Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Michigan State, North Carolina, Notre Dame Bail On In-Person Classes
Inside Higher Ed, Higher Ed's Moment of Truth:
“It’s a shitshow in the making,” said A. David Paltiel, a professor of public health at Yale University.
Jeff Hirsch (North Carolina), A View From Chapel Hill:
Despite the law school being in good shape and the university allowing us to stay open, our Dean decided to go all remote yesterday. While I was personally bummed about this--I really liked being able to see my students in person--I think it was the right call.
- Michigan State University Office of the President, Aug. 18: Fall Semester Plans Change
- University of North Carolina, Message From University Leaders on Important Changes For Fall 2020 Roadmap
- Notre Dame News, Notre Dame Enacts Two Weeks of Remote Instruction
- Bloomberg, UNC Students Saw Failure of Live Classes Before School Did
- Chronicle of Higher Education, UNC Pulls the Plug on In-Person Fall. Will Other Campuses Follow?
- Inside Higher Ed, Michigan State, Notre Dame Back Off From Fall Reopening Plans
- Inside Higher Ed, Pressure Mounts on In-Person Holdouts As Many Colleges Switch to Online
- Inside Higher Ed, UNC Chapel Hill Sends Students Home And Turns To Remote Instruction
- Mediaite, Notre Dame Joins North Carolina, More Than a Dozen Other Colleges in Canceling In-Person Classes After Covid Spike Hits Campus
- New York Times, Notre Dame Temporarily Shuts Campus Amid Outbreak
- New York Times, Outbreaks Drive U.N.C. Chapel Hill Online After a Week of Classes
- North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, UNC Law School Switches to All Remote Instruction
- Wall Street Journal, Notre Dame, Michigan State Act to Slow Coronavirus Spread
- Washington Post, University of Notre Dame Halts In-Person Teaching For Two Weeks as Virus Count Climbs
- Washington Post, Two More Universities Pull Back From In-Person Teaching
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2020/08/michigan-state-north-carolina-notre-dame-bail-on-in-person-classes.html
MAYBE IT'S THE RIGHT CALL
New studies, which show that many if not most patients who are not killed by COVID-19 nevertheless suffer lasting illnesses and other disabilities, indicate that universities which had students return to campus may face law suits for huge amounts of damages.
Many universities which decided to accept the risk of holding in-person classes this fall, and to have students return to crowded dormitories, fraternities, and sororities, may have assumed that the additional income from not having to discount tuition for on-line instruction, or from losing students who might opt out of on-line instruction - as well as money from dormitory rents, dining, and other campus fees - would more than cover any wrongful death actions because only a tiny percentage of students die as a result of exposure in what some have called a petri dish of infection and contagion second only to cruise ships.
But, as the Washington Post just reported, new medical studies could “utterly change the way we think about covid-19: not as a disease that kills a tiny percentage of patients, mostly the elderly or the obese, the hypertensive or diabetic, but one that attacks the heart in most of the people who get it, even if they don’t feel very sick. And maybe their lungs, kidneys or brains, too.”
Indeed, new medical studies suggest that, although the great majority of non-elderly adults who get COVID-19 do not die, many if not most do suffer lasting and often disabling injuries to their health.
Recent developments where several university had to retreat from a fall in-person beginning, the growing percentage of COVID-19 sufferers who are young and otherwise healthy, and the recognition that many if not most who survive will suffer from permanent and expensive medical problems, including disabling ones, suggests that perhaps more colleges should ask returning students to sign a document acknowledging the unavoidable risk of infection, and waiving any liability on behalf of the institution of higher education.
Posted by: LawProf John Banzhaf | Aug 19, 2020 1:16:33 PM