Thread by @BachmannRudi

Certainly, @florianederer Thread

I think @NotreDame did a lot of things right but made one initial mistake that it corrected, however, quickly enough. At the same time, Notre Dame has some unique institutional features that make it hard to generalize its experience.

Notice the caveat with which I am writing all of this: I am rarely actually on campus given that I live in Ann Arbor and that I am teaching online this semester. But I do participate in meetings and have contact with some undergraduates I know from previous years.

Notre Dame made it a requirement that everyone get tested bevor returning to campus. The positivity rate there was miniscule. So far so good. What they did not do is announce and set up a rigorous random surveillance testing regime immediately and going forward.

The combined effect of both measures was: everything is swell, we have no rona, we haven't seen our buddies in over 5 months, let's party. Especially the seniors who live often off-campus. From contact tracing we know apparently that the ND outbreak was really an off-campus

ND undergraduate outbreak. Then they did two smart things: they pulled the plug and went on a two-weeks online-only hiatus (at the same time they had ample quarantine and isolation resources - aside: South Bend has, given its size and economic prosperity, an oversized hotel

infrastructure, owing to the football season; these resources were tapped into by the administration). The President said two things in his address to campus: 1) if the numbers don't go down, we will stay online, and I think he left it deliberately vague whether this might

extend to the spring semester. 2) He clearly threatened students that did not follow the rules and that were discovered by any means other than contact tracing with consequences (so he kept the participation constraint for contact tracing in place, while punishing misbehavior).

Here is an additional important specificity about Notre Dame: freshmen to juniors live on campus in dorms with a relatively tight oversight by rectors and RAs. Their partying behavior can be somewhat controlled (with a few exceptions, I am looking at you, Zahm).

It's only seniors whose partying off-campus is left without social control. But they were given a clear choice: either you behave or you get to spend your senior year in your parents' basement, taking online classes and if we catch you, you might face suspension.

I think the message was heard. Seniors started behaving and making compromises so that they can stay together during their best, if less wild than usual college year. In addition, let's face it: lots of Notre Dame students are serious, highly gifted kids who understand these

issues. The goofball factor is low in Notre Dame. There is no Greek system. So, it's these unique circumstances that - I think - helped us get back to normal and, hopefully, now get through the fall semester more or less in-person. It's unclear to me how much this is replicable.

Forgot to cc @btshapir