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Post by lou on Dec 23, 2020 8:54:59 GMT -5
Time to leave the Patriot League. I keep seeing most of our long time opponents playing basketball while we sit back and do nothing. Not as simple as you may think NYTimes: One Month Behind, DePaul Starts Its Men’s Basketball Season One Month Behind, DePaul Starts Its Men’s Basketball Season nyti.ms/38savoX
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Post by alum on Dec 23, 2020 9:09:55 GMT -5
It is all about avoiding travel. I received a Christmas message from Track and XC coach Jim Kavanagh. It noted "tentative plans for a revamped Patriot League Cross Country Championship in early March at Lafayette, and possible Indoor Track Championships in late February at three or four sites, reducing the amount of travel and decreasing the number of athletes at each location."
This would be consistent with everything else we have seen suggesting that the league is limiting travel. I imagine that the indoor meet for HC could be just us and BU. It will look like a dual meet.
I would think that the College is concerned about the optics of athletics teams traveling all over the place while the rest of the student body is limited to campus.
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Post by longsuffering on Dec 23, 2020 9:23:52 GMT -5
It's only a matter of life and death...not for the student athletes but for somebody down the infection food chain if travel or gathering for an athletic competition causes transmission. No biggie.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Dec 23, 2020 9:26:46 GMT -5
I agree with what alum said.
The other issues with overnight travel is the availability of indoor dining, and many hotels/motels are closed. In Boston, several of the universities have leased large, national brand hotels to house students for the fall and spring semesters.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Dec 23, 2020 11:24:36 GMT -5
I read a message today from a fall sport coach (not football) who said there will be a spring competitive season for that sport, and the team will be back on campus in about two weeks.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Dec 23, 2020 18:17:14 GMT -5
I'll speculate that the PL announcement will cover not only football, but the other fall sports to be competed in the spring, and will include revised schedules for the spring sports. Synchronizing the schedule for all these sports cannot be easy.
Prospectively, the sports covered in a single announcement: football / M/W soccer / volleyball / field hockey / M/W lacrosse / track & field / cross country / baseball / softball.
I believe swimming and diving is set. Don't know about rowing regattas. Don't know about golf and tennis.
I also think that AU will not be competing in the PL this year other than M/W hoops?
From AU: "1250 undergraduates will be brought to campus for a short-term residential experience that will begin in March and run through May."
AU has 8,500 undergraduates.
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Post by longsuffering on Dec 24, 2020 1:24:57 GMT -5
I'll speculate that the PL announcement will cover not only football, but the other fall sports to be competed in the spring, and will include revised schedules for the spring sports. Synchronizing the schedule for all these sports cannot be easy. Prospectively, the sports covered in a single announcement: football / M/W soccer / volleyball / field hockey / M/W lacrosse / track & field / cross country / baseball / softball. I believe swimming and diving is set. Don't know about rowing regattas. Don't know about golf and tennis. I also think that AU will not be competing in the PL this year other than M/W hoops? From AU: "1250 undergraduates will be brought to campus for a short-term residential experience that will begin in March and run through May." AU has 8,500 undergraduates. AU doesn't have football, baseball, softball or Men's Lacrosse. They do have wrestling, and are located about six or seven states away give or take a Delaware. These Eagles fit the Crusaders like the glove OJ tried to put on in front of Judge Ito. The PL is a bigger compromise than the Covid bill that finally got passed.
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Post by Ignutz on Dec 24, 2020 12:04:13 GMT -5
I'll speculate that the PL announcement will cover not only football, but the other fall sports to be competed in the spring, and will include revised schedules for the spring sports. Synchronizing the schedule for all these sports cannot be easy. Prospectively, the sports covered in a single announcement: football / M/W soccer / volleyball / field hockey / M/W lacrosse / track & field / cross country / baseball / softball. I believe swimming and diving is set. Don't know about rowing regattas. Don't know about golf and tennis. I also think that AU will not be competing in the PL this year other than M/W hoops? From AU: "1250 undergraduates will be brought to campus for a short-term residential experience that will begin in March and run through May." AU has 8,500 undergraduates. Will they be missed at all??? Never saw them as a real fit. (Was that out loud?)
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Post by hc2020 on Dec 25, 2020 12:54:31 GMT -5
Students received this notification today (Christmas Day) about a delayed return to campus. Apart from the terrible timing of this, one has to wonder if the school administration has any genuine intention to open up in the spring: file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/04/04/8961501F-B109-4F86-BC22-6148E2986019/IMG_1344.JPG
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Post by hc2020 on Dec 25, 2020 12:57:23 GMT -5
Notification says that the return of students are being delayed until at least January 18th. What terrible timing...
