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Subject: Weekly Briefing: Who Should Be Blamed for Outbreaks on Campus?
Whom should we blame?
The students are partying. The administrators opened campus. Coronavirus testing is insufficient.
Those are some of the responses to the increase in Covid-19 cases on reopened campuses. Case numbers at colleges across the country are growing, and no one wants to be the next
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Whom should we blame?
The students are partying. The administrators opened campus. Coronavirus testing is insufficient.
Those are some of the responses to the increase in Covid-19 cases on reopened campuses. Case numbers at colleges across the country are growing, and no one wants to be the next University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — reopen campus only to have the plan flop within a week.
To avoid that fate, some administrators have come down hard on students who are partying on and off campus. Last week, Bobby Maldonado, Syracuse University’s public-safety chief, and Marianne Thomson, its dean of students, wrote a letter slamming first-year students for partying on the Quad, calling the gathering “incredibly reckless.”
Some college towns, such as Ann Arbor, Mich., and Tuscaloosa, Ala., are trying to limit the spread of the virus from partying students. Tuscaloosa shut down its bars for two weeks. The Ann Arbor City Council passed an emergency ordinance that calls for fines for those who disregard mask-wearing and social-distancing guidelines.
But is coming down on students fair? That’s what critics are asking. College students are socializing as they always have. Administrators made the call to bring them back. And after all, what’s happening on college campuses is typical of the country’s coronavirus response: Decisions are up to each individual.
In The Chronicle Review, Gregg Gonsalves, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University, blames certain individuals for the outbreaks: college presidents. He writes that most administrators are not doing enough to combat the virus. A positive outlook about the fall won’t stop Covid-19, Gonsalves writes, and the presidents who reopen their campuses “should be held responsible for their negligence and accountable for their actions.”
It’s not clear that there is one party to blame for Covid-19 outbreaks on campus. So everyone involved in the reopening decision seems to be passing the buck, hoping that the blame doesn’t land on them.
Lagniappe.
Learn. When you need to make a big life decision, it can be hard to weigh your options. Here’s a guide to arguing with yourself.
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Listen. This explainer from Vox’s Today, Explained podcast is a good rundown on the conspiracy theory taking over conservative politics: QAnon.
Watch. Even if you don’t live in Los Angeles, David Lynch’s daily weather report is a treat. On Friday, he said, “Today I was thinking, what a great time to be alive if you love the theater of the absurd.” A good time indeed. Here’s the story behind the filmmaker’s reports.
Nearly 7 percent of students have tested positive at Georgia College, and many more are in quarantine, but the state’s regents hold fast to in-person classes.
They spent months training professors, streamlining communications with students, and fostering a sense of community online. The problem? They’re in the minority.
Fernanda is the engagement editor at The Chronicle. She is the voice behind Chronicle newsletters like the Weekly Briefing, Five Weeks to a Better Semester, and more. She also writes about what Chronicle readers are thinking. Send her an email at fernanda@chronicle.com.