new variant that is 4X more contagious and 4X more severe". My son asked where they heard that. Student said " the CDC", to which my son replied " The CDC isn't always right", to which the entire class responded "YES THEY ARE". (I found out about this when my son asked last night if the CDC is always right - I said no, and I could show him some specific examples; he wants to drop it so he's not ostracized; I did create a math problem for him using the CDC numbers and have him recreate their chart that shows 4% of age 0-17 cases result in death; and then we will have out 100th conversation about the important of sanity checking work, and if something doesn't seem right - say a 4% death rate for kids from COVID when the BLENDED across all age groups death rate was never 4% even when we were uncounting cases by a factor of 10 ). By the way, the math for hospitalization is a little rough for a 5th grader (what percent of circles (code word for hospitalizations) are there out of shapes (code word for cases - he doesn't know he is fact checking the CDC...). The numbers for 0-17 by the way are 266,597 hosp/circles) of 25,844,005 (cases/total shapes). Answer = 1.03% of kids cases hospitalized (the CDC chart says 3% - which is ironically higher than the 4% death rate in the next column - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html)
AND by the way, the 1.03% total hosp including with and due to COVID out of known cases, which we know is undercounted; and blends kids with risk factors with health kids; and this is Alpha/Delta period so before milder Omicron). In GA for comparison, from 12/3/21 - 2/9/22 for Omicron, hosp rates were: 2.62% of < age 1 (vs 6% for alpha/delta); 1.01% age 1-4; 0.34% age 5-9 (elementary school kids who are masked outside...and down from 0.61% Oct '20-Oct'21); 0.54% age 10 - 17; and for additional ref, age 60-69 = 5.45%, age 70-79 = 10.38%, and age 80+ = 17.84% (vs 30% for alpha/delta oct '20- oct '21).
I just needed to vent but 1) crazy frustrating what is happening on college campuses and 2) that there are STILL schools who refuse to even follow the updated CDC guidelines - out of respect and an abundance of caution for our community...
And, of course, the CDC data you are using is wrong on its face (actual numbers way lower for those age groups) so the 3% and 4% numbers are just wrong. The CDC has basically lied (word chosen carefully) about almost every number to make whatever political point they were making rather than just reporting the actual facts. This is my area but you will never again see me trust a single thing from that place -- and I have been religiously reading MMWR for decades. Truly embarrassing for the profession.
He does have wonderful teachers who truly care about the kids and amazing friends and overall really nice kids (regardless if they believe the CDC is always right- they’re in 5th grade!:). He absolutely loves school, his teachers, his classmates, and loves learning and for young kids, which are priorities for us.
But he is switching schools next year.
However, it is not as easy for all families to simply “move with their feet” - we are fortunate to have options.
My daughter goes to a small liberal arts college in Worcester, Mass. She got both doses of the Covid shot before they even mandated it. My son goes to a maritime college in Maine. He had a significant health history of anaphylaxis and a lot of allergies growing up. He chose at the very last minute tp receive the J&J. Neither of my children wanted to fight the mandate. I am a nurse that has had my own tricky road with vaccines (yellow fever vaccine, I needed for travel) so I was weary and ended up resigning before getting fired from my job at the hospital and an outpatient Chemotherapy infusion clinic. My heart was broken because I loved my work, but as I knew I had to make the best choice for me, I supported my children and the fights they were or were not willing to fight. After the winter break both schools had updated their mandates. My daughters school had an across the board booster mandate and my son had a mandate in order to play sports. He chose to not play lacrosse as one of his dear childhood friend had been admitted to the ICU over Christmas from vaccine induced (his booster) myocarditits. My daughter was in the middle of a Cortisone shot protocol so was given an extension. On March 2 she tested positive for COvid 19 (only has a mild sore throat). Two days ago she received a message form her school that she is going to be kicked out of school for noncompliance. She is a senior and will be graduating in May, she earned a full scholarship to get a Master's degree from the same University next year, all of which she will loose if she does not comply by next Monday.
I am beside myself and find her inability to stand up for herself and her health so frustrating. She is unable to see the health risks but more importantly she is so indoctrinated and in fear of what
she is being threatened with.
Any help thoughts or suggestions would be so helpful.
I still don't understand how universities, public at least, had the legal authority to require covid vaccination.
