Students Return!

[vu72]

For better or for worse, the students are back!  The article says "more than 750 freshman and transfer students and 80 graduate students moved in"
Given the pandemic, that sounds like a very good class.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-valparaiso-u-move-in-st-0813-20200812-oxmv4luzszctnjqothpcmdsnoa-story.html

[wh]

For better or for worse, the students are back!  The article says "more than 750 freshman and transfer students and 80 graduate students moved in"
Given the pandemic, that sounds like a very good class.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-valparaiso-u-move-in-st-0813-20200812-oxmv4luzszctnjqothpcmdsnoa-story.html

That's 830 students total.  The new student headcount for the last 5 Fall's (excluding law school) was 1004, 1154, 1240, 1316, and 1298, respectively. Yikes!

https://www.valpo.edu/institutional-effectiveness/files/2019/09/Headcount_New_Students_FA19.pdf

Edit: Maybe the 830 doesn't include some number of local commuter students?

[vu72]

For better or for worse, the students are back!  The article says "more than 750 freshman and transfer students and 80 graduate students moved in"
Given the pandemic, that sounds like a very good class.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/ct-ptb-valparaiso-u-move-in-st-0813-20200812-oxmv4luzszctnjqothpcmdsnoa-story.html

That's 830 students total.  The new student headcount for the last 5 Fall's (excluding law school) was 1004, 1154, 1240, 1316, and 1298, respectively. Yikes!

https://www.valpo.edu/institutional-effectiveness/files/2019/09/Headcount_New_Students_FA19.pdf

Edit: Maybe the 830 doesn't include some number of local commuter students?

Someone said that about half the student body lives off campus.  That is mostly upper classmen but surely there are plenty of locals in the freshman class.  I would think that given covid that living at home would certainly be an option.  But I really have no idea!

[NotBryceDrew]

If "moved in" simply means moved into the dorms and is only accounting for that specific population than 750 and 80 might be really solid numbers. This NWI article from last August 

https://www.nwitimes.com/news/education/something-bigger-vu-president-encourages-community-relationships-during-convocation/article_d6790d6a-cc90-5f33-99dd-a2b2cc60970c.html

cites 800 freshmen and 175 graduate students enrolled.  This would mean if we moved in 750 living on campus and 80 graduates living on campus I would assume we are at or trending above last year's numbers of total enrolled once you factor in off-campus and commuter. Considering the COVID environment and students who may have deferred seems like a solid number.

[vu84v2]

A few numbers that I have seen from environments that I am much closer to:
-Percentage of total students who request (and are generally granted) taking all classes online: about 10%. My guess is that Valpo is doing everything that they can to grant these requests. This tends to be lower for incoming Freshmen.
-Percentage of Freshmen that are deferring starting college or taking classes at Junior Colleges: 10 -20%

Also, I think that Valpo normally requires Freshmen to live on-campus...but my guess is that this has been waived for this semester (allowing more commuters, which reduces student density in the dorms a little).

Very glad to see that students have returned to Valpo.

[crusader05]

I believe that over the last few years incoming freshman have had an increasing number of commuters(20-30%) I think. I've heard our numbers are comparable to last year which is good for the environment but I think frustrating for out Admissions because they were trending higher until the pandemic hit.

[vu84v2]

UNC's sudden about face with 130 positive tests after students have been in class one week is not a good sign. Hopefully, Valpo being a little more isolated will help - since sending everyone back home would be catastrophic.

[bbtds]

UNC's sudden about face with 130 positive tests after students have been in class one week is not a good sign. Hopefully, Valpo being a little more isolated will help - since sending everyone back home would be catastrophic.

