Sweet Briar: Small is the New Big

The Washington Post: "Sweet Briar, a private college in rural Virginia ... is marketing itself as a safe haven in the midst of a pandemic — and officials even hope that pitch might help shore up its future ... Meredith Woo, the president of Sweet Briar, contends that the biggest challenge for fall opening for any college is not testing or medical facilities — it’s keeping students apart. And Sweet Briar, a small women’s college, is a place that has never had stadiums packed with fans for football games, 700-person econ classes, or parties spilling out of fraternity houses."

"Many universities are now considering holding classes outside, to reduce the spread of the virus. At Sweet Briar, that’s always been a thing: Students study the butterflies that float around the campus and the bees busy in the school’s apiary, its bright beehives painted pastel colors. Engineering students compete in a cardboard regatta at a lake on campus, using duct tape and cardboard boxes to design boats that can get from one landing to another without sinking. Students can study sustainability at the school’s giant new greenhouse, where, on one recent afternoon, basil, lettuce and cherry tomatoes were poking up out of their dirt beds. That produce will be used for students’ meals, donated to needy families, and sold to people in the community who want to eat local food."

"Many of the school’s pastimes can be pandemic-friendly. Students ride horses, as part of the school’s nationally known equestrian program or just to enjoy the 18 miles of trails. (When they’re seniors, they get a day to ride anywhere they like, even right up to the president’s house, said Mimi Wroten, director of the riding program.) They paddle around near the boathouse. They wander campus, past the Georgian brick buildings, the pink roses that first inspired the Sweet Briar name, the vineyard, the forests of oak and chestnut and tulip poplar.

State Schools Reverse 'Brain Drain'

The New York Times: "State-funded universities have always striven to keep their states’ brightest students at home, knowing that many of those who leave their communities will never return. Now, as the pandemic erodes the economy and civil unrest sweeps the country, colleges are seeing renewed success in their efforts to reverse years of brain drain, with students responding to a new focus on basics, like family and community, over prestige ... Historically, Harvard has lowered its minimum standardized test scores for some students recruited from what it calls 'sparse country' — 20 largely rural states like Montana, South Dakota, Alabama and, yes, West Virginia, where few students tend to apply to elite universities."

"For state residents, tuition and fees at W.V.U. for 2019-20 were about $9,000 a year, plus $10,000 in room and board. By comparison, Yale University estimates the cost of attendance at $78,725 for 2020-21 ... The price difference was a big draw for Juliet Wanosky, who grew up in Parkersburg, 'an everybody-knows-everybody kind of town,' she said, and was valedictorian of her class this year. Her father is a chemical engineer, her mother a substitute school secretary. She toured M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon and Harvard before the high sticker prices scared her away from even applying."

"Some families don’t want their children leaving the state or going to schools with liberal reputations because they worry it will change them. Georgia Beatty said she gave up a spot at New York University in favor of West Virginia, where she is currently a senior, mainly because of the price difference. Now she is determined to broaden her opportunities by leaving the state for graduate school. But she has butted heads with her grandfather, a retired police officer, who believes that universities radicalize students, and that going out of state will make it worse, especially in this protest era."

College-19: A Dose of Inconvenience

The Washington Post: "The University of Virginia, with 24,000 students, will distribute 'Welcome Back Kits' in drawstring bags to those who return to Charlottesville. Each bag will contain two cloth face coverings, two bottles of hand sanitizer and an L-shaped 'touch tool' for students to open doors and push elevator buttons without direct contact. Similar kits at Purdue University will include a thermometer for daily temperature taking. The school, which has about 44,000 students in West Lafayette, Ind., will ask them for 'a commitment to at least a semester of inconvenience' to protect faculty and staff."

"Like other large public universities, Virginia Tech faces the complex challenge of protecting a community of tens of thousands. It said Monday that it would offer beds on campus to about 9,100 students, 12 percent fewer than normal, setting aside hundreds of rooms for quarantines if needed. It’s a big switch from a year ago, when Virginia Tech was packing students into residence halls because of an unexpected enrollment surge and using hotel rooms to accommodate the overflow. The university also said this week on Twitter that it will not offer meal plans to students who live off campus, signaling that dining halls will be far more regimented than normal."

Frank Shushok Jr., Virginia Tech’s vice president for student affairs, comments: “We’re calling on our students and community to care for the whole. At the end of the day, that’s going to be more effective, and in some ways, it is the kind of education we’re trying to deliver. It’s not about you. It is about the greater good.”