“We are alarmed to see that the Board of Regents and the Georgia University System impose procedures that do not follow science-based evidence, increase the health risks for teachers, students, and staff, and interfere with agile decision making necessary to prepare for and respond to the risk of Covid-19 infection, “says the letter from the faculty.
The faculty letter comes after Georgia Tech issued its “Tech Moving Forward” plans to reopen the campus with classroom instruction in the fall. Under the plan, Georgia Tech students are encouraged to wear a cloth cover on campus, but they are not required to do so.
Seth Marder, a professor of chemistry, materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech, said the no-mask policy is “irresponsible and puts the Georgia Tech community at significant risk to health.”
The letter is part of a broader pushback from college faculties across the country that are wary of returning to college campuses in the vicinity of thousands of young people as Covid-19 continues to spread.
Recent abrupt increases in confirmed coronavirus cases across the southern and western US are being fueled by youth who are not estranged or avoid social gatherings. Young people are generally less likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19, but they are not immune to the virus and can still pass it on to older people with underlying health problems.
With a median age of 49, the tenure-tracking faculty at universities is seven years older than the average American worker, according to research from the College and University Professional Human Resources Association.
Coronavirus is already shooting up in universities
The Georgia Tech faculty letter calls for several changes, including a requirement to wear masks, large-scale testing, timely contact tracing, and that remote classes be the default mode of instruction.
The letter also argues that these decisions should be made by Georgia Tech president Ángel Cabrera, rather than the state university system.
“(No) provide President Cabrera with the autonomy to shape decision-making and policy (Georgia Tech) in response to Covid-19 with input from the campus community that endangers our research and education missions and, Most importantly, it threatens health “to be and educate students, staff, and faculty,” the letter says.
Cabrera said in a statement that the school appreciates the input from the faculty.
“We meet regularly with teachers to plan the best modes of instruction,” he said. “Faculty members are also helping to develop other aspects of back to campus. In addition, we closely follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Department of Public Health, and the Governor’s Coronavirus. “
Professors from other universities have expressed similar concerns, and not without reason.
Although most campuses remain largely closed, coronavirus cases have already skyrocketed at universities across the country, including among the Clemson University soccer team and other athletics programs and fraternities in Mississippi and in Washington.
A 21-year-old student at Penn State, who plans to allow the students to return in the fall, died of respiratory failure from coronavirus complications last month, the university said.
Paul Kellerman, an English professor at Penn State University, wrote in Esquire last week that he shuddered at the idea of teaching in a room full of asymptomatic spreaders.
“And students who are students will do what students have always done: congregate in packets, drink heavily, and mix,” he wrote.
“That is the nature of university culture, as the campus serves as a Petri dish for the spread of the coronavirus. Teaching in such conditions is a risk that many are unwilling to take, especially when the steps to mitigate the risk are pedagogically unsound. “
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