Another day, another set of campuses flip from in-person to online

As September kicks off, more campus are choosing Toggle Terms. Here I offer some updates.

To explain: a Toggle Term is when a college or university switches between online and in-person education during a semester for COVID-19-related reasons. Examples to date include: North Carolina State University, Notre Dame, SUNY Oneonta, Temple University, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Here are some more:

After holding in-person classes, yesterday Gettysburg College ordered an “[i]mmediate all-student quarantine.” The reason: “a trend of positive cases on campus that, according to the results we had, were connected to certain affinity groups or social gatherings.”

This switch online will last “through at least the end of the week.” After that we could see a continuation of remote instruction, or a toggle back to in-person.

James Madison University ended in-person instruction and asked students to leave campus. The cause: more than 500 students testing positive for the coronavirus.

Colorado College sent students home for the next two and a half weeks as COVID cases grew in their largest residence halls. Local government played a role, as “the El Paso County Health Department has required the college to quarantine entire residence halls.” Looking ahead, the college “said it expects ‘rolling waves of large quarantines’ moving forward.”

Note that Colorado uses a shorter academic schedule than semesters, having blocks instead.

The University of Notre Dame, having Toggled once this semester, is preparing to throw the switch again. Next week it’ll send students and faculty back to classrooms.

Down the road, I’m looking for other campuses that are fine Toggle candidates. The University of South Carolina’s president openly proclaimed that his administration was starting Toggle planning. Georgia College is experiencing a massive infection expansion. Several Iowa campuses are in counties with enormous numbers of COVID cases. Adrian College just saw 6% of students and staff (not sure about faculty) testing positive. The number of Illinois State students testing positive broke 1,000, as did the University of South Carolina.

(thanks to Todd Bryant, Jennifer Sader, Jason Parkhill; cross-posted to my blog)