A Yale administrator told students to prepare for 'possibly deaths' — and it shows what a predictable disaster reopening is

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A Yale administrator told students to prepare for 'possibly deaths' — and it shows what a predictable disaster reopening is
"We all should be emotionally prepared for widespread infections — and possibly deaths — in our communities," one Yale administrator told students in a July email.Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
  • On Tuesday, the Yale Daily News, a student newspaper at the university, reported that an administrator had emailed students that their dorm experiences would be different this fall.
  • "We all should be emotionally prepared for widespread infections — and possibly deaths — in our communities," Laurie Santos, the head of a Yale residential college, wrote in a July 1 email to students.
  • The email also said students "should emotionally prepare for the fact that your residential college life will look more like a hospital unit than a residential college."
  • Yale plans to welcome some students back to its New Haven, Connecticut campus at the end of August and to administer coronavirus tests to students multiple times per week, but it still may not be enough to quell an outbreak similar to those at UNC or Notre Dame.
  • Santos' stark comments shows how leaders in higher education are actively preparing for the worst this fall.
  • Just 35% of American colleges have some form of in-person learning plan in place for this school year, according to Davidson's College Crisis Initiative, which has been tracking reopening plans at 3,000 schools along with the Chronicle of Higher Education. Many of those schools are reopening with an asterisk.
  • Leaders at universities such as Syracuse, Cornell, and Texas A&M are deciding how many on-campus coronavirus cases would shut them down again. Specifics for those plans, for the most part, are under wraps.
  • Luis Toledo, a data and policy analyst at the College Crisis Initiative, told The Wall Street Journal: "If you release [that plan] and acknowledge there is a possibility of students dying, it begs the question: Why are you bringing students back in the first place?"
  • Meanwhile, Boston University issued a new policy that allows students who die while attending to receive their degree posthumously. The policy is "unrelated to the pandemic," a BU spokesman told Insider, but it will be in effect this fall.
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