CDC Says University Reopenings Is Cause of Virus Spread
What does this suggest? Is this yet another example of failed leadership? Was it not obvious to most people that putting young people back onto college campuses in August 2020 was a crazy idea? Unfortunately universities operate like corporations, without accountability to the health and welfare of surrounding worlds, counties, and communities. Universities have become the vectors and the counties and communities the host for the virus.
In June 2020 the Michigan Health Department studied the spread of the virus from just one campus bar, Harpers, across many Michigan counties. Below you’ll see a map showing the spread of the virus across Michigan counties. From just one college bar!
On July 23, the Ingham County health department announced that the bar near Michigan State University was linked to 22 positive cases of coronavirus. Over two weeks, the number of cases related to Harper's rose to over 180.
Harpers Bar, East Lansing, Michigan, June 2020. Dance Floor
And the steady erosion of faculty governance and the managerialism that has replaced it partly explains the complacency and lack of transparency. We are fortunate to be at a university, Rutgers, where the faculty have a union and where the administration made some intelligent decisions not to bring students to campus.
As we look back on this great failure of leadership and tragic outcome we must demand that universities become accountable to local communities. We must care about the local communities we serve. We’re writing our representatives to insist that a commission be established to study this failure. And every county and community should have their elected officials serving on university boards and committees. See our forthcoming post: terror management theory, adolescent risk, and covid-19.
Michigan State Health Department Study of Virus Spread from Just One College Bar