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Post by hc2020 on Dec 25, 2020 13:05:40 GMT -5
Here is the text of the email:
Dear Students,
I am sorry to interrupt your Christmas Day, but I wanted to share with you that I just received notification last night from the Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Massachusetts Secretary of Education that all institutions of higher education in Massachusetts should refrain from bringing any students back to campus until Monday, January 18, 2021. Their guidance exempts students currently residing on campus or those with nowhere else to go.
This clearly has many implications for students in January Term and students who had been scheduled to return to campus prior to January 18, including RAs, Kimball captains and some athletic teams. We are not yet sure at this time how this impacts our full move-in schedule as we need to stagger arrivals in order to arrange a move-in process in alignment with the best health and safety protocols.
Please know that we still plan to invite students back to campus - we will just need to re-think the arrival schedule.
I ask for your patience as we re-work that schedule over the coming days. We will be back in touch on Monday, December 28 with a further update on January Term classes, the move-in schedule previously announced, and all other issues implicated by this announcement from the state.
I wish you and your family a Merry and safe Christmas. And let us all pray for patience, hope and deep care for the most vulnerable in these challenging days.
Sincerely,
Philip L. Boroughs, S.J. President
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Post by rgs318 on Dec 25, 2020 13:59:32 GMT -5
Is anyone at the state level looking at what schools and students need when issuing these blanket pronouncements?
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Post by hc2020 on Dec 25, 2020 14:34:56 GMT -5
This edict, like most of them, is not based in any real science. How many college-aged individuals aged 18-23 are currently in the ICU in Mass.? If it is more than 5 I would be shocked. Yet, these individuals are being treated like a high-risk group. More middle and high students will be attending in-person classes at area schools than the entire student body at Holy Cross that was scheduled to return to campus on January 4th.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Dec 25, 2020 17:07:35 GMT -5
Several points. 1.) The order does not apply to students who are living off-campus, or are planning to. Fall semester, there apparently were nearly 400 athletes living off-campus, or on-campus (the latter being M/W basketball, M/W ice hockey). 2.) It was never the intention to bring the entire student body back on January 4th. The only returnees on that date were those enrolled for the January term, and student athletes. 3.) The two week delay may be related to testing. Apparently, there is a big push to get K-12 schools re-opened to in-person teaching. I have seen a notice from one community that students are to be tested before returning to in-person classroom settings. www.salemk12.org/our_district/what_s_new/salem_public_schools_january_c_o_v_i_d-19_testing4. During the fall semester, there were 3.3+ million tests of students, faculty, and staff at Massachusetts colleges and universities. So many tests were being done that they skewed the overall test results for the state. My guess is that if college and universities again ramped up testing in early January, there is not enough testing capacity in the state to do testing of K-12 students and college students and staff simultaneously.
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Post by efg72 on Dec 25, 2020 17:12:33 GMT -5
Unless you are testing every 5-7 days, more frequently if possible, testing is of marginal value for preventing the spread.
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Post by longsuffering on Dec 25, 2020 20:23:14 GMT -5
Is anyone at the state level looking at what schools and students need when issuing these blanket pronouncements? Father B addressed that admirably: "deep care for the most vulnerable." College Students are not the most vulnerable among the six million Bay Staters Governor Charlie Baker (no relation to Professor Charlie Baker who taught an enjoyable film class at HC) is responsible for protecting.
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Post by hchoops on Dec 25, 2020 20:52:30 GMT -5
He may not have been referencing college students in his statement, but the many workers and their loved ones of more vulnerable ages and health who work at the many campuses in Mass.
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Post by A Clock Tower Purple on Dec 25, 2020 21:31:46 GMT -5
^ ?
Pretty obvious he was.
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Post by longsuffering on Dec 25, 2020 22:19:23 GMT -5
I meant that despite the disruption to Holy Cross and HC students, Governor Baker is placing his priority on protecting the most vulnerable in Massachusetts and Father B. is admirably cooperating and offering prayers for the most vulnerable among us, which are not college students by and large.
If the Governor feels that less movement of large groups of people into Massachusetts temporarily during this surge is the difficult but necessary policy, Father B. is supporting that. You don't see that type of cooperation with American Democratic Institutions like elected Governors everywhere in America right now and I salute Father B. for his leadership.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Dec 26, 2020 7:16:32 GMT -5
There are almost as many positive tests of HC staff as there are of students.
33 students, 25 staff, 1 other. A month ago, Nov 26, the totals were 25 students and nine staff.
The other is probably a contractor working for facilities on a COVID-related project, like installing plexiglass shielding.
Since the semester ended nine days ago, HC has done over 600 tests.
