Universities should know better, by their very nature.
Why are Universities relying more on magic cures than on science?
by Christina Walsh, 9/24/2020
I thought about my niece starting her first year at Miami University in Ohio and her determination to have the "college experience."
I might have been a little obnoxious in my comments about what the "college experience" really was about, and the fact that the local Pub Crawl was still on schedule despite the requirement for distance learning.
So what did the University do when confronted with the decision of whether it would be safe to have students on campus?
They left it up to the kids! They decided not to decide, and instead left it up to the children with an important caveat: If you don't sign up for in-person classes now, you will not able to switch later.
All, for the mighty dollar.
Higher education has made clear that it does not care about the futures of the children they rely on for their entire business model. Abuse in other aspects of the university system should not surprise us. It is becoming so clear that the students are just the product, and not considered part of the future community when their value is not respected or protected.
Then there are the parents, who are likely determined to get "their money's worth" for the cost of said college experience.
The result of confusing communication where one day it is deadly, and the next, it is said that kids are "nearly immune," is that people don't know what to do, and don't want to lose opportunities when the risk not communicated clearly.
Should we really expect our children to be able to understand the nuances of politics when they see the President of the United States in a crowded rally, booing masks, even when they say MAGA on them.
The answer is a resounding no. We cannot expect our children to be smart if we are going to behave so obtusely.
We are better than this!
Or are we? I would argue that one of the biggest challenges revealed by American politics during the pandemic, is that Americans are not very good at cooperation when confronted with a real problem. We seem to be so in love with how great we are, that we cannot imagine any of this happening to us. We seem to consider ourselves the exception.
For the record, testing does not prevent COVID19. Crowded rallies and "Greek Life" at Universities across the nation are revealing a very selfish aspect of the rugged individualism we call America, and we are literally paying for it with 203,000 American lives and counting.
How many, before we see that reality does not care if we believe it or not?
Christina Walsh is a local artist/activist specializing in communications. @christinawalsh44 on Instagram