More toggle terms in play as fall classes draw nigh and Delta rages

On Friday I posted about the ways COVID-19 was worsening, and how higher education might respond as fall classes are about to start. It was a rough post, one written in a mood of deep fear and anxiety. I wrote about a “situation… spiraling out of control,” that “[t]hings… now seem to be getting out of hand.”

After posting, I then drove 1,000 miles over the next two and a half days, depositing our son Owain in a new apartment on the University of Vermont’s campus. The trip gave us an interesting glimpse into how American culture is responding to the Delta variant. I was offline for much of the weekend, being the driver, and just starting catching up on what I missed when I returned home last night.

New toggle term stories are some of what I found.

To explain: a toggle term is when a college or university switches between in-person and online experience for a short period of time within a semester, in response to perceived pandemic dangers. A campus can enact one or more toggles within a single term, depending on circumstances. I first came up with the idea in April 2020. Since then there were many examples of this during 2020’s pandemic peaks. As the Delta variant soars through the American population, including some forms of breaking through vaccines, I anticipated we could see more toggle terms realized.

On Friday I shared one example of this. The University of Texas-San Antonio announced it would hold the first six…