Page 1 of 1

Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 2:26 pm
by IdAggie
It is almost certain that students will not be on campus after Thanksgiving. USU is adjusting the semester calendar and recommending that the last few weeks of the semester be online. This is likely a good campus/public health strategy as it will keep students from returning from Thanksgiving break and potentially bringing COVID back with them, which could cause a spike in cases heading into finals.

One down side is that our games against BYU and St. Mary’s will likely have a significantly diminished student section. I was looking forward to an exceptional atmosphere for those important games.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 2:35 pm
by Yossarian
with all of these discussions about starting off classes on campus and then sending everyone away for online classes for safety reasons and on and on and on. What i s the point of even having classes on campus at all? Why even bring the students on campus. This is a pain for those of us from out of state to have to figure out how and when to get kids to campus and then back home, etc. Either be a university with all of the facilities (laboratories that require in-person instruction being the most critical), or become Utah's version of the University of Phoenix. You can't go back and forth.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 3:01 pm
by Real Life Aggie
Yossarian wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 2:35 pm
with all of these discussions about starting off classes on campus and then sending everyone away for online classes for safety reasons and on and on and on. What i s the point of even having classes on campus at all? Why even bring the students on campus. This is a pain for those of us from out of state to have to figure out how and when to get kids to campus and then back home, etc. Either be a university with all of the facilities (laboratories that require in-person instruction being the most critical), or become Utah's version of the University of Phoenix. You can't go back and forth.
Your frustration makes sense, and it's reasonable. But just with so much unknown, I'm not sure it can be so black and white. Hopefully this all becomes moot as we remain dedicated/diligent so that this is much less of an issue in 5 months. But exceptional circumstances require exceptional solutions, and it may be a pain in the a$$ as a result.

As a side note, I had a lot of labs, worked in quite a few labs, and led a couple of labs. While not ideal, you can definitely work around 3 weeks fewer.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 3:30 pm
by Yossarian
Real Life Aggie wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 3:01 pm
Yossarian wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 2:35 pm
with all of these discussions about starting off classes on campus and then sending everyone away for online classes for safety reasons and on and on and on. What i s the point of even having classes on campus at all? Why even bring the students on campus. This is a pain for those of us from out of state to have to figure out how and when to get kids to campus and then back home, etc. Either be a university with all of the facilities (laboratories that require in-person instruction being the most critical), or become Utah's version of the University of Phoenix. You can't go back and forth.
Your frustration makes sense, and it's reasonable. But just with so much unknown, I'm not sure it can be so black and white. Hopefully this all becomes moot as we remain dedicated/diligent so that this is much less of an issue in 5 months. But exceptional circumstances require exceptional solutions, and it may be a pain in the a$$ as a result.

As a side note, I had a lot of labs, worked in quite a few labs, and led a couple of labs. While not ideal, you can definitely work around 3 weeks fewer.
yeah - I get that.

My point with the labs is not that they would be cut be three weeks short, rather that they are necessary for teaching science and technology classes. They require in-person instruction with hands-on training to prepare a student for the workplace. If we transition to an online only university as a way to keep the students/faculty/staff safe, we will have to stop offering majors in the science and technology fields, which goes completely contrary to the mission statement of the university as a land grant and research institution.

My fear is that once a policy is put into place for starting a semester with students on campus and then, at some arbitrary date (cold/flu/virus bugs don't necessarily follow the Julian or academic calendar we have created) sending students away to reduce risk of mass infection - this policy will become the "normal". Nobody is going to want to change to make the people less safe.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 8:01 pm
by ratofallaggies
IdAggie wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 2:26 pm
It is almost certain that students will not be on campus after Thanksgiving. USU is adjusting the semester calendar and recommending that the last few weeks of the semester be online. This is likely a good campus/public health strategy as it will keep students from returning from Thanksgiving break and potentially bringing COVID back with them, which could cause a spike in cases heading into finals.

One down side is that our games against BYU and St. Mary’s will likely have a significantly diminished student section. I was looking forward to an exceptional atmosphere for those important games.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I stopped reading after your first sentence :) :)

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 9:21 pm
by GameFAQSAggie
Yossarian wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 3:30 pm
Real Life Aggie wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 3:01 pm
Yossarian wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 2:35 pm
with all of these discussions about starting off classes on campus and then sending everyone away for online classes for safety reasons and on and on and on. What i s the point of even having classes on campus at all? Why even bring the students on campus. This is a pain for those of us from out of state to have to figure out how and when to get kids to campus and then back home, etc. Either be a university with all of the facilities (laboratories that require in-person instruction being the most critical), or become Utah's version of the University of Phoenix. You can't go back and forth.
Your frustration makes sense, and it's reasonable. But just with so much unknown, I'm not sure it can be so black and white. Hopefully this all becomes moot as we remain dedicated/diligent so that this is much less of an issue in 5 months. But exceptional circumstances require exceptional solutions, and it may be a pain in the a$$ as a result.

As a side note, I had a lot of labs, worked in quite a few labs, and led a couple of labs. While not ideal, you can definitely work around 3 weeks fewer.
yeah - I get that.

My point with the labs is not that they would be cut be three weeks short, rather that they are necessary for teaching science and technology classes. They require in-person instruction with hands-on training to prepare a student for the workplace. If we transition to an online only university as a way to keep the students/faculty/staff safe, we will have to stop offering majors in the science and technology fields, which goes completely contrary to the mission statement of the university as a land grant and research institution.