Well our worthless unions don’t fight against conditions of employment. They act as liaisons for administration. Meet and confer is just a ceremony. It helps us to stay underpaid and overworked and vulnerable to whatever the university admin demands. I’m guessing it was tied to all of the federal monies they received.
Which universities had the most student-centered approach to educating students during the pandemic—colleges that recognized most students were at very low risk and needed social interaction more than mandates? Hillsdale has been mentioned (One of the first schools to admit anyone regardless of race, religion, or gender. Hillsdale doesn’t accept any government funding). Often times people will mention universities in red states or blue states, but let’s name names for those of us with kids headed to college soon. Who actually is thinking independently out there? Who will challenge our children to do the same? Who bravely refused restrictions?
https://unitedagainstcollegemandates.wordpress.com/colleges-not-requiring-c-19-vaccines/
Truthfully, very few. Purdue is one of the more recognizable and non-denominational names that comes to mind. Public Unis in GA (e.g. GA Tech), U of Iowa, Penn State, the public Unis in TX and FL, Alabama, Mississippi, Nebraska, West VA, Montana, the Dakotas--these were all exceptions to the mandate rule.
https://brownstone.org/articles/covid-19-at-college-which-institutions-stayed-sane-and-which-went-insane/
This has an extremely simple explanation.
Support for the most draconian COVID restrictions, especially in the face of dwindling public health policy, is 100% bound up in progressive woke ideology.
Universities are the ground zero of progressive woke ideology.
They will be the very last to draw down, if they ever do. And they will call themselves the more caring, unselfish, and science-aligned all the while, for fear the most engaged of their student body will tear them apart.
I don't think a single other real- life example could have made my point better. 😊
Let's see if she can keep the Duper's Delight off her fucking mug if she starts talking about suicide at the commencement speech.
No words
As a university faculty member, I find the suicidal departure from basic community justice and from scientific principle in higher ed shocking, depressing, and enraging. But one thing I think very key here is to take a longer range view of the shifting social makeup of colleges/universities, and of how different university life is now from the Vietnam War era (not to mention earlier periods)--and to not simply blame "kids today" for being coddled, weak, deficient, deluded, or whatever epithet you want. Individuals on the ground have little impact; systems, policies, and patterns much more so.
Though college degrees (and even grad degrees) have increasingly become de rigeur for protecting/advancing socioeconomic status in millennials and Zoomers, a majority of Americans are still without college degrees (cue automatic cultural gap/ easy us-them politics here). The protesters in the 70s uniting against war pushed a heavily cultural agenda in addition to opposing the proxy war in SEA: us enlightened youths vs. the old school stodgy squares and stuffy generals directing warfare. But they, who are now Boomers, did not advance much of an economically progressive agenda. Massive de-regulation of the market, the consolidation of monopolistic powers in all areas including the cultural and education markets, *plus* innovations in already addictive and attention grabbing media tech: these are important factors underwriting the trends on university campuses toward illiberalism, intolerance of good faith disagreement, and now this COVID fiasco.
What you said about the problem with "protecting" the older faculty and staff proximally by restricting the younger, healthier demographic is exactly what has been bothering me so much with these mandates.
Let me give you some examples:
Someone I know says he will do anything to protect his family from covid, so he wants mask mandates to continue as well as other measures. However, at his business he still has not installed air purifiers. The lobby is only about 400 to 500 square feet, which a commercial-grade air purifier could easily handle.
When people tell me they want mask mandates to continue but still wear cloth or surgical masks, I can't take them seriously. The same goes for people with N95 masks who want continued restrictions but has large gaps in their masks.
At what point do we realize that we can't base all our behaviors on "protecting" others? For example, once the pandemic is over, will we be required to mask up in a classroom if just one person is immuno-compromised?
Look, I'm like VP and ZDogg on this topic: pretty much alt-middle.
Was in Uber and driver gave rant about younger people not wearing masks, as he went through very yellow turned red light. People have not gauged risks correctly for the last 2 years.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. It's like people see covid as the only risk out there right now. And lots of people act like it's the touch of death.
