Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19 Megathread

[crazy canuck]

I have to say though that I have significantly less sympathy for universities than some other sectors of the economy.  The way tuition has been increasing that far, far outstrips the rate of inflation, yet they constantly cry poverty, is a little irksome.

If you pay attention to the relative decreases in government funding over the last couple of decades and not just the rate of inflation, you get a better idea of the financial position of Canadian Universities.  Foreign student fees have been an important part of keeping tuition below actual costs for domestic students.  But that stream of students and funding is questionable now.

I suspect you would find it even more irksome for government to step up and fund to the levels it once did.  But that is, in my opinion, the long term solution.  Otherwise we start looking very much like the US system. 

[Barrister]

I have to say though that I have significantly less sympathy for universities than some other sectors of the economy.  The way tuition has been increasing that far, far outstrips the rate of inflation, yet they constantly cry poverty, is a little irksome.

If you pay attention to the relative decreases in government funding over the last couple of decades and not just the rate of inflation, you get a better idea of the financial position of Canadian Universities.  Foreign student fees have been an important part of keeping tuition below actual costs for domestic students.  But that stream of students and funding is questionable now.

I suspect you would find it even more irksome for government to step up and fund to the levels it once did.  But that is, in my opinion, the long term solution.  Otherwise we start looking very much like the US system.

The problem is that the costs at universities have also increased at a rate that far exceeded inflation as well.

[crazy canuck]

I have to say though that I have significantly less sympathy for universities than some other sectors of the economy.  The way tuition has been increasing that far, far outstrips the rate of inflation, yet they constantly cry poverty, is a little irksome.

If you pay attention to the relative decreases in government funding over the last couple of decades and not just the rate of inflation, you get a better idea of the financial position of Canadian Universities.  Foreign student fees have been an important part of keeping tuition below actual costs for domestic students.  But that stream of students and funding is questionable now.

I suspect you would find it even more irksome for government to step up and fund to the levels it once did.  But that is, in my opinion, the long term solution.  Otherwise we start looking very much like the US system.

The problem is that the costs at universities have also increased at a rate that far exceeded inflation as well.

The cost of providing a university education at a Canadian university has gone up faster than the rate of inflation.  Not sure how the costs at universities are supposed to be below the rate of inflation if government funding has decreased at the same time.

[The Brain]

How do the sources of funding influence costs at the universities?

[Barrister]

The cost of providing a university education at a Canadian university has gone up faster than the rate of inflation. 

You say that as if it is just some random fact of nature, and not something that university administrators have a lot of control over.

[crazy canuck]

How do the sources of funding influence costs at the universities?

They don't.  But of course when sources of funding other than tuition goes down, tuition goes up.

[crazy canuck]

The cost of providing a university education at a Canadian university has gone up faster than the rate of inflation. 

You say that as if it is just some random fact of nature, and not something that university administrators have a lot of control over.

You say that like University administrators control labour costs, supplier costs, energy costs etc etc etc. 

[grumbler]

Tuition at universities has gone way up, but so has the level of tuition assistance.  There definitely is an arms race in faculty salaries, though, so overall costs of attendance are increasing.

The University of Michigan is tuition-and-cost-free for in-state students whose families make less than $70,000 a year (and graduated up to a level of $250,000 a year) but living costs in Ann Arbor have far outstripped inflation, so there is still a major barrier to education. 

[DGuller]

I wonder how much of this is truly inflation in the economic sense of the word, as opposed to increase in the value of goods.  Is college education today the same quality it was decades ago, or are students paying more to get more to some extent (without having much say in the matter).

[Oexmelin]

Tuition at universities has gone way up, but so has the level of tuition assistance.  There definitely is an arms race in faculty salaries, though, so overall costs of attendance are increasing.

