Of course I am referring to covid policy, in particular the current efforts of Princeton and Yale to restrict the off-campus movements of their students in fairly radical ways.
This week Yale sent out an email laying out requirements for returning students. According to the Yale Daily News, there will be a campus-wide quarantine until Feb. 7, which may be extended. Furthermore, students "may not visit New Haven businesses or eat at local restaurants (even outdoors) except for curbside pickup."
Meanwhile, in Princeton, the university issued this announcement on Dec. 27: "Beginning January 8 through mid-February, all undergraduate students who have returned to campus will not be permitted to travel outside of Mercer County or Plainsboro Township for personal reasons, except in extraordinary circumstances. … We'll revisit and, if possible, revise this travel restriction by February 15."
My first reaction, as someone who teaches at George Mason University in northern Virginia, is to be amazed that the life of the Yale campus and the life of New Haven can be so readily separated. If Yale truly has evolved to be a separate enclave, then that is a sign of trouble, pandemic or not.
My school is so integrated with the local community - including a large number of commuting students - that such a regulation would be unthinkable. Princeton at least is recognizing that the university and the town are pretty much inseparable.
My second reaction is that these two elite American institutions have lost their moorings. Can you imagine your school telling you not to leave the county? (Though Princeton sports teams are somehow exempted.)
If Princeton or Yale took the position that the current state of covid is so potentially dangerous that the entire university must be shut down, that would at least be consistent (and, in March 2020, I agreed with that view). But these policies do not and indeed cannot insulate these universities from the outside world. The omicron strain is going to spread at Princeton and Yale regardless of whether students gather at Hoagie Haven or Modern Apizza.
The selectivity is stunning. The Princeton policy restricts the travel of undergraduates, but what of the other people affiliated with the university, such as faculty, staff or contractors? The Yale policy prevents students from patronizing local New Haven businesses, but what if a professor wants to drive up to Cambridge?
The assumption seems to be that the virus spreads in particular ways that can be controlled by a university with virtually no enforcement apparatus. It is all but impossible to imagine an enforcement of these rules that is in any way universal and fair.
What about the risk from keeping the students together in dorms? Princeton has a 20-student limit on gatherings, but if the virus is that dangerous, can a group of 19 students be justified? Masks are useful, but they are not a cure-all and not always of sufficient quality. Keep in mind that as of last semester, when the more dangerous delta variant was dominant, Princeton's eating clubs were open.
Perhaps the strongest defense of these policies is this: Universities can only do so much. And if they don't want to shut down, at least they can institute rules to help limit the spread of the virus until the omicron wave passes.
I doubt these policies will significantly limit the spread of covid. But my objection is more fundamental: They put universities in the untenable position of both panicking about covid and treating covid as trivial. Given the purpose of a university as an educational leader, a university that is hypocritical and rhetorically corrupt is failing outright.
The restrictions also show these universities as content to treat their students much worse than their faculty and staff - a faculty and staff that is typically older and thus more at risk for covid. The liberty of Yale students to visit a local bookshop or grocer is less important than freedom of movement for faculty and administrators.
Imagine the reaction if a professor or a dean told a student: "I will go out and about and do largely as I please. But you have to stay on campus, so you do not infect me." It would be considered outrageous, and rightly so.
Right now some of America's top universities are essentially sending that message - in the process telling the world that they are not morally serious. They should not be surprised, then, when the world starts believing them.
(COMMENT, BELOW)
Cowen is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a professor of economics at George Mason University and writes for the blog Marginal Revolution. His books include "The Complacent Class: The Self-Defeating Quest for the American Dream."
Previously:
• 12/29/21 America would be more happy with more people
• 12/10/21 Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk . . . and Paul McCartney
• 12/08/21 The only two pieces of advice you'll ever need
• 11/29/21 Nuclear fusion is close enough to start dreaming
• 10/27/21 America's national mood disorder
• 06/10/21 Lifting of mask mandates poses a challenge for Libertarians
• 05/28/21 Why economics is failing us
• 04/19/21We need green energy. We don't need green jobs
• 04/14/21 Libertarianism isn't dead. It's just reinventing itself
• 04/05/21 What does the world need? More humans
• 02/10/21 If Biden goes big now, he may have to go small later
• 01/12/21 Covid improved how the world does science
• 12/07/20 How to make sure your complaint is heard
• 10/27/20 It's getting better and worse at the same time
• 09/14/20 How to be happy during a pandemic
• 09/04/20 Trump is winning the vaccine debate with public health experts
• 07/01/20 Why Americans are having an emotional reaction to masks
• 05/20/20 Covid-19 will expose the ghosts in the U.S. economy
• 05/07/20 Are aliens visiting us? US military seems to think so
• 05/06/20 America's reopening will depend on one thing --- trust
• 04/22/20 How the covid-19 recession is like World War II
• 04/15/20 America is returning to 1781
• 04/08/20 Covid-19 is is upending everything for status seekers
• 03/17/20 The coronavirus will usher in a new era of entertainment
• 01/28/20 Social Security isn't doomed for younger generations
• 01/08/20 Why 2020 is harder to predict than 2019 was
• 12/02/19 Equality is a mediocre goal so aim for progress
• 11/25/19 Inflation inequality creates winners and losers
• 11/09/19 OK kids. This boomer has had enough
• 10/20/19 Would you bet against Trump in 2020?
• 09/25/19 The right industrial policy for America
• 09/24/19 Harvard's legacies are nothing to be proud of
• 09/02/19 Yes, the Fed could still stop a recession
• 08/20/19 A trade deal with China wouldn't change much
• 07/29/19 How your personality traits affect your paycheck
• 07/16/19 Internet 101 should be a required class
• 05/28/19 How Dems actually are the ANTI-immigrant party
• 04/23/19 Want to help fight climate change? Have more children
• 03/22/19 America isn't as divided as it looks
• 03/12/19 The Twitter takeover of politics: You ain't seen nothing yet
• 03/04/19 How to tell which Dem dreams won't come true
• 02/07/19: Now the Dems want to end America's nuclear first strike option. How clueless is that?
• 01/29/19: The shutdown hit a lot of government workers --- hard. But, ultimately, who is responsible for their unfortunate circumstances?
• 12/12/18: The West is abusing its legal power to punish people or institutions that do things it doesn't like. It better stop
• 10/23/18: The US needs Saudi Arabia, and vice versa
• 10/19/18: The right finds the perfect weapon against the left
• 07/24/18: The drive for the perfect child gets a little scary
• 06/04/18: Side effects of the decline of men in labor market
• 05/14/18: Proving Marx's theories right
• 05/08/18: Holding up a mirror to intellectuals of the left
• 05/01/18: Virtual reality will make lives better ... mostly
• 04/16/18: It's hard to burst your political filter bubbleIt's hard to burst your political filter bubble
• 04/09/18: The missing key to grasping why American politics seems to have become more polarized, with no apparent end in sight
• 04/05/18: Two American power centers are about to clash
• 03/22/18: We fear what we can't control about Uber and Facebook
• 03/08/18: How to stop the licen$ing insanity
• 01/10/18: Polarized Congress needs to bring back earmarks
• 12/27/17: The year when the Internet collides with reality
• 11/07/17: Would you blame the phone for Russian interference?
• 10/23/17: North Korea is playing a longer game than the US
• 10/12/17: Why conservatives should celebrate Thaler's Nobel
• 08/02/17: Too many of today's innovations are focused on solving problems rather than creating something new