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Post by HC92 on Dec 26, 2020 10:40:18 GMT -5
I meant that despite the disruption to Holy Cross and HC students, Governor Baker is placing his priority on protecting the most vulnerable in Massachusetts and Father B. is admirably cooperating and offering prayers for the most vulnerable among us, which are not college students by and large. If the Governor feels that less movement of large groups of people into Massachusetts temporarily during this surge is the difficult but necessary policy, Father B. is supporting that. You don't see that type of cooperation with American Democratic Institutions like elected Governors everywhere in America right now and I salute Father B. for his leadership. I think the problem here is not that the Governor says he’s trying to protect the most vulnerable. Rather, it’s that his policies do not actually do that in any meaningful way. For example, inmates are 4th on his list of groups to receive the vaccine while aged 65+ people are 9th. People with one comorbidity are 10th. “Healthcare workers” not doing anything related to Covid and utility workers are also ahead of those with one comorbidity and those 65+. When people see AOC and Marco Rubio getting vaccines, they may struggle with the connection to protecting the most vulnerable. So, people may not have a ton of confidence that this date the Mass Governor has come up with for colleges actually furthers the stated goal of protecting the most vulnerable.
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Post by hcpride on Dec 26, 2020 11:35:19 GMT -5
I thought students on campus were less likely to spread covid (to each other and the elderly) than college-age kids out and about off campus and/or in their home towns?
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Post by longsuffering on Dec 26, 2020 14:23:22 GMT -5
I meant that despite the disruption to Holy Cross and HC students, Governor Baker is placing his priority on protecting the most vulnerable in Massachusetts and Father B. is admirably cooperating and offering prayers for the most vulnerable among us, which are not college students by and large. If the Governor feels that less movement of large groups of people into Massachusetts temporarily during this surge is the difficult but necessary policy, Father B. is supporting that. You don't see that type of cooperation with American Democratic Institutions like elected Governors everywhere in America right now and I salute Father B. for his leadership. I think the problem here is not that the Governor says he’s trying to protect the most vulnerable. Rather, it’s that his policies do not actually do that in any meaningful way. For example, inmates are 4th on his list of groups to receive the vaccine while aged 65+ people are 9th. People with one comorbidity are 10th. “Healthcare workers” not doing anything related to Covid and utility workers are also ahead of those with one comorbidity and those 65+. When people see AOC and Marco Rubio getting vaccines, they may struggle with the connection to protecting the most vulnerable. So, people may not have a ton of confidence that this date the Mass Governor has come up with for colleges actually furthers the stated goal of protecting the most vulnerable. Thanks because I didn't realize I'm only ninth in line. I'm going to research who will decide which if any of my under control, with medication, medical conditions qualify as co-morbidities. The concept I was thinking of is how good citizenship used to be a given, but in a year where the Governor of Michigan has had a kidnap plot against her and Secretaries of State and Chief Infectious Disease Doctors and their families need security details, I respect Father B. and HC being good citizens and complying with State guidelines during a holiday surge in the pandemic. I'm five spots behind inmates. I can make an argument against that but the argument for it would be that I have some control over who I come in contact with but inmates are trapped like rats and may not be able to avoid virus droplets in the air in their cellblocks.
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Post by hcpride on Dec 26, 2020 14:52:25 GMT -5
There are almost as many positive tests of HC staff as there are of students. 33 students, 25 staff, 1 other. A month ago, Nov 26, the totals were 25 students and nine staff. I've noticed that when some folks read stats like this there is an almost irresistible urge to conclusion jump. In this case the erroneous conclusion would be that the 25 staff members (or any at all) were infected on the Holy Cross campus or have spread the virus on the Holy Cross campus. Without noting how conclusion-jumpers work, calls to close campus can be baffling. We've had 60-ish kids and 20-ish staff members come down with confirmed Covid at my high school thus far this year. All recovered/recovering BTW. Contact tracing has revealed 0 (zero) of them caught it in school and 0 (zero) spread it at school. Even Newsday, our paper that ordinarily loves to inject panic, readily admits that Covid is not spreading at LI schools. Notwithstanding that, there are a few conclusion-jumpers in my community who see the numbers 60 and 20 and demand the school close down. (It would not at all surprise me that 25 HC staffers [who live off campus and may or may not come to work at Holy Cross during these remote times] during this pandemic would test positive.]
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Post by hcpride on Dec 26, 2020 15:03:33 GMT -5
Several points. 1.) The order does not apply to students who are living off-campus, or are planning to. Fall semester, there apparently were nearly 400 athletes living off-campus, or on-campus (the latter being M/W basketball, M/W ice hockey). ...... It is certainly comforting to know that the students who live off campus can head back to their off-campus private gatherings and keggers while early arrivals to the supervised on-campus residences are being delayed.
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