COVID-19 aftermath: What things will change forever?

[brewcrewdue80]

Our building is trying to go "touchless" as much as they can. Touchless faucets, automatic doors, touchless elevators, etc etc.

 

I truly hope this is an outcome.

 

The fact that anyone has to touch anything in a public bathroom is just plain gross to begin with.

 

How many times do you see people come out from a stall, the kind with doors, where 99% of the time, that person just took a dump, and don't even bother to wash their hands, they just leave the restroom? I've seen it a lot, A LOT! Stadiums, box stores, restaurants, you name it. From what I hear from others, this is not just a male thing, females are guilty too.

When I see it at the high school I teach at, I have no issues telling the kid to get back here and wash up. Kids will do it, but these are just the ones I see/catch. I'm sure it happens frequently. I see it after urinal use as well. Again, I just flat out tell the kid to get over to the sink and wash their hands.

 

So basically so long as you wash your hands via the faucet that the person who dumped didn't use, you should be fine. Just use that foot when you open the door

[brewcrewdue80]

COVID-19 aftermath: What things will change forever?

 

Taxes in the US will forever be higher.

[pacopete4]

Fixing who is taxed and how much could be a big step to helping. Too many loopholes for large companies. Close them and help stabilize some of the mess.

[nate82]

Fixing who is taxed and how much could be a big step to helping. Too many loopholes for large companies. Close them and help stabilize some of the mess.

 

The elimination of taxes completely has a better chance of passing than this.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Fixing who is taxed and how much could be a big step to helping. Too many loopholes for large companies. Close them and help stabilize some of the mess.

 

Unfortunately those loophole companies are the ones that also fund political campaigns.

[SoCalBrewfan]

Higher education is going to be hit hard. Elite institutions will likely have the resources and name recognition to weather the storm, but a lot of smaller private colleges will likely go out of business. They are highly dependent on tuition and room and board fees and just took a huge hit this spring. Public institutions are likely to face reduced budgets as states tighten belts. Demand for college might dip in the short term as people face uncertain economic situations, and as international students are less willing or able to come to the US. Once that capacity is lost it might be hard to recover as demand comes back up...and it generally spikes upward when the economy is bad as people who lose jobs seek degrees.

 

Online classes will be touted as a less costly replacement for in person instruction, but in my opinion it's not a substitute and is really challenging for students from lower socioeconomic status. I have many students who excel in person who are really struggling, due to poor internet or computer access at home, family and housing instability, and even just the challenge of finding a quiet place to study or attend virtual classes. (Research on MOOCs supports my admittedly subjective impression.) And that's not even touching the question of how you teach laboratory science, engineering, nursing, or performing arts remotely. I am genuinely fearful that there will be a greater push to online and that students who suffer will be the vulnerable populations who need the in person support and connection the most.

 

Some student support services on the other hand are finding that online modalities and flexible scheduling make it easier for students to access advising and counseling. A colleague said they will probably keep some of these changes and feel that their program will be better for it.

[Samurai Bucky]

Public institutions are likely to face reduced budgets as states tighten belts.

Where do you think the states will be diverting their money? I could see a temporary dip in funding to provide social assistance and small businesses, but wouldn't it come back at some point?

[LouisEly]

In dense areas, I hope bicycle infrastructure is improved.

It will have to, because lots of people are going to avoid public transportation for a long time.

 

This is going to send lots of people to alternatives to public transportation, including much more demand for and usage of personally owned vehicles. Hopefully that will be balanced out by more people working from home, but hopefully that will be counter-balanced by more people working, period.

[3and2Fastball]

Interesting thread. I appreciate the good reading.

 

In terms of Baseball, much will change. Many Junior Colleges will go out of business, and/or drop athletics. The same can be said for many public D3’s and D2’s, especially in terms of “non revenue sports” like Baseball.

 

If we don’t return to normal in terms of crowds at games, I could see a lot of lower level minor league teams and summer college teams going out of business. Those teams rely on crowds to make ends meet.

 

Taken to an extreme, we could even see contraction in major sports leagues, with the lowest revenue teams bowing out.

[nate82]

 

Taken to an extreme, we could even see contraction in major sports leagues, with the lowest revenue teams bowing out.

 

There are rumors that a team has already decided to cut payroll next year and I wouldn't be surprised if about 90 percent of the teams follow in doing this.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Public institutions are likely to face reduced budgets as states tighten belts.

Where do you think the states will be diverting their money? I could see a temporary dip in funding to provide social assistance and small businesses, but wouldn't it come back at some point?

