College professors across the country have told administrators they are unwilling to return to campus to teach amid the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times reports.
Across the country, colleges have been sending out messages to students about wearing masks and undergoing temperature checks before fall classes resume.
But thousands of professors say they aren’t ready to return to the classroom, the newspaper reports.
“Until there’s a vaccine, I’m not setting foot on campus,” said Dana Ward, 70, an emeritus professor of political studies at Pitzer College told the newspaper. “Going into the classroom is like playing Russian roulette.”
A majority of schools have announced plans to resume in person classes. But some colleges are already seeing spikes in coronavirus cases during smaller summer sessions.
On Wednesday, the University of Southern California announced it doesn’t recommend students attend in-person classes after the campus experienced “an alarming spike in coronavirus cases.”
A Cornell University poll of its faculty found that about one-third of professors were “not interested in teaching classes in person,” one-third were “open to doing it if conditions were deemed to be safe,” and about one-third were “willing and anxious to teach in person,” Michael Kotlikoff, Cornell’s provost, told the newspaper.
Faculty members at Penn State, University of Illinois, Notre Dame and the State University of New York have signed petitions stating they feel they are being put back into classrooms too quickly.
An open letter signed by more than 1,000 Penn State faculty members demands the university “affirm the autonomy of instructors in deciding whether to teach classes, attend meetings and hold office hours remotely, in person or in some hybrid mode.” The letter also asks for teachers to be able to change their mode of teaching at any time, and to eliminate a requirement to disclose personal health information as a condition of teaching online.
Rachel Pell, a spokeswoman for Penn State, told The New York Times that the petition signers represent only about 12% of the faculty.
“Our expectation is that faculty who are able to teach will return to the classroom as part of a flexible approach,” she said.
Georgia Tech told professors they have to either be 65 or older or have one of seven specific health conditions, like diabetes or chronic lung disease, to qualify to teach remotely.
Other schools have let professors decide how they want to teach.
“Due to these extraordinary circumstances, the university is temporarily suspending the normal requirement that teaching be done in person,” the University of Chicago told instructors on June 26.
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