Universities are pushing for a return to in-person teaching in the fall, but teachers are refusing to comply due to fears of the coronavirus.
Approximately 65 percent of schools planning to teach in the fall plan semesters in person, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education follow-up. While students are eager to return to campus and meet the sizeable tuition they spend each year, teachers have been determined to make any return.
The United States has seen an increase in new cases of COVID-19, reporting record numbers in the past week. Many states have stopped or have begun to reverse their reopening plans, putting the future of many companies and institutions, including universities, at risk.
The average age of an American university professor is 55, according to the European University Institute. People over 60 are the most vulnerable to COVID-19, which means that a large number of teachers feel that they would be playing with their lives if they returned.
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“Until I get a shot, I’m not going to set foot on campus,” Dana Ward, 70, an emeritus professor of political studies at Pitzer College, told the New York Times. “Entering the classroom is like playing Russian roulette.”
A Cornell University survey found that about a third of its faculty “was not interested in teaching in person,” a third was “open to do it if conditions were deemed safe,” and the rest were “willing and anxious.” for teaching in person. ”
But teachers at other schools, such as Penn State, the University of Illinois, Notre Dame and SUNY schools, have signed petitions complaining that they are not being consulted and pushed into the classroom too soon.
“I shudder at the prospect of teaching in a room full of asymptomatic superamants,” wrote Paul M. Kellermann, 62, an English professor at Penn State, in an essay for Esquire magazine.
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At a minimum, many ask for the option, without questions, about whether they want to teach remotely or in person.
With classes scheduled to begin at some universities in August, many institutions are closing in to make a final decision on whether or not to force students to back off. Several schools faced difficulties in the transition to remote learning.
The transition was not well received. At Harvard, a student has filed a class action lawsuit against the university alleging that the school provided a “lesser” educational experience through remote learning, according to The Harvard Crimson.
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“I hope that many students choose to return to campus in the fall, as I believe that it is not only better to learn in an environment designed for learning, but I also believe that we are getting more for the value of our money,” Henry Bojanowski, a Boston College student, he told BU Today. “Also, I think many people would benefit from a more social environment like the BU campus, since the vast majority of us have been socially estranged for quite some time.”
It is understandable that schools want to avoid such an experience.
Purdue University President Mitch Daniels wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post, arguing that it would be “anti-scientific” and “an unacceptable breach of duty” not to reopen.
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“Forty-five thousand young people, the largest student population we’ve ever had, tell us they want to be here this fall,” wrote Daniel. “To say to them: ‘Sorry, we are too incompetent or too fearful to discover how to protect their elders, so they have to interrupt their education’ would be a great detriment to them and a breach of our responsibility.