 

I don't think this had reached the public yet but the satellite schools in WI were already in big trouble before this started. Enrollment at Whitewater and the like is collapsing and there were impending layoffs coming. The bread and butter programs at those schools will survive. The humanities are probably on borrowed time at the satellite campuses, which, frankly, is overdue.

 

There are way too many programs at the satellites. They need to focus on their niche and get with the times. The model is way outdated and this will probably be the impetus that forces a move. Higher education has been living large for way too long and this has fast tracked the reality check.

 

Most of this is coming from some faculty at UWW and UWL I happen to know.

[JackNicholson1974]

It’s been the goal of some to end higher education or at least make it far less accessible. And any class or study focus that might increase critical thinking and questioning stuff (English, history, sociology, psychology and political science) will be quickly eliminated and colleges will become glorified tech schools there simply to churn out workers who don’t think for themselves.

[FVBrewerFan]

It’s been the goal of some to end higher education or at least make it far less accessible. And any class or study focus that might increase critical thinking and questioning stuff (English, history, sociology, psychology and political science) will be quickly eliminated and colleges will become glorified tech schools there simply to churn out workers who don’t think for themselves.

 

Actually, that's precisely what most colleges have been doing for quite a while. Churning out people who don't think for themselves. They are taught to think and believe, not how to think for themselves. Proof is plain to see. 96% of "journalists" think a certain way. Vast majority of professors think the same way. Etc.

 

That said, who wants to end higher education? Yes, colleges are job factories. Not many people want to spend $100,000 to be a philosopher with no job.

[owbc]

Actually, that's precisely what most colleges have been doing for quite a while. Churning out people who don't think for themselves. They are taught to think and believe, not how to think for themselves. Proof is plain to see. 96% of "journalists" think a certain way. Vast majority of professors think the same way. Etc.

 

That said, who wants to end higher education? Yes, colleges are job factories. Not many people want to spend $100,000 to be a philosopher with no job.

 

Groupthink is an evolutionary trait. It happens to an extent in any group of people. Including people who read a few news stories about a handful university professors and turn that into a sweeping assumption about how they operate.

[DHonks]

College has needed disrupting. Why have college costs skyrocketed? If you ask colleges, it's because people want them to. They want new buildings, new dorms, new fitness centers, etc. Most of these are partly funded by philanthropic donors, but the rest falls on the new students. Students are demanding the newest and best, but then having to pay for them.

 

And I don't favor eliminating of psychology, communications, history, etc. But I favor lower FAFSA amounts towards those. There are too many communications majors (some use it as a legit field, but for most students its the major for everyone that didn't find a major). I'd much rather the gov't and private loan services incentivize students into fields that are 21st century jobs--education, tech, lab sciences, engineering, math, business, languages, and some social sciences (econ). I've met a lot of people taking out crazy loans to get a history degree (not bashing it, it was one of my majors), communications, arts, English/Lit, without regard for the lack of their lack of prospects or ability to pay loans back. Additionally too many people view FAFSA as more of a grant-system rather than a loan system. I always warn my students about Psych degrees. They are fascinated by the topic--and our high school Psych teacher does a nice job--but statistically Psych majors are less likely to use their degree on a daily basis than other subjects in part because an Bachelors in Psych doesn't qualify someone to do much at all.

[igor67]

I'm done with loan incentives. No one in my family has ever taken out private loans, but amazingly enough there has always been 1 catch or another preventing us from qualifying for 1 loan forgiveness plan or another. Or another family member found out that not all of his loans automatically went into deferment with the CARES act! Even the 10 year forgiveness program people have discovered all types of issues (Like the loan company automatically giving you a 10 year payoff schedule). Considering you can only decided to accept what is offered there is no real 'shopping' to be had.

Many traditional humanities majors are actually very good training grounds for critical thinking, less so departments and degrees that have been overrun by post modernism or heavily influenced 'methods'. I routinely learn a great deal from my history and English colleagues. We also view the development of critical thinking as a full K-12 endeavor. And even for our best students it takes most of that time. Colleges packed with students who can only conceive of college as leading to a job frankly stand little chance of systematically getting students ready to think critically.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm not even too old, graduated in '09, and I had plenty of professors that taught challenging authority, asking questions of sources, thinking for yourself, etc. I'm not buying that at all.

[nodakfan17]

The value of liberal arts degrees tends to rise and fall with the business cycle. When the economy is doing well, employers are more likely to seek out critical thinking, diverse backgrounds, etc. (as most organizations with a growth mindset should do); however, when the job market tightens, candidates are more likely to hear ‘yeah, we really need someone who knows X, Y, and Z.’

