Reports from Us colleges and Britrish Schools: Low infection rates in classrooms though more off campus .,

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Thu, 2020-12-10 10:48 — mike kraft

Lessons from the pandemic fall: Infections are rare in classrooms, not off campus Viral testing, contact tracing, quarantine housing are the go-to tools for colleges to operate. Nick Anderson, Susan Svrluga Washington Post

Colleges and universities that taught students in person this fall found no evidence that the novel coronavirus spread in any significant way in classrooms, laboratories and lecture halls, according to numerous school leaders, easing what had been one of their greatest fears during a deadly pandemic.

A far larger public health problem for higher education, these leaders and other experts say, arose in the off-campus student housing and social scene. Trouble emerged wherever students mingled without protective distance and masks, and faced less peer pressure to curb unsafe behavior.

“What’s utterly clear is that we have no evidence of transmission inside the classroom,” said Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University, which invited all students to its Nashville campus and provided a large share of classes face to face. He said dormitories at the 13,000-student school also weathered the challenge.

“If you’re on campus, you’re fine,” he said. Data on the path of infections showed peril elsewhere: “The main issue is off-campus gatherings and parties.”

Around the country, however, many colleges emptied dorms or put them into periods of lockdown to quell campus outbreaks. Lecture halls never filled as large classes moved online.

College students hit the road after an eerie pandemic semester.

Lessons from the unprecedented fall term — a massive national quest to balance online and face-to-face teaching in the shadow of a fearsome contagion — are pouring in as the pandemic intensifies, and education leaders are grappling with hard choices about how much to open their classrooms and campuses in the winter and spring. Viral testing, contact tracing, quarantine housing and creative public health campaigns have become the go-to tools of higher education, as essential to operations as course catalogues and tuition payments.

ALSO SEE: In the UK, few students fell ill when schools reopened

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