after reading this long-ass report and talking to some pissed off professors: a thread for anyone deciding weather to come back to tufts about (some of) what they left out of these 63 pages https://coronavirus.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/2020-06/Fall_2020_Campus_Guide_ASE_Students.pdf

while the report can't really hide how much of a raw deal coming back as an on-campus student will be (forced cohorts, quarantine dorms, mods lol) theres a lot of hand waiving being done to obscure what classes will actually look like for those enrolled on campus

classes can either be only in person, only online, or "hybrid model". of course theres no detail on which classes will adopt which model, and its no coincidence that you have to choose to enroll remote or on campus before that info comes out

option #1 (only in person) would likely be a very small fraction of the course offerings, given that tufts wants to prove that an online semester still warrants full tuition, and cant do that if they exclude remote students from many classes

option #2 (only online) is already mandated for classes with 50+ people, and is an opt in choice left TO THE PROFESSOR. which is a good thing! that they get to decide if the risk is too high for in person class. which brings us to this quote:

"A large number of courses will be offered in a hybrid format that includes both in-person and virtual components to allow participation by people who are physically present and those who are remote"

what they leave out here is that its not ONE class taught both in person and remote -- its TWO completely separate classes -- one taught in person and one online.

one professor I talked to said someone would have to be crazy to not only expose themself to students with in person lectures, but also offer to teach twice as much for the same pay just to keep tufts promise of a "large offering of hybrid courses"

again, its a good thing that its up to the profs if they want to put themselves at risk, an option that wont be there for all the essential workers on campus. but dont be surprised when 4/5 or 5/5 of your classes, even the tiny seminars, end up going fully virtual

one professor put it: "theyre tricking everyone into paying full tuition for an online semester". the decision to come back for an "in person" semester is a personal choice with way more factors than covered in this thread...

just dont let the false promise that youll be able to attend most of your classes in person be the dealbreaker!