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I like to think that I'm OK at looking around corners, but even for me the last couple of days has driven home the long haul thing. The big question for the sector now is this.
If the state and by proxy you are successful in basically operating minimum security prisons with lots of solitary confinement, what's your plan now millions have moved to your cities?
Because if the plan is "for an hour a week they can see others in a visor" a) we can all guess that in most circumstances that hour is off in a few weeks time, and b) I just ask again, what about the rest of the week?
We've already basically kissed goodbye to bridging social capital this year. I am particularly concerned here about students living in a "household" where bonding social capital is poor. LGBT+ students in a flat of straights, an Afro-Caribbean student trapped in a fat of...
...very white people. A student being harassed by another student. Etc. But more generally - anyone still stressing that "distance learners have study buddies too". Yeah but they still have their own life. Distance learners don't tend to move into min security prisons to do it.
As @dkernohan says, the difference is... https://twitter.com/dkernohan/status/1308390829065678848?s=20
But look. Once we're through the first 3 weeks of moral panic about parties and so on we'll need a plan here. They need some contact. They need something to... do. Or we fix the rental contracts problem. One or the other would do for now.
Because for students who already struggle to find others "like them", a ban on mingling outside of your household for six bloody months isn't some minor inconvenience. It's absolutely, crushingly devastating in a way that so many can't really perceive of.
