After A Long Summer, COVID-19 Goes Back To School.
"As the campus goes, the city goes. And, as the city goes, the campus goes."
Profound words delivered Monday night by University of North Dakota president Andy Armacost while addressing the Grand Forks City Council.
The University of North Dakota in Grand Forks had 13,840 students attending in 2019-2020. Fargo's North Dakota State University had 11,425 in that same school year.
In comparison locally, Bismarck State College had nearly 3,800 students in 2019-2020 and the University of Mary also had 3,800 students enrolled last year.
I'm not going to list off the many common similarities shared by the student bodies of these four schools, instead I'm painting with the widest brush I could find- FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES.
Although not actually part of the educational institutions themselves, both NDSU and UND have a long history of "robust" membership in these Greek groups.
BSC's Greek groups seem to include Phi Betta Lambda and Phi Theta Kappa- yo, ain't no party like a honor society party! Also "geek" groups like the amateur radio club. The University of Mary's doesn't have Greek groups but does have an Italian campus and a close relationship with God.
So the differences between the student bodies of the two schools on the eastern border and others in the state? Three words-
chug! chug! chug!
Friend of mine was a UND student in the 80s. Not too many bars do "two-for-ones" anymore, but Larry O's in Grand Forks used to have FIVE-FOR-ONES! The Spud in East Grand Forks had a film of beer on every surface in the place! (For sad Spud fans, there's now a Spud Jr. to carry on the tradition.)
This past weekend the mayor of Grand Forks ordered all bars/off sale to shut down nightly at 11AM versus the customary 2 AM. All, because of what your parents used to tell you about staying out after midnight. Seems it's true. In his speech, UND's President Andy, described certain students as "a high risk group of folks". As of Monday, UND had 300 active COVID cases on campus and over 700 in quarantine and isolation.