The University of Pennsylvania should move finals to be an online exam for all large lecture based classes. The current transmission rate of COVID is so high that the University has declared that there cannot be social gatherings such as formals and other social events. Many students have not been getting testing and have red-passes for non-compliance because there is no repercussion for students living off campus.
Additionally many students who claim to have green passes are often forged or copied or screenshots. When entering building security does not check thoroughly, not to mention there are various ways around getting a red pass such as simply incorrectly reporting your symptoms. The self check-in is not a hard measure of how many people may be red passed. Even with a red pass, there are many students breaking their quarantine because they think their exposure will not result in a positive case.
Lecture halls are possibly the worst form of social distancing. For instance in CHEM 251, the classroom is packed when taking exams. There is maybe 2 feet between each student, while the TAs and professor are safe at the front of the classroom the rest of us are not. Finals should be online given this spike in cases. It is not fair to make students who are insolation wait until the following term to take their exams as there will be a huge gap in knowledge and the anxieties of this semester should not have to carry over the one break we receive.