6 ms·

They’re providing packing materials and helping with the move. Financially, they say: > We understand that being asked to leave campus may pose a serious fina

by tekacs 7y ago

They’re providing packing materials and helping with the move. Financially, they say: > We understand that being asked to leave campus may pose a serious financial hardship for certain individuals. Students will receive a follow up communication on this matter. It’s unclear what their solution is, but they seem to have thought about it...

r00fus 7y ago
The unclarity is unsettling. I imagine many will want to fly back to their parents home but may be barred from doing so. Was evicting a large populace a good idea? Aren't there other options?
- ajross 7y ago
  > The unclarity is unsettling. The situation is unsettling. Realistically MIT made the right broad decision here, I think we can all agree on that. Classrooms (most of them) are an inherently remotable environment. Lecture halls and giant shared dormitories and shared meal facilities are just not a safe environment in a pandemic. They made the right call. Demanding that they do it with perfect bureaucratic finesse is a bit much. Over the coming months, all of us are going to be asked to undergo some hardship, there is no getting away from that. And realistically that hardship not going to be distributed fairly. We all need to do the best we can and help where it's possible.
  - ngold 7y ago
    Looks like they are ripping off the bandaid, anything else would take more time. Evidently, MIT seems to think they don't have any left.
    - ajross 7y ago
      In Boston, I don't know. But Seattle for sure is crossing the threshold where Milan was 10-15 days ago, and there's no reason to expect things will evolve differently. These, literally, are the last days of calm before things start to blow up in the US too.
rurp 7y ago
It would be nice if they had thought about it enough to offer some sort of concrete solution. I can only imagine how stressful and infuriating the situation MIT is imposing on its students must be for many of them.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  I think there's a limit to how well thought out you can expect the response to a global pandemic that's emerged in just a couple of months to be. Sorry it isn't perfect?
  - HarryHirsch 7y ago
    Taiwan seems to be handling it extremely well, but over there they had first-hand experience with SARS, and they had plans in place for when it was going to be back, because consensus was that it was going to be back.
    - perennate 7y ago
      Indeed, they were implementing preventive measures as early as December 31 [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_Taiwan#Preventive_measures_before_the_first_confirmed_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_T...
- wegs 7y ago
  To be fair, MIT tends to handle this sort of thing pretty well, and informally. I expect it doesn't have clear policies, but that it will try to do right by people on a case-by-case basis based on people's individual circumstances. I wouldn't take this quite so cynically. That's not to say the Institute isn't corrupt, evil, and horrible in other ways, but this is not one of the ways in which it's evil. The badness mostly starts with higher-ups and schemes in the many millions of dollars.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    >The badness mostly starts with higher-ups and schemes in the many millions of dollars. That kind of badness tends to corrupt entire organizations if left unchecked.
cube00 7y ago
I think this was added later under that paragraph. > Please note: Any student who is permitted to stay may be required to relocate to another building on campus.
preommr 7y ago
This is what institutions say right before they decide to fuck someone over. I've been burned too many times by people saying they'll do the right thing, because otherwise it wouldn't be right, only to later shrug and wash their hands of the matter.

by tekacs 7y ago

r00fus 7y ago

The unclarity is unsettling. I imagine many will want to fly back to their parents home but may be barred from doing so. Was evicting a large populace a good idea? Aren't there other options?

ajross 7y ago
> The unclarity is unsettling. The situation is unsettling. Realistically MIT made the right broad decision here, I think we can all agree on that. Classrooms (most of them) are an inherently remotable environment. Lecture halls and giant shared dormitories and shared meal facilities are just not a safe environment in a pandemic. They made the right call. Demanding that they do it with perfect bureaucratic finesse is a bit much. Over the coming months, all of us are going to be asked to undergo some hardship, there is no getting away from that. And realistically that hardship not going to be distributed fairly. We all need to do the best we can and help where it's possible.
- ngold 7y ago
  Looks like they are ripping off the bandaid, anything else would take more time. Evidently, MIT seems to think they don't have any left.
  - ajross 7y ago
    In Boston, I don't know. But Seattle for sure is crossing the threshold where Milan was 10-15 days ago, and there's no reason to expect things will evolve differently. These, literally, are the last days of calm before things start to blow up in the US too.

rurp 7y ago

It would be nice if they had thought about it enough to offer some sort of concrete solution. I can only imagine how stressful and infuriating the situation MIT is imposing on its students must be for many of them.

chrisseaton 7y ago
I think there's a limit to how well thought out you can expect the response to a global pandemic that's emerged in just a couple of months to be. Sorry it isn't perfect?
- HarryHirsch 7y ago
  Taiwan seems to be handling it extremely well, but over there they had first-hand experience with SARS, and they had plans in place for when it was going to be back, because consensus was that it was going to be back.
  - perennate 7y ago
    Indeed, they were implementing preventive measures as early as December 31 [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_Taiwan#Preventive_measures_before_the_first_confirmed_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_outbreak_in_T...
wegs 7y ago
To be fair, MIT tends to handle this sort of thing pretty well, and informally. I expect it doesn't have clear policies, but that it will try to do right by people on a case-by-case basis based on people's individual circumstances. I wouldn't take this quite so cynically. That's not to say the Institute isn't corrupt, evil, and horrible in other ways, but this is not one of the ways in which it's evil. The badness mostly starts with higher-ups and schemes in the many millions of dollars.
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >The badness mostly starts with higher-ups and schemes in the many millions of dollars. That kind of badness tends to corrupt entire organizations if left unchecked.

cube00 7y ago

I think this was added later under that paragraph. > Please note: Any student who is permitted to stay may be required to relocate to another building on campus.

preommr 7y ago

This is what institutions say right before they decide to fuck someone over. I've been burned too many times by people saying they'll do the right thing, because otherwise it wouldn't be right, only to later shrug and wash their hands of the matter.