SYMPATHY FOR THE COLLEGE STUDENTS

I bet the college students are getting pretty irritated. They have every right to be. 

For almost a year now they've been alternately shamed and flattered and scared into strict compliance with all the Covid19 protocols. New rules and restrictions pop up frequently but rarely get retracted. They're paying full price for college and getting only the downside (unimaginative lectures online and bad cafeteria food which they are supposed to take back to their cramped dorm rooms to eat) and precious little of the upside that constitutes the real heart of the college experience (late night socializing, sports events, socials, long conversations over meals, networking). 

The four most socially vibrant and challenging years of most people's lives and these current students endure daily finger-wagging from the administration to keep their distance and limit their contact. Don't ride in a car together. Put your mask on if you're going to walk from your dorm room to the community bathroom. No visitors on campus. No spring break because we don't want you traveling anywhere. 

Here's a wonderfully representative nugget of finger-wagging from an email penned by the president of my son's college just today:

"This week over 11% of students missed their surveillance testing time. This is not acceptable! No-shows make our already stretched staff spend valuable time tracking down students. Act responsibly and show up on time." [Emphasis in the original]

One out of every ten students doesn't show up for a weekly Covid test? 

Such brazen irresponsibility!

Good grief! Who is paying this guy's salary? [Answer: my son is.] 

Keep shaming the students over weekly Covid tests and maybe they'll never question why HIPAA privacy laws don't apply to colleges and universities. 

(How many individuals would sit by passively if the universities started mandating weekly STD testing? What if those tests resulted in instant short term consequences like being quarantined in a special dorm or sent home for two weeks if a student tests positive?  I think that might be frowned upon by most people.)

But the thing that really bugs me is the ridiculous pretense that all these tests and rules and restrictions are "for the safety of the students". For their own good. 

What a charade. The average college student with Covid has mild cold symptoms - a sore throat, runny nose, or fatigue - if they even notice that they have the disease. The administration ought to have the guts to acknowledge that the schools are asking great sacrifices from the students for the sake of keeping their own older faculty and staff safe. (While continuing to charge those students full price.) 

If the colleges had started this school year packing the students into classrooms like normal while the professors beamed in their lectures from home, by October the students would have had herd immunity. The professors could have eventually returned to class and been asked to wear a mask and distance themselves from the students. And all the college students could have carried on like a bunch of college students from the beginning of the year to the end. 

In my opinion, the president should be absolutely elated that 89% of the students are willing once a week to come spit in the college's cups. 

I for one can't blame the students who don't give a spit.