Charlie Baker throws shade at colleges going remote next semester

Gov. Charlie Baker took to Twitter to praise Northeastern University, which announced it’s going to be fully back in person next semester despite a sharp spike in cases — as opposed to other schools that are starting the semester remotely.

“Glad to see @Northeastern say they’ll bring back all students in-person to begin next semester. MA college kids are vaccinated and regularly tested,” Baker tweeted Friday. “We know COVID is a very low risk for them. That said, we also now know that prolonged isolation is a very real risk to their growth and mental health.”

Northeastern announced Thursday it would be fully in-person next semester, and previously announced a vaccine booster requirement for students and staff by mid-January.

“It is now clear that COVID-19, in various forms, will be with us for the foreseeable future,” Northeastern Chancellor Ken Henderson wrote in an email to the community. “As we move into this endemic phase of the pandemic, our job is to continue to control Covid effectively, not let Covid control us.”

A Northeastern spokesperson directed the Herald to a press release and declined to comment further on Baker’s tweet.

Other Massachusetts schools, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, and Smith College, will make modifications to their semesters.

Harvard officials announced last week that the school will operate remotely for the first three weeks of the spring semester, citing the rise in COVID cases and the spread of the omicron variant. Harvard and Emerson spokespeople declined to comment on Baker’s tweet.

Emerson officials announced that the school will operate remotely for students from Jan. 10 through Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Pending public health conditions, the school will reopen on Jan. 18 for normal operations. However, the school is still encouraging students to return to campus as originally planned to “begin the COVID testing regimen to help rebuild the Emerson bubble,” it said in a release. Students will be tested twice a week throughout the rest of the semester.

MIT is requiring boosters for its campus, and is suggesting that only students “who are taking for-credit academic classes that are important for their academic progression; participating in research and internships, athletics, and professional development activities; or who otherwise would not have appropriate living or learning environments” should return to campus for the school’s spring term.

Smith College, in western Massachusetts, is encouraging faculty to move January term classes online this year, as it announced earlier this week.

Other schools, like Tufts University, have not made a spring semester decision yet. A spokesperson for the school said that “we’re still in the process of analyzing data and considering our options.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3ss0cNs