LEO Position on Fall 2021 Reopening
LEO’s Union Council recently approved this letter stating the Union’s position on a safe fall semester, which we will present to President Schlissel and the Board of Regents. You can find it linked here.
“To whom it may concern:
LEO supports a safe return to campus this fall. With high numbers of vaccinated faculty, staff, and students, and a safe and effective vaccine, we expect the number of break-through COVID-19 infections to be very low. Moreover, we note that vaccinated individuals who do catch COVID are getting far less serious COVID cases.
We urge administration to consider the following concerns based on feedback from our members:
Masks should still be worn inside whenever feasible, at least for the fall semester (with the exception of working alone in your office). Without a vaccine mandate for all members of the community, there is really no way of knowing who is or is not vaccinated, so a mask requirement is crucial for faculty peace of mind.
A vaccination mandate for students would make a lot of our members feel less anxious about a return to in-person teaching. This is all the more important in light of the new information about the reduced vaccine effectiveness in people with certain immune-compromised conditions. Short of a mandate, requiring all students who are not vaccinated to receive weekly testing will also help lessen anxiety.
ADA accommodations for instructors with health concerns / living in households with immunosuppressed individuals should be granted freely.
Classes that start online should stay online for the term due to the massive inconvenience to students and instructors if there is a sudden pivot. Students, especially international students, may have opted to live elsewhere, and expecting them to move to Ann Arbor in mid semester is disruptive, and in some cases impossible. For instructors, a pivot would mean much additional work, which would take away time and attention from students.
Hybrid instruction, i.e. teaching in-person and online at the same time, should be avoided to the extent possible, as it essentially doubles the workload for instructors. (However, some Departments have a blend of in-person and online instruction on different class days, which is not a concern.). Members are worried that students will demand online instruction in an in-person class.
Cultural norms around staying home while sick need to change. While the University has a generous sick leave policy (3 weeks of paid sick leave for all employees), too many people feel they need to come to work regardless of health status. The University needs to message along the lines of "don't be a hero, stay home if you are sick."
Adequate sanitizing supplies should be provided. Communication about metrics and decisions need to be as transparent as possible. People need to understand the reasoning behind the decisions. In addition, in at least one college, instructors had their modality changed with no notice to the instructor, creating needless confusion and chaos.
For the LEO Union Council,
Kirsten Herold
LEO President”