IU initially said they would offer quarantine housing for all students in the residence halls AND Greek housing. Then, about two weeks before the kids returned they walked that back saying students in Greek housing would not be permitted to quarantine on campus. So, I would not expect the dorms to take in any of these kids.

Now that they have told the Greek houses to completely close, they are telling the students to go to their home towns, not stay in Bloomington. There are about 2600 students residing in Greek houses. Some may go home but for others, there certainly isn't enough sublets or empty housing to accommodate them.

It is really a mess on so many levels. If the houses refund the payments they have received for the semester, it's unlikely they have the reserves to recover. If this continues into the spring semester those losses will be compounded by small or no new member classes, upperclassmen who drop because they don't perceive a benefit with no activities and an inevitable number of students who transfer or drop out of school altogether.

The impact will be felt for a very long time!

There is debate about that. It sounds like the County Health Dept is doing more than just "recommending" this.

It would be ridiculous to turn these students who have now all been exposed out to the community to infect others. And if they think the same thing isn’t going to happen in dorms, they are really kidding themselves.

I just spoke to a member of the IU Fiji chapter Housing Corporation. He said things are unfolding so quickly...they have called an emergency House Corp meeting at 5. He said they ALL feel that going virtual with classes...at least till Thanksgiving...and leaving everybody to sequester in their own houses makes the most sense. But now that the Monroe Co. Board of Health is involved...who knows? He’s not overly fond of the IU President right now....

The whole situation should be in Urban Dictionary as the definition for SHIT SHOW!

Our Asian exchange students are shocked because their countries masked and did all the right things and they're still having high rates of Covid. Like here, the harshness of it seems to have abated somewhat, but they're still having lots of new cases daily.

Exactly. Barn door, horse, yadda yadda yadda.

^ exactly

IFC released a statement this afternoon criticizing IU's decision for being short sighted and not really thinking through the impact of these Greek students having to find off campus housing risking further contamination or being sent home to family members who may be a high risk.

Isn’t housing hard to come by in Bloomington?

Wouldn’t it make more sense for all these houses to just quarantine maybe followed by testing to make sure they are all clear. That way it does not spread further in the community.

Yes. Even more so since IU has contracted with at least one apartment complex (and some hotels) to house students who otherwise would have been in dorms this year. (Most dorm rooms only have 1 person living in them this year, so there was a lot less dorm space.)

30 of the houses were already under quarantine as of yesterday.

My source was mistaken. Pref at Ole Miss will still be virtual, but it is only on Saturday.

Small world!

Fauci and Birx literally just said not to send infected college students back home and that they should continue to quarantine on campus.

https://www.businessinsider.com/fauc...tbreaks-2020-9

One thing that many students are not thinking about is what happens with student loans if they take a semester or more off. While there is a grace period of 6 months once a student drops below half time, that grace period can only be used once. So if a student takes it now in the middle of their academic program, under current guidelines, they do not have one when they graduate. Payments will have to begin immediately upon graduation.



https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/repayment

https://www.studentloanborrowerassis...grace-periods/

These kids are so screwed :(