It’s more difficult w/ greater risk. And some universities are setting R.A.s up for failure by not providing adequate training, PPE, & other support. But that’s really beside the point.
We live in a “loose” culture that places greater... 1/
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nytimes.com/2020/08/29/sty…
value on the individual over the collective. Giving up individual freedoms, particularly ones we’re used to having (or expect to have as we reach a new stage in life), to benefit the community isn’t the norm. Especially for those we don’t know or don’t recognize some... 2/
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connection w/. Given this, we haven’t fully thought through the changes needed to the social & physical environments that would “select for” the desired behavior among university students.
Pre-pandemic, the consequences for violating any rules... 3/
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regarding parties/gatherings was sufficient to keep violations low enough to not be too disruptive to campus life or university operations.
But during a pandemic, the number of allowable violations is much lower. Those lower numbers are much more difficult to... 4/
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achieve in our loose culture w/out significant thought to changing the environment w/in which these behaviors occur.
For example, how do you get students from outside the community to care more about their impacts on the community? How do you establish a personal... 5/
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connection quickly? One potential avenue for universities grouping/isolating students together in varying types of pods or quaranteams, is to mix students from outside the community with those from w/in it.
That connection may evolve through the relationships... 6/
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developed w/ the local students. Plus the local students will have more incentive to apply peer pressure to their pod-mates.
This is a thought experiment, & it may not work. It would certainly require thinking through a host of contextual issues. But it is informed... 7/
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by an understanding of human behavior. And it’s the type of behavioral planning that should have started last spring.
Additional punitive measures, which tend to be less effective in loose, individual-focused cultures anyway, aren’t sufficient to keep violations... 8/
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low enough during a pandemic. Certainly not by themselves. And student governing bodies + other student groups should be involved in developing the strategies employed to help establish greater buy-in.
Many of the other environmental mods that have been discussed - ...9/
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de-densifying classrooms, increasing ventilation/filtration, mask wearing, moving activities outside, frequent testing, contact tracing, low community spread rates, coordination among community governing bodies, etc. - increase the allowable number of violations... 10/
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that can occur. But many universities & their communities aren’t doing all of these things &/or haven’t addressed the behavioral factors associated w/ these strategies either.
And so we have news stories from across the nation depicting universities on the road to... 11/
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to failure relative to on campus learning & living. R.A.s will be put in unfair, no-win situations. The risks to themselves will increase & they may end up feeling responsible for increased spreading when they shouldn’t.
It’s our collective failure as a society,... 12/
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as the adults. We’ve let down our nation’s k-12 & university students. Time to do better. That includes accounting for behavior.
It also includes loudly advocating for a national, coordinated response based on science/evidence that is equitable, allows for local,... 13/
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varying conditions, & flexibly adapts as our understanding changes.
If we want any shot at a school year that isn’t a complete disaster, we’ve got to move in this direction now. 14/
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