I know plenty of people who aren't using this pandemic as a wakeup call to take better care of their health, but I do understand that you can't "catch" obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. Taking care of your health requires a lot more commitment and doesn't have an end date, while protecting yourself from a respiratory disease is a lot easier in some ways: get the jab (though protection is quickly waning); wear a mask (despite reports showing limited effectiveness); avoid close encounters, social gatherings, etc. (although plenty of "covid-careful" people I know have no problem eating in a crowded restaurant or standing inches apart from someone else so long as they're both wearing masks ... smh).
All true , and IMO these institutions are nothing more than internment camps and indoctrination centers for our future
Leaders !
Thanks for being one of the people to stand up for our children and young adults!
In the late 60’s and early 70’s college students held frequent protests against the Vietnam war. I was one of them. The Free Speech Movement that arose on campuses across the country challenged the universities’ restrictions on political speech and assembly. Why are we not seeing that today in reference to distancing, masks and vaccine mandates? Why are college kids rolling over to this nonsense without pushing back? Some students at University of Chicago have called out the administration’s draconian policies but the student body has largely gone along with the two tiered stupidity on the UC campus. What has happened to college student political activism and a healthy questioning of the status quo? This is not a battle that should be fought by us grey hairs. It is their battle to demand change, to instill common sense, to become activists for a cause. Our role should be to advise them and encourage them to counter the administration whose salaries they pay with their tuition. Put tuition payments in an escrow-like account until the mandates are lifted, then march maskless through out the campus.
What’s worse than the college students not pushing back on these inane policies? The college students are actually protesting getting rid of the mask mandates!!! What the…!!? They are scared sh**less bc they have been told to be. And because of the helicopter parenting, they don’t have the training or skills to ask analytical questions anymore. As mentioned in other comments, we have raised a generation of hypochondriacs. Safetyism brought on by helicopter parents is the name of the game now.
This generation has Tik Tok, smart phones, and assorted other electronic devices to use to numb out with. The grey hairs didn't. These electronic distractions take them away from their feelings and effectively take away their drive to protest or fight back. Some of them are scared of removing the masks and many more don't want to be perceived as not being a person who "cares" about others. It's a difficult situation to overcome.
They are products of "safetyism" culture. They have been coddled their whole lives and helped along by snowplowing parents and school administrators. Colleges continue this because it is the path of less resistance for the administration. Nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings or be left out themselves.
simple. Chinese owned Tik Tok has been brainwashing them it’s not okay to be a Karen. It’s better to not speak up for what is right than to be accused of being a Karen.
They are setting a precedent with the university students, I think. And it's disgusting. I'm so glad my kids aren't university age yet. I feel horrible for these families.
The thing is these policies have been hypocritical and unnecessary for college students for like a year. Which makes this guest essay kind of useless and a copout.
I would have welcomed this post one year ago. Now it reads like someone trying to rewrite their own history as a Covid sage. Does the author believe we need his permission or approval? From the tone, evidently.
Right wing media has been sounding the alarm on universities for years now. Nobody (myself included) took them seriously or listened to them.
I'm listening now
Why aren’t there marches and mass lawsuits demanding change?
Please don't stop fighting for kids too! My 11 yr old's K-8 private school is only going mask optional OUTSIDE - NEXT Monday (oops - he got in trouble today for taking his mask off, but apparently I didn't read the email from Friday closely enough). They will keep masking indoors "out of respect" for our community.
I am beyond beside myself and working on drafting a letter to push for unmasking indoors (at this point, there is not even a date at which they plan to discuss), but am getting caught in
1) WAY too much data to support the key arguments, but by quoting only 1 or 2, also easy to dismiss,
2) the TERRIBLE studies they MAY be basing their recs on (generally, it's follow the CDC, so I do plan to respond to an email from last summer saying they follow CDC guidelines, and throw in that now that President Biden has also endorsed mask optional in the vast majority of the country (including in Atlanta where cases are low, vax rates are high- in fact over 1/3 of students at our school have had COVID and the vast majority are vaccinated. Ages 12+ are not even considered fully vaxxed unless they get a booster (being fully vaxxed means less extensive and inconvenient testing when a student in the grade tests positive- yes the whole grade even if some kids never mix on campus).
3) and obviously it sounds snarky to pull in statements such as "now that the CDC and President Biden recommend"; I find it impossible to maintain a tone of respect and not show anger.
