Covid, Cambridge and mental health

[nearlyoldenough]

Am really concerned for dd going back this term
College just announced a raft of rules which are just basically leading to social isolation.
Everything online including social events
Bubbles of ten based on corridors ( bearing in mind rooms were chosen last year and not chosen to be near friends , just for amenities) anyone testing positive whole bubble isolates 14 days but they will leave food outside of room
No overnight guests
Family now not your household so social distancing applies
No lingering in food hall or sitting in groups
Only use library if you must plus prebook
If second lock down they have to stay there
But you have to stay 60 nights to keep term , so basically 60 nights sitting looking at the walls .
Might be ok if v sociable with group of friends that like to go out . Dd is very shy and struggles with social anxiety but had a nice small group of friends that would meet up every night for dinner in hall and go to college social events . None of them are social enough to go out to pubs or clubbing etc and I think this group will be hardest hit .
She is now dreading going back , in those circumstances would much rather stay at home with family and boyfriend ( who she won't be able to see once she goes back now)
Seems unkind really
Appreciate they want the money for halls but if they are going to impose these rules then they ought to give students the choice of where they live really
Anyone else concerned !?

DD received a big box of stuff from her University, so lab time is in her bedroom. The course is really interesting so she seems happy enough.

Thats good - lucky she's doing something where that's feasible.

Errol, who knows. It is a lab based STEM degree, not dissimilar, I think, to what your DD is doing. It’s certainly not ideal, but needs must. I assume it is better than nothing, and certainly better that last year when DD was sent home with an hours notice just as she was about to start her orthopaedic surgery placement and told to watch YouTube.

It’s OK for her in that even if this year is not ideal she has a year before resuming medschool, so should have a chance to catchup on what she has missed. The same, presumably will apply to first years. More difficult for students, taking any degree, who are going into their final years who already missed important chunks of teaching last year. Particularly for medical students where teaching relies on clinical teaching fellows who will be pulled out if a second wave coincides with winter flu.

Anecdotally, at least for medschools, there seems to have been quite a wide variation in how quickly teaching adapted, and how effective it was. Bristol was OK, though time was lost as they sorted themselves out, Imperial appeared to be impressively well organised, whilst others struggled.

I wonder whether the bigger difference will be, not whether it’s F2F or online, but how effectively necessary changes are implemented. A bit like schools where last term there was quite a wide range in the support offered to pupils.

@GCAcademic

Have I understood this correctly: the teaching is all online but the students have to take up accommodation in college? How is the college justifying this?

To give you some idea - we've been told (off our course-staff's own initiative - we hear nothing from the uni until the timetable emerges magically from the great abyss at the start of October and we wonder which muppet has us at two sides of the city within a 5 minute time window) that we will have one day a fortnight of face to face teaching on campus - of about 4 hours in duration.

The uni are really really heavily leaning on students to still move into the city as normal - even though for lots it would be very viable for them just to commute in for the one campus day a fortnight as required - there is a LOT of pressure being put on the "conventional age" students (I'm a mature student - they don't give a shit about us!)

Indoors seems more of a problem than out on the street, even a West Country street.

NeedMoreSleep if you want a high density geographical mix of crowds behaving badly then look no further than our beach and pub. Never seen crowds like it in the forty plus years that I've lived here. A group of fifty or so people on their way to the beach passed by my kitchen window a second ago, to join the multitudes already there. No guidelines being adhered to whatsover, as far as I can see, either indoors (pub) or out. The idea of distancing seems decidedly quaint, from where I'm sitting.

Ahh we are also on the south coast though further to the east, and things are fine. Big beach so plenty of room, and most people are cautious in shops and restaurants. (Obviously not all, but most.) There were a few problems on the very hottest days, but nothing as bad as captured by the fish eye lenses of tabloid newspapers. And no obvious up-ticks in Dorset, or indeed in London following the BLM protests.

But problems in Aberdeen pubs, Preston nightclubs, food processing plants, and within communities who live in n close proximity.....like student communities.

