. . .
K “We are moving from the halcyon days into the eye of the (cytokine and economic) storm. The clouds are forming. The winds are building.”
J “There is great fear and great uncertainty and great fear of the great uncertainty. Everyone is moving through the motions, drifting in a daze, traveling in a trance and flying in the fog.”
K “We are all flying in the clouds in the winds in the dark on autopilot without a flight plan and no one in the distant control tower.”
. . .
J “Each e-mail suggests that the kids may be back on campus, but they will be almost as distanced from other students as if they were taking the classes on-line. They may be assigned a specific time to go to the cafeteria and . . . also then move through the line six feet apart and . . . also then sit six feet apart. Because of the separation, the chatting and bickering will be louder which will just turbocharge the aerosolization in the room. One is forced to ask, why go?”
K “I have asked that question for decades. They will need to cancel contact sports, but how many sports are not contact sports. And they were not being paid any way. The athletes or the adjuncts. If you cherish the free expression of ideas, the loss may not be that big.”
. . .
J “The big loss will be labs that cannot be conducted on-line.”
K “And when they need to mothball the labs and the classrooms, the cost to keep them heated when there are no warm bodies to pay the tuition will heat up the predicament.”
. . .
K “Many parents will be without unemployment assistance and will be confronting the possibility of being evicted from their own dorms.”
J “Just covering their own room and board is the daily challenge.”
. . .
K “And then there are the states and state universities that cannot legally print money or legally deficit spend or legally file bankruptcy.”
J “Something will yield because something must yield.”
. . .
J “Junior’s senior year was dislocating for him. With junior not taking off to Tech this Fall and seniors not taking off to Tahiti this Winter, society is taking off in a new direction and heading to a new destination. Less international and national and more regional and local, the bounds and boundaries of the New Covid World are emerging.”
K “Schooling is now dependent on a fragile infrastructure and an often intermittent Internet. We may be forced to return to using Analog Knowledge Devices soon.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at “Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011)”, “The Staggering Cost Of Schooling And Then The Staggering Cost Of A Real Education (March 18, 2019)”, “Unionizing Athletes And Adjuncts (And Sherpas) (April 21, 2014)”, “‘Analog Knowledge Devices’ (‘AKD’): The Next ‘Currency’ (July 10, 2017)”, “Foot Longs and Football (September 2, 2013)” and “Adjunktification” In The S.I.C. (Schooling Industrial Complex) (March 13, 2017)”.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Make masks great again
Get two weeks ahead
“I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.” Ray Bradbury
e-commentary 