[81alum]

All of us old farts need to stop projecting our personal insecurities and health fears onto healthy 18-22 year-olds who will, in all likelihood, shake off Covid much like a dog shakes off water after being given a bath.  The reason why death rates are dropping is because more younger people are getting the virus.  "Toss you mask day" is, of course, ridiculous.  But so are the panic buttons hit whenever an outbreak or surge occurs on a college campus. 

Teejers, I respect and understand that young people are being asked to give up a major part of their lifestyle and that the benefit largely accrues to old people.  Our society has not done a good job of persuading anyone that they should ever make sacrifices for people other than themselves.

However, what all of this conversation misses is that those campuses with hundreds and now thousands of COVID students have classes taught by faculty who are much older--in many cases over 65.  Are we seriously willing to sacrifice our older university faculty so that college students do not need to make a sacrifice in their lifestyles?

And the same can be said for the older residents of college towns, who cannot avoid contact with college students completely--as they walk into the local grocery store filled with kids buying beer. 

So under those circumstances, I do not think it is wise to put college students into such an untenable position, of contributing to the deaths of people around them--or being subjected to draconian measures to control their behavior.  Best not to have them on campus, for now.

[81alum]

All of us old farts need to stop projecting our personal insecurities and health fears onto healthy 18-22 year-olds who will, in all likelihood, shake off Covid much like a dog shakes off water after being given a bath.  The reason why death rates are dropping is because more younger people are getting the virus.  "Toss you mask day" is, of course, ridiculous.  But so are the panic buttons hit whenever an outbreak or surge occurs on a college campus. 

Teejers, I respect and understand that young people are being asked to give up a major part of their lifestyle and that the benefit largely accrues to old people.  Our society has not done a good job of persuading anyone that they should ever make sacrifices for people other than themselves.

However, what all of this conversation misses is that those campuses with hundreds and now thousands of COVID students have classes taught by faculty who are much older--in many cases over 65.  Are we seriously willing to sacrifice our older university faculty so that college students do not need to make a sacrifice in their lifestyles?

And the same can be said for the older residents of college towns, who cannot avoid contact with college students completely--as they walk into the local grocery store filled with kids buying beer. 

So under those circumstances, I do not think it is wise to put college students into such an untenable position, of contributing to the deaths of people around them--or being subjected to draconian measures to control their behavior.  Best not to have them on campus, for now.