To some extent, this depends on the U. The private place I work at has preserved as much of the college experience as they reasonably could, including in-person classes. At this point, we are half way to Thanksgiving, which will see all the students just staying home for the last week of instruction and finals week. While we’ve definitely had kids test positive, it hasn’t gotten out of control (yet). Granted, they’ve thrown an ass ton of money at this, including buying PPE for all faculty and students, and opening an entire in-house contract tracing department, etc. There has been a lot of short term quarantining while waiting for an associate’s neg test, and a few 14-day quarantines over an associate’s pos test, but in all, it’s working.
Moreover Every. Single. Student. That I have has thanked me for being willing to teach in person.
At the state place, *everything* went online with rare special exemptions that were very hard to get. I have two of them, and those kids also thank me, and then tell me how much everything else sucks. Online ed does not have the rosy future that its champions extol. Online looks good on paper, but students hate it, by and large—the outcomes and experience alike just aren’t ready for the big time.
Sort of a sidebar, but there it is from my corner of the new normal.
Oh, and germane to point #1, my wife told me that NPR was reporting some 25 year old confirmed as a second reinfection—with more severe symptoms. I didn’t catch the story myself, but if true, that’s the last thing we need