Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston, Springfield, Westfield: internship, pool, budget)

[redplum33]

Mass. man accused of coughing on supermarket food


This happened at a Stop & Shop in Kingston (that's next to Plymouth).

It was a 65 year old guy from Duxbury, and he was coughing and spitting on produce.

Customers in the store tackled him.

Apparently he doesn't have the virus.

[Amontillado]

Coronavirus In Massachusetts: 13,837 Cases Reported, 260 Deaths.


https://boston.cbslocal.com/coronavi...atest-updates/

[Bridge781]

I saw that article about The guy coughing and spitting on produce. Why someone would do that is beyond me but a guy kicked an orange line train last week. Crazy times.

[mdovell]

https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus...-pandemic.html

This is BU. Not some rinky-dink Community College that does something part-time in a back alley. One of the other aspects on this as many of these types of Institutions provide for a significantly discounted it's not free tuition to the children of staff. Unless the staff gets rehired wood you're going to see a decline in enrollment because I can't imagine this many people working there that wouldn't have at least some students going there.

I'd hate the kind of sad but Academia looks to be the next real bubble to pop. Your ivys are going to be okay because they've got endowments. Even with a market correction their endowments are enough to help them stay afloat. First you had a pretty good economy which meant that people were basically not going to Storrs macek putting it off which led to lower enrollments. Add in the lower birth rate and shut down what was the Border for immigration and that pretty much shut down many students coming in. Now it's mostly became an online school your business is around these schools no longer have students supporting them. Of course you still have academic professors inside of an online school but you also see a dramatic reduction of facilities managers, administrative staff, Para professionals, Fleet managers, dorm managers etc.

[htfdcolt]

Originally Posted by mdovell

https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus...-pandemic.html

This is BU. Not some rinky-dink Community College that does something part-time in a back alley. One of the other aspects on this as many of these types of Institutions provide for a significantly discounted it's not free tuition to the children of staff. Unless the staff gets rehired wood you're going to see a decline in enrollment because I can't imagine this many people working there that wouldn't have at least some students going there.

I'd hate the kind of sad but Academia looks to be the next real bubble to pop. Your ivys are going to be okay because they've got endowments. Even with a market correction their endowments are enough to help them stay afloat. First you had a pretty good economy which meant that people were basically not going to Storrs macek putting it off which led to lower enrollments. Add in the lower birth rate and shut down what was the Border for immigration and that pretty much shut down many students coming in. Now it's mostly became an online school your business is around these schools no longer have students supporting them. Of course you still have academic professors inside of an online school but you also see a dramatic reduction of facilities managers, administrative staff, Para professionals, Fleet managers, dorm managers etc.

I have a child who is a graduating senior at BU. I can attest to the fact that they'll be just fine...They have a huge endowment also.

[porterhouse]

BU had an acceptance rate of around 18% last year. Their enrollment won't decline due to children of laid off staff members not attending the university. Even if their international enrollment drops temporarily, there are plenty of domestic applicants to fill those spots.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by massnative71

1. Most are not informed enough to make proper critique, or for every citizen who is there are five who aren't (need proof of that, log in to social media).

Of course they're not, and you don't need to go to social media to see it. There's plenty on this forum (in this thread). But that doesn't mean nobody should be able to critique leadership. You called this a war, well there isn't a war or conflict in American history that hasn't received vocal criticism - often deservedly so. It's one of the things that makes America a better place to live than, say, China where critics noticeably disappear. Freedom of speech doesn't only apply to the well informed. That's frustrating at times, but we're better off for it.

2. Knowing that, a leader SHOULD NOT (and won't) listen to the average idiot on the street in a time of crisis such as this. The only ones influencing them should be the experts at hand.

A good leader should be able to discern who is the average idiot from the informed. It's generally not that hard. And when the leader disregards (or openly contradicts) the experts around them, then they certainly deserve the criticism directed their way.

3. The few places that seem to have responded proactively and appropriately (ie. South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, etc)...did not do so because of demand from their citizenry (what little I know I can tell you that much).

No, they were successful because leadership took the appropriate steps (on the advice of experts) to limit the spread. Leadership here had local experts advising similar measures (for months) and the successful blueprints of the places you mentioned and still failed to respond appropriately. This almost certainly means tens of thousands (at least) of additional deaths that were preventable. That's worthy of criticism, and it's worthy of criticism now.

[charolastra00]

Originally Posted by mdovell

https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus...-pandemic.html

This is BU. Not some rinky-dink Community College that does something part-time in a back alley. One of the other aspects on this as many of these types of Institutions provide for a significantly discounted it's not free tuition to the children of staff. Unless the staff gets rehired wood you're going to see a decline in enrollment because I can't imagine this many people working there that wouldn't have at least some students going there.

I'd hate the kind of sad but Academia looks to be the next real bubble to pop. Your ivys are going to be okay because they've got endowments. Even with a market correction their endowments are enough to help them stay afloat. First you had a pretty good economy which meant that people were basically not going to Storrs macek putting it off which led to lower enrollments. Add in the lower birth rate and shut down what was the Border for immigration and that pretty much shut down many students coming in. Now it's mostly became an online school your business is around these schools no longer have students supporting them. Of course you still have academic professors inside of an online school but you also see a dramatic reduction of facilities managers, administrative staff, Para professionals, Fleet managers, dorm managers etc.

I'm curious about who they laid off. Many colleges lay off many of their dining and facilities workers each summer - were those counted? I know summer programs are also likely facing layoffs.



Were these 1600 layoffs the same 1600 non-federally supported part time student workers who were laid off last week? https://www.bu.edu/articles/2020/cor...te-04-06-2020/

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by charolastra00

I'm curious about who they laid off. Many colleges lay off many of their dining and facilities workers each summer - were those counted? I know summer programs are also likely facing layoffs.



Were these 1600 layoffs the same 1600 non-federally supported part time student workers who were laid off last week? https://www.bu.edu/articles/2020/cor...te-04-06-2020/

It’s just the ongoing anti-Boston noise from the Springfield guy. How is that Springfield savior, MGM Grand, doing? Is there anyone they didn’t lay off?

[charolastra00]

Don't get me wrong, I am concerned about higher ed. Many of us who work in that space traded salary for security. My role is probably safer than many, but it's the source of most of my anxiety at the moment. My university took a long time to get back from the Great Recession, which meant that it was only recently that my work was more or less appropriately funded to support the needs I have to do my job. For many years, I was a team of one being asked to produce like BU who has a team of 20 doing what I do.



Being slim in some crucial areas may help us weather this storm, but I can't say I'm not exceptionally concerned.