The difference in faculty salary between inflation and the "arms race" is minimal (about 4%-5% above the expected salaries if it had followed annual inflation). Tuition costs, meanwhile, have doubled during the same period. The real cost of the "arms race" is in facilities, marketing efforts, branding expenses, etc. A very tailored approach to ranking in the US by administrators - looking at stuff like housing, dining facility, the "college experience", which count for a lot - has led many universities to multiply the number of building, the rise the material comfort of students, to aggressively publicize their colleges (think of all the ads one can see related to colleges). Administrators themselves have multiplied on campus, an astonishing bloat on campus. Over the last twenty years, ten times more administrative positions have been created than tenure-track lines.

[Oexmelin]

I wonder how much of this is truly inflation in the economic sense of the word, as opposed to increase in the value of goods.  Is college education today the same quality it was decades ago, or are students paying more to get more to some extent (without having much say in the matter).

Really difficult to assess in a way that would satisfy you - because it's seen as "a service" provided for a world that also changes around college. One way that some people try to measure it is in trying to assess the impact of a college degree on one's salary - I don't know if that measures quality at all. And then again, the world a college graduate entered in 1980 was not the same as that of a college graduate of 2020.

Certainly, the standards of comfort expected for students (and faculty) have risen tremendously, and so are the costs - and the equipment - of the facilities (labs, computers, etc.) 

[DGuller]

Yeah, it's a very difficult question to answer, and furthermore, what should college education be about?  Is it more about academics, more about teaching young adults to live independently, or is it about educating the future citizens?  It's even harder to evaluate the value of the higher education without being clear on what it is that you're supposed to be getting.

[Oexmelin]

It's even harder to evaluate the value of the higher education without being clear on what it is that you're supposed to be getting.

...and there is a lot of disagreement on what that is supposed to be. But then again, some form of that tension has been at the heart of universities ever since their founding in the 11th century.

[jimmy olsen]

https://twitter.com/JeremySWallace/status/1287868325079343104

BREAKING: Texas is reporting 5,713 people who have died from COVID-19 - a dramatically higher tally than reported yesterday. That is 675 more than previously reported on Sunday.

State officials say they've changed the way they count deaths from COVID. Rather than waiting for counties to report totals, they are using death certificates data that is more up to date and accurate. And they are counting deaths as of when they died, instead of when reported.

[katmai]

Why are people so stupid. This video mentioned in article has been popping up in my social media feeds( which at least let's me know who to never take advice from ever again if they believe this shit )

President Donald Trump exhibited his new serious tone toward the coronavirus crisis on Monday night, sharing a viral video of fringe doctors touting the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as "a cure for COVID."

The video, which also featured the doctors dismissing mask-wearing, was eventually taken down by Facebook for "sharing false information" about the virus, after racking up millions of views in a matter of hours. Several right-wing outlets and personalities, however, continued to promote the clip of the doctors' press conference on Twitter, eventually reaching the president's timeline.

Besides retweeting the clip several times, Trump—who recently said his retweets tend to get him "in trouble"—went on to share several other posts promoting hydroxychloroquine, which the FDA has rescinded for emergency use for the virus.

Numerous studies and clinical trials have found that the drug has shown no real benefit in treating coronavirus patients. Experts also have warned of potentially deadly side effects.

Trump then shared a tweet directly from Dr. Stella Immanuel, one of the physicians who took part in the press conference. Immanuel is also a preacher who once wrote a book claiming that there is a Satanic plot to take over the world and recently challenged CNN anchors and top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci to provide her with urine samples. (The video tweeted by Immanuel, along with several others the president shared, were later taken down.)

She also didn't take kindly to Facebook removing the video of her saying masks don't work and that hydroxychloroquine is a magic cure for the virus.

"Hello Facebook put back my profile page and videos up or your computers with start crashing till you do," she tweeted late Monday night. "You are not bigger that God. I promise you. If my page is not back up face book will be down in Jesus name."

The president also shared tweets attacking Fauci on Monday night, despite insisting recently that he had a "very good relationship" with the doctor after White House officials publicly blasted him.