[homer]

There have been a lot of studies that show the more varied your background the better you are at problem-solving. Reason being you can more readily employ analogous thinking because you have a wider breadth of experiences to draw from. For example, I was watching a documentary the other day and one of the guys in it worked in post production in film back in the 70's. He invented a warning system on his father's dialysis machine simply because he knew light and color theory from his film days.

[DHonks]

Good points everyone. I truly valued my liberal arts degree. I liked that everyone was exposed to Western Civ through a genre of their choosing (lit, art history, history, etc). I learned great researching and writing skills as a history major that helped me later when I chose to add an Econ major. Econ really made sense because so much of it was about rationality.

[SoCalBrewfan]

Vast majority of professors think the same way.

 

That is just not true. You have clearly never been to a faculty meeting...

 

Bashing the liberal arts is one of those things that's fashionable in some circles, but that bashing is itself more ideological than data driven. Many of those who take those positions are happy to send their own children to liberal arts oriented schools. Even in the sciences and engineering, it is very valuable to have training in writing, communicating, and critical thinking, and those skills come from thriving humanities programs. Narrow training for a specific job seems great on paper, but has real limitations given how often people change jobs now. Many of the jobs my students will be doing in twenty years probably don't exist right now, and the way the same jobs will be done will change as well.

 

The notion that higher ed is living large is also just not true at most publicly funded institutions, or even less prestigious private colleges. If you talk about flagship state schools or top 50 private schools, there's more of a point there, but even then there are a lot of people working their tails off who could make way more money in industry.

[nodakfan17]

The notion that higher ed is living large is also just not true at most publicly funded institutions, or even less prestigious private colleges. If you talk about flagship state schools or top 50 private schools, there's more of a point there, but even then there are a lot of people working their tails off who could make way more money in industry.

I don’t mean to be combative, but as an outsider, it’s my perception that there are a lot of six figure jobs on campus that have little to do with teaching or research and that the number of these jobs has grown significantly over the last 30 years (along with tuition). Am I misguided?

[LouisEly]

It’s been the goal of some to end higher education or at least make it far less accessible. And any class or study focus that might increase critical thinking and questioning stuff (English, history, sociology, psychology and political science) will be quickly eliminated and colleges will become glorified tech schools there simply to churn out workers who don’t think for themselves.

I don't think the implication was to end those classes, I think the implication was to end those majors.

 

And I can assure you, there is plenty of critical thinking being taught in the business, engineering, and science schools. They teach theories, analyze case studies, and how to make decisions more than they teach you specific job skills.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

The notion that higher ed is living large is also just not true at most publicly funded institutions, or even less prestigious private colleges. If you talk about flagship state schools or top 50 private schools, there's more of a point there, but even then there are a lot of people working their tails off who could make way more money in industry.

I don’t mean to be combative, but as an outsider, it’s my perception that there are a lot of six figure jobs on campus that have little to do with teaching or research and that the number of these jobs has grown significantly over the last 30 years (along with tuition). Am I misguided?

 

Yeah I'm also going to object to the idea that way too many colleges are not living large. This is my opinion as an outsider, but also the opinion of people I know who work at these schools, who talk all the time there being way too much clutter, way too much administration. What I hear from these people is not actually that the humanities and modernism are wasting money, because the reality is those depts. don't cost all that much.

 

It is that the business school, and the flagship programs, have way too much excess. These places are not operating sustainably. There is no logical way reconcile the cost of college, even at a state school, with their budget problems. You cannot be making that kind of money per head and be losing it without some major red flags.

 

I also happen to know two accounting professors in the UW System who privately bemoan tenure and would like nothing more than to see it abolished. They've simply seen too many peers achieve tenure and then all but stop teaching completely.

 

To be honest, I find this less objectionable at flagships schools. The economics professor at UW making $536k, which caused some uproar, could go to NY and make $10 million running a hedge fund. These are head of field people who can demand whatever they want for the most part and you need people like that at a flagship school. The issue is not the teachers, it is administration and dumb spending.

[homer]

The notion that higher ed is living large is also just not true at most publicly funded institutions, or even less prestigious private colleges. If you talk about flagship state schools or top 50 private schools, there's more of a point there, but even then there are a lot of people working their tails off who could make way more money in industry.

I don’t mean to be combative, but as an outsider, it’s my perception that there are a lot of six figure jobs on campus that have little to do with teaching or research and that the number of these jobs has grown significantly over the last 30 years (along with tuition). Am I misguided?

 

I'd be interested to know if those jobs existed back in the early 90's when I was at UW. Tuition back then was roughly 1100 - 1200 a semester (so $2300 a year). With inflation that should have been about $4069 in 2019. It was $10,725 for in-state tuition in 2019 - 2020. I would find it dubious if extra admin positions caused that big a jump but I'd have to see apples to apples comparison to know for certain.