My fear is that once a policy is put into place for starting a semester with students on campus and then, at some arbitrary date (cold/flu/virus bugs don't necessarily follow the Julian or academic calendar we have created) sending students away to reduce risk of mass infection - this policy will become the "normal". Nobody is going to want to change to make the people less safe.
Every university that students could choose as an alternative to USU is in the same boat, at least those in close proximity. Either the situation in the world will get resolved, with a mix of a vaccine, treatment, expanded capacity, etc. for USU and every other other school(at least all those in Utah and neighboring states) to offer majors in science and technology and everything else with the full normal on-campus experience, or the social distancing and other measures will be unsuccessful enough for every university to have the need to do online classes and other precautions, either the whole semester or for the last few weeks after Thanksgiving.

And I'm sure the university WANTS to have students on-campus the full school year, but they need to be flexible and likely will be more prepared for a transition to online the second time around. They should also, just in case we are pleasantly surprised with developments in the world with controlling the virus, leave open the possibility of finishing out normally, or at least allowing students to choose between online and in-person after Thanksgiving, like ask students to come back to Logan if they have somewhere in state to go, but stay back in their home state for online to finish out if they are from out of state, at least a state that is a hotspot, like for instance tell those from Montana to come back if they can and want to, but tell those from Washington to stay..

We also need to get the landlords to be flexible with allowing students to cancel in case of a change. The university was good about allowing it for the on-campus dorms, but the students off campus were screwed, and maybe the landlords of the off-campus apartments could be pressured to be flexible with students cancelling contracts. All it would take is ONE complex, like say Kampus Korner, to come out and say they will allow students out of a lease if the university moves online, then that would be everyone's first choice. Then maybe a second complex cause of competition, like say Pine View or Garden Court, comes out with a similar flexible policy. It would then snowball into more and more complexes feeling pressured to do it to keep up with their competition, until the flexible cancellation policy for 20-21 is offered by every complex that rents out students.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 12th, 2020, 9:38 pm
by hipsterdoofus21
I’m with Yoss on this one. Either open the campus and ask the kids to stay there until the end of semester or switch entirely to online only. The current planned approach sounds like a game of “just the tip”.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 13th, 2020, 5:37 pm
by UStateTim
hipsterdoofus21 wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 9:38 pm
I’m with Yoss on this one. Either open the campus and ask the kids to stay there until the end of semester or switch entirely to online only. The current planned approach sounds like a game of “just the tip”.
A game well known in Provo

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 13th, 2020, 8:16 pm
by Real Life Aggie
hipsterdoofus21 wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 9:38 pm
I’m with Yoss on this one. Either open the campus and ask the kids to stay there until the end of semester or switch entirely to online only. The current planned approach sounds like a game of “just the tip”.
All or nothing thinking.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 13th, 2020, 10:43 pm
by hipsterdoofus21
Real Life Aggie wrote:
June 13th, 2020, 8:16 pm
hipsterdoofus21 wrote:
June 12th, 2020, 9:38 pm
I’m with Yoss on this one. Either open the campus and ask the kids to stay there until the end of semester or switch entirely to online only. The current planned approach sounds like a game of “just the tip”.
All or nothing thinking.
Either one has the same end result but at least we don’t kid ourselves.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 14th, 2020, 3:28 am
by Chatman
Regardless of whether students are back, I have a hard time believing that games with packed stadiums are going to be a thing this year.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 14th, 2020, 7:35 am
by Aggie84025
Chatman wrote:
June 14th, 2020, 3:28 am
Regardless of whether students are back, I have a hard time believing that games with packed stadiums are going to be a thing this year.
unfortunately probably true. Probably looking at half capacity. Takes away a huge advantage of the spectrum.

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 14th, 2020, 8:10 am
by deltaaggie
I for one do believe that we will see both football and basketball with fans in attendance. Possibly reduced by 50% but still there. The Black Lives Matter movement and protests are a social experiment for COVID-19. Protest groups of tens of thousands of people getting together are just the proof of concept we need to get back to large gatherings ( concerts, sports, conferences, etc).

Re: Early December Games - COVID Impact

Posted: June 14th, 2020, 9:13 pm
by GameFAQSAggie
Hurd Premium will REALLY be PREMIUM this year considering that it might be the only way students get to go to some of the games. It's kind of a good thing we aren't playing BYU in football at home this year, and not a good year to have them come here for basketball.

We may have to cap Hurd Premium at whatever number of students we decide to allow come to basketball games, or have a stipulation that even it doesn't guarantee getting into the game.

The thing about students is that ones who don't normally make football and/or basketball games a priority DO make it a priority to make it to the game when we are playing BYU. Even the other sports like hockey, volleyball(before BYU quit scheduling us in that) and soccer will have students who go to the game when we are, cause we are, and only when we are playing against BYU. We could come out, if say the cap cause of CDC guidelines is say 2000, and say that students can choose between a student ticket guaranteed to get them into the game against BYU or a season pass that gets them into EVERY OTHER HOME GAME besides BYU, and we would still sell out the 2000 BYU tickets fast while the 2000 rest of season passes and we would have other students come wanting the BYU game ticket but not caring for the rest of season pass.

One thing that we could do is agree to another year at Vivint against BYU since the interest in attending that game could stay under 50 percent(though they would have to turn people away from the lower bowl and relegate them to the upper), then make BYU come here next year in front of the 10,270 fans.