Covid-19 report for Porter County:

Totals in Porter County
Confirmed
1,480

Recovered
-

Deaths
41

Totals in Indiana

Confirmed
82,909

Recovered
-

Deaths
3,135
"+" shows new cases reported yesterday · Updated less than 12 hours ago·Sources: Wikipedia and The New York Times.·About this data

[wh]

For clarity,
- 27 of Porter County's 41 deaths (65%) were people in long term care facilities, most occurring early in the pandemic before lockdown procedures were put in place. Overall, there has been a significant decline in death rate.
- Center Township (Valpo area) only has 51 cases currently, and only 1 of those is currently hospitalized. That's 1/10 of 1% of the Center Township population of 46,000.
- People are wearing masks everywhere.  Businesses I frequent look super sanitary.
- Unlike a lot of areas, Porter County has not seen an uptick in cases. 

If VU students follow the same practices and guidelines as the general public (and I think they will), there's no reason to think this will be another UNC, or wherever. The only exception to that is if a bunch of them brought it with them and spread it around, but I guess we'll know soon enough if that's the case. That said, maybe they had to have proof of a negative test before they came? If so, the likelihood of campus spread is pretty unlikely, I would guess. 

BTW, I'm glad they're here. It's good to see them around town, shopping in the east end, dining out, etc. Life is starting to feel normal again.  Let's hope for their sakes, it all works out and they have a great school year. By sending them here, their parents have put a lot of faith in the university and community to keep them safe and free from disease, and they deserve everyone's best foot forward.   

[vu84v2]

I fully agree with the thoughts shared by wh. From my understanding, I think that Valpo has done the right things and that the geographic location of the town and the university within the town helps with meeting the objective to stay open through the Fall semester. I also have more faith in students than has been projected.

My concern with events like those at UNC is that if there are enough of them it could create an institutional effect that ANY universities that are open for in-person learning are not considered to be legitimate.

[JD24]

Notre Dame shut it down today after 146 positives.

[bbtds]

That said, maybe they had to have proof of a negative test before they came?

I can confirm that is true of IU-Bloomington but I don't believe that is true of Valpo but I could not confirm that.

[bbtds]

It doesn't sound like any student must have a negative Covid-19 test before they may be on campus.

https://www.valpo.edu/student-senate/files/2020/06/COVID-19-Safety-Plan.pdf

See Campus Screening. Page 8.

[valpopal]

Word is that there are currently 5 VU students isolated with active cases.

[vu84v2]

Word is that there are currently 5 VU students isolated with active cases.

First and foremost, I hope that these cases are mild and that the students quickly return to good health. Additionally (and obviously), let's hope that any spread was minimal. And lastly, I really hope that Valpo was better prepared for this than Notre Dame. Articles in the local South Bend press indicate that Notre Dame was vastly underprepared to support students who needed to be isolated (no food, necessities missing in the dorms/apartments used for isolation, etc.

[bbtds]

It doesn't sound like any student must have a negative Covid-19 test before they may be on campus.

https://www.valpo.edu/student-senate/files/2020/06/COVID-19-Safety-Plan.pdf

See Campus Screening. Page 8.

It just dawned on me that someone I know drove onto campus and entered one of the buildings on campus within the last few days without answering the questionaire that is talked about on page 8.

[vu84v2]

Valpo's coronavirus dashboard reports that there are 9 active COVID-19 cases at the university as of 8/26. While I wish this was zero and hope that all of these people recover quickly, this seems like a low number after a week and a half. Let's hope that everyone (not just students, but faculty and staff) keep doing the things necessary to keep the number low.

[talksalot]

Down to 8 on the 28th.   Will be reporting MWF.

[78crusader]

Today's COVID dashboard says VU has 2 COVID-positive cases. Pretty good for 2-3 weeks in.

Paul

PS We got shafted when US News put us in a different category. I don't care what people say, a ranking of #150 for national universities simply does not sound as impressive as a ranking of, say, #4 in Midwest regional universities. Butler is ranked number #1 in that category and gives them some pretty good billboard material. Shoot, I'll bet most people in the United States, if asked, would guess there aren't even a total of 150 national universities. 

[vu84v2]

A very good opinion piece offered by a student in the Torch.

http://www.valpotorch.com/opinion/article_3082c816-ebd7-11ea-a8e5-d7dd38f0d6be.html