4) I WANT To be respectful of people who want to wear a mask (though I feel the school should really be advocating N95s for those who have risk factors or really afraid of infection). However, yesterday a classmate said "there's a new variant that is 4X more contagious and 4X more severe". My son asked where they heard that. Student said " the CDC", to which my son replied " The CDC isn't always right", to which the entire class responded "YES THEY ARE". (I found out about this when my son asked last night if the CDC is always right - I said no, and I could show him some specific examples; he wants to drop it so he's not ostracized; I did create a math problem for him using the CDC numbers and have him recreate their chart that shows 4% of age 0-17 cases result in death; and then we will have out 100th conversation about the important of sanity checking work, and if something doesn't seem right - say a 4% death rate for kids from COVID when the BLENDED across all age groups death rate was never 4% even when we were uncounting cases by a factor of 10 ). By the way, the math for hospitalization is a little rough for a 5th grader (what percent of circles (code word for hospitalizations) are there out of shapes (code word for cases - he doesn't know he is fact checking the CDC...). The numbers for 0-17 by the way are 266,597 hosp/circles) of 25,844,005 (cases/total shapes). Answer = 1.03% of kids cases hospitalized (the CDC chart says 3% - which is ironically higher than the 4% death rate in the next column - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html)
AND by the way, the 1.03% total hosp including with and due to COVID out of known cases, which we know is undercounted; and blends kids with risk factors with health kids; and this is Alpha/Delta period so before milder Omicron). In GA for comparison, from 12/3/21 - 2/9/22 for Omicron, hosp rates were: 2.62% of < age 1 (vs 6% for alpha/delta); 1.01% age 1-4; 0.34% age 5-9 (elementary school kids who are masked outside...and down from 0.61% Oct '20-Oct'21); 0.54% age 10 - 17; and for additional ref, age 60-69 = 5.45%, age 70-79 = 10.38%, and age 80+ = 17.84% (vs 30% for alpha/delta oct '20- oct '21).
I just needed to vent but 1) crazy frustrating what is happening on college campuses and 2) that there are STILL schools who refuse to even follow the updated CDC guidelines - out of respect and an abundance of caution for our community...
And, of course, the CDC data you are using is wrong on its face (actual numbers way lower for those age groups) so the 3% and 4% numbers are just wrong. The CDC has basically lied (word chosen carefully) about almost every number to make whatever political point they were making rather than just reporting the actual facts. This is my area but you will never again see me trust a single thing from that place -- and I have been religiously reading MMWR for decades. Truly embarrassing for the profession.
He does have wonderful teachers who truly care about the kids and amazing friends and overall really nice kids (regardless if they believe the CDC is always right- they’re in 5th grade!:). He absolutely loves school, his teachers, his classmates, and loves learning and for young kids, which are priorities for us.
But he is switching schools next year.
However, it is not as easy for all families to simply “move with their feet” - we are fortunate to have options.
I can’t imagine having time for friends and family. Our already heavy workloads became and have remained impossible. But let’s drop the mandates now.
My daughter goes to a small liberal arts college in Worcester, Mass. She got both doses of the Covid shot before they even mandated it. My son goes to a maritime college in Maine. He had a significant health history of anaphylaxis and a lot of allergies growing up. He chose at the very last minute tp receive the J&J. Neither of my children wanted to fight the mandate. I am a nurse that has had my own tricky road with vaccines (yellow fever vaccine, I needed for travel) so I was weary and ended up resigning before getting fired from my job at the hospital and an outpatient Chemotherapy infusion clinic. My heart was broken because I loved my work, but as I knew I had to make the best choice for me, I supported my children and the fights they were or were not willing to fight. After the winter break both schools had updated their mandates. My daughters school had an across the board booster mandate and my son had a mandate in order to play sports. He chose to not play lacrosse as one of his dear childhood friend had been admitted to the ICU over Christmas from vaccine induced (his booster) myocarditits. My daughter was in the middle of a Cortisone shot protocol so was given an extension. On March 2 she tested positive for COvid 19 (only has a mild sore throat). Two days ago she received a message form her school that she is going to be kicked out of school for noncompliance. She is a senior and will be graduating in May, she earned a full scholarship to get a Master's degree from the same University next year, all of which she will loose if she does not comply by next Monday.
I am beside myself and find her inability to stand up for herself and her health so frustrating. She is unable to see the health risks but more importantly she is so indoctrinated and in fear of what
she is being threatened with.
Any help thoughts or suggestions would be so helpful.