anyone heading back to school in the US to live on a college campus for the fall semester should uhhhhhhhhhhhh pack light and have a plan to get the hell out of dodge at a moment’s notice
this sounds jokey but i’m dead serious. if you plan on living on a college campus this fall please know that there is no amount of cleaning or “distancing” will keep COVID out of the school. these schools know that they are risking your life and the lives of their faculty by bringing people back on campus but they want your money more than they care if you live.
think about how unventilated dorm rooms are. think about how you somehow have a cold for 4 months straight at school. think about how fast the flu moves through a dorm. think about how foolish people act at when they’re drunk with friends. all it takes is one get together where 5 people remove their masks to play kings cup and the whole school is fucked.
you need a plan now. you need to pack light so you can leave quickly if necessary. you need to work out now how you will get home in the event that you need to be off campus immediately. if by some miracle you’re still there by october you can cross that bridge when you come to it. but you need to make a plan now.
As a faculty member, I am currently sitting in an hours-long training literally all about how to switch to online instruction in the (almost inevitable) event that we have to go fully online after opening up. Everyone is pissed.
I think ppl need to stop dismissing films like “crazy rich asians” and “to all the boys I loved before” as “cool for representation but just rom com fluff.”
Because like damn guys, sometimes I just don’t wanna deal with super deep narratives about identity and misogyny. Sometimes I just can’t handle the secondary trauma of movies like the joy luck club and maos last dancer. Sometimes I just need to escape into a happy place of light humor and hot people. And sometimes I want that happy place to show ppl who look like me.
The construction workers within the community will keep up on maintenance. You see that? This is solidarity and mutual aid in the face of capitalist oppression.
