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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

>If a student leaves campus without permission, the app will alert the school, and the student’s ID card will be locked and access to campus buildings will be revoked

This seems so flawed and easy to bypass. Leave your phone in your dorm and sneak off campus, it's as easy as that.

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>If a student leaves campus without permission

I know the system in US is different from those I have experience with, but do a student at a college really require permission to go off campus? Isn't college students consider adults who can make own decisions?

No, they don’t require permission normally. This is just covid panic.

I don't know why US schools and the government are trying so desperately to get people back on site. Its clear this isn't going to work and the only solution is remote education.

It's probably a combination of hopeful optimism and financial desperation. It's too early to know for sure, but I bet a lot of small, private colleges are hurting and need to do everything they can to have students on campus. Students not paying for housing, meal plans, etc. is a big deal.

Sure it could work. The virus is fairly harmless for college-age people. But it can’t work because people are irrationally afraid.

College age healthy people are prone to unintentionally spreading it to people with weakened immune systems or older people, directly or indirectly. The more it spreads among the healthy population, the higher the risk that the more vulnerable will be infected. That's hardly irrational.

Unless you had the young people on some kind of campus, away from their family for months.

It's because no one wants to pay 50k for a online only liberal arts education. Without in person attendance, these schools are totally screwed.

Dr. Michael Munger of Duke was on EconTalk recently and talked about his 'Four Buildings' view of the university. I think that this lens is an incredibly useful way to look at the problem.

Briefly, the Four Buildings of the University are 1) The Clock Tower - It coordinates times for shared experiences, 2) The Stadium - It gives a shared tribal identity to a group of people, 3) The Student Union - A sorting hat for people that are 'in' and further subdivides interests, great for dating and close friendship, 4) The Admissions Office - Very important, tells the rest of the world this person was evaluated and found exceptional.

Note that The Classroom is not on the list.

Some of these buildings can be done remotely-ish (Admissions, the Clock Tower - maybe), but the others absolutely need to be in person (Stadium, Student Union, Clock Tower - mostly).

Justifying these Four Buildings, remotely, at $50k/yr, is a very hard sell, but a great idea for a social-Startup.

https://www.aier.org/article/after-the-virus-universities-wi...

https://www.econtalk.org/michael-munger-on-the-future-of-hig...

I remember reading about a curious unintended consequence for drivers licenses issued to california drivers under 18 -- they may not drive the car with other passengers under 20 years old.

So... Trunking.

That's what you do when you don't want to get caught with an underage passenger... you put them in the trunk.

Police don’t check if it’s a relatively short trip and you don’t break any laws. Source: Don’t ask...

I believe police cannot pull someone over just because they look to be a certain age.

But police can pull you over for a dozen other fairly mundane, unverifiable reasons so it's really a moot point.

Or if you want to sneak them in for free to the drive in theater! See there's nothing new under the sun ;<)

On android, you can easily spoof gps data with apps, no root needed. You don't even need to get another phone or leave it behind.

Couldn't you simply revoke data access to the app when you plan on leaving campus?

Not necessarily. IIRC GPS functions in airplane mode, and they _could_ have coded the app to record infractions and only notify your prison guard when you later re-enable data access.

The T&C most likely require students to grant data access all the time.

If the app detects permissions are revoked, the student might face some consequences.

> Leave your phone in your dorm and sneak off campus, it's as easy as that.

To do... what? Without a phone, many will have no means of transportation. They won't be able to sync up with friends or use GPS.

It's absolutely unimaginable that a large number of college students will leave campus without a phone. They're much more likely to have a separate phone to put the app on.

Don't you have old phones laying around? Install the app on one of those and keep using your main phone.

Read the fifth sentence of my comment, where I proposed exactly that.

I was responding to someone who proposed leaving campus without a phone.

If you’re not going to use it as a phone, it neither needs to be good nor have a data plan. Literally the cheapest phone available would do the trick.

You can get a refurb Android phone for literally $5 from Tracfone right now, for example.

I agree. I was responding to someone suggesting students leave campus without a phone. It makes much more sense to have a decoy device than to leave your phone at home.

I rarely if ever go out of the house without my phone on me, but I reckon it wouldn't be that difficult to get a small group into a car and just drive out, maybe writing down the way beforehand. It would be annoying, but they'd manage just fine.

> maybe writing down the way beforehand

Google maps street view (satellite if not available) is far preferable. You just need to remember landmarks to turn at.

Amazingly enough, people managed to get by before smartphones were the norm.

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