(That said my impression is that people seem to be more cautious in London, but then we lived through several weeks of non stop ambulance sirens. I am one of many who has not used the tube since.)

I assume though that the scientists now have a better idea of where the greatest risks lie. And the view is that large groups in close proximity indoors is of particular concern.

We are also in a holiday area but East coast , certainly busier than in usual years and also with people who are not used to UK holidays . The usual crowd are people with boats, campers, the traditional bucket and spade and fish and chips crowd plus second homers. This year there are lot more people who look slightly out of place and are clearly looking for more ‘entertainment’. Broadly though people are keeping their distance as much as possible. Ds and his crowd really haven’t been socialising as much as usual .

One difference with US Universities is that their ‘dorms’ tend to be even more crowded than our halls , single rooms are rare and triple rooms not uncommon . The virus is circulating in a much more uncontrolled way in some parts of the US as well.

OP, I would try not to worry, not least as your anxiety is likely to make your DD more anxious too.

My DS is going to Oxford this term, and has been given the official blurb about bubbles, no overnight guests, etc. His response was "well, I'd like to see how that's going to work once everyone has had a drink".

The universities have to do their bit, or be seen to be doing it. On the whole, water finds its own level, and young people will find ways to do as much or as little socialising as they are comfortable with.

My youngest is going back to boarding school next weekend, and I dare say they will find ways to manage that situation too. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

The main thing is that they can finally get a bit of independence back.

The uni are really really heavily leaning on students to still move into the city as normal - even though for lots it would be very viable for them just to commute in for the one campus day a fortnight as required - there is a LOT of pressure being put on the "conventional age" students

That's interesting, Domina, do you know why the university is so keen on that (students moving to the university city rather than commuting for one day a fortnight)? Do they think students are more likely to drop out if they haven't moved there, or is there a reason why academically they think it's better for the students?

The main thing is that they can finally get a bit of independence back.

I agree. I also think as I said before, that after this term it should be much clearer what the relative risks are. However for the time being creating households in communal university living seems sensible even if the implementation and adherence is leaky.

Goodbyestranger you are extremely level-headed but common sense can’t be presumed for populations. That has been evident from examples such as parental fears regarding MMR vaccination or your crowded southwest beaches. Also many older or vulnerable’ adults have jobs that prevent them staying away from younger adults. Plus most will want and have close contact with their children. I am also guessing from the CDC that although COVID deaths will be less frequent overall, there may be an increasing prevalence of chronic fatigue type symptoms in the young.

That's interesting, Domina, do you know why the university is so keen on that (students moving to the university city rather than commuting for one day a fortnight)? Do they think students are more likely to drop out if they haven't moved there, or is there a reason why academically they think it's better for the students?

They keep spinning the line about the "full campus life experience" but when freshers week consists of everything done on zoom, the library is running click and collect like it's an Argos toaster and all large scale stuff is online for the entire year and face to face at least the first term (but I doubt timetabling will re-run after that to change it) ... I can't see why anyone who lives within a couple of hours would want to do that - and for a midlands university - that's most of England at the least!

(My campus life experience involves "get a coffee and bacon sarnie without the kids annoying me" at 8am when I get in - I'm not even fecking getting THAT!)

My hunch is it's an attempt to avoid drop outs as it's, well it's a university that pulls heavily from clearing and I think they're scared with how things are that people will be less keen to stick it out if they feel less personally invested in it all.

Thanks Domina - renewed relevance in the light of the discussion about the return over the last couple of days! (ie the UCU interviews etc being discussed on other threads.)

I wonder if the university is right about more drop outs if students don't go on campus at all for the first term - it might depend how the job market is looking by late autumn/December, I suppose.

My DC are not socialising anywhere near normally and social distancing is still very apparent in our semi rural market town.
I do worry that DS will spend too much time on his own in his room at uni. It will obviously be easier for DD who is going into her third year and has established friendships for socially distanced gatherings and local knowledge of where to meet.