Faculty Concerns Regarding Fall: IHE article

[polly_mer]

92 percent lacked confidence that students would socially distance outside the classroom setting.

Reference: https://insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/30/faculty-concerns-about-fall-are-mounting

[marshwiggle]

92 percent lacked confidence that students would socially distance outside the classroom setting.

Reference: https://insidehighered.com/news/2020/06/30/faculty-concerns-about-fall-are-mounting

Whatever the other 8% were on must be pretty potent stuff.

[Parasaurolophus]

FWIW, I'm not confident that students will appropriately distance outside the classroom.

That has less to do with their being students than it does their being people, however. I'm not very confident that the average person will appropriately distance outside certain highly-regulated settings where they are clearly required to and structures are in place to ensure it, like at the grocery store. What I see and read about the world outside my home only seems to reinforce that perception (although I might well be wrong in thinking it). I also don't have much faith in my institution's ability to implement adequate distancting/cleaning/etc. where our classrooms and (shared!) offices are concerned.

The difference is that I'm reasonably pleased with the admin's management of the situation so far, and with their handling of the fall situation (which basically just follows the lead of the other major universities in the area, and is a total shift to online education despite our pandemic curve's being flat and having been under control for quite some time now). And I'm very confident in the province, its public health authorities and measures, and its handling of the situation. (Frankly, I think this province has been the clear leader on COVID-19 and containment measures. I could be wrong, of course, and I'm no kind of expert.)

[fishbrains]

My state (U.S.), my higher-ed system, and my College are locked in a permanent state of clusterf*ckedness. In the general population, only about 20% of people in my town wear masks to Wal-Mart or Lowes or restaurants or the grocery store. My higher-ed system has decided to start the Fall 2020 semester early, and that's about it. It has promulgated some unenforceable stupida$$ guidelines like "colleges should engage in social distancing," but that's about as far as they have gone.

My College says we are still going to offer some on-site classes, but no one knows how this will work in terms of class space for social distancing, COVID testing, enforcing mask requirements (which students won't follow), hallway and bathroom and food court distancing, etc. It's pretty obvious the full-timers are going to take any and all online courses and leave the on-campus classes to the adjuncts (it will be interesting to see if adjuncts simply refuse to teach these classes). At this point, faculty and students really have no idea what's going to happen to the classes they have registered for, such as whether or not they will move online or not.

Administrators are scared sh*tless to make any decision that might generate legal liability, so we have no information to provide students--who are supposed to start classes for Fall 2020 in less than 7 weeks.

In short, a complete clusterf*ck.

At least I'm stocked up on canned goods, ammunition, and HBP medications.

[Wahoo Redux]

Our state is one with a 50 percent COVID uptick.  We're dark red on the CDC data map.

Absolutely no one wears masks here. It is far less than 20 percent.  We started stocking up on canned goods last month.

[fourhats]

For a note of levity about the perils of Zoom. Let's hope this never happens while teaching!

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/03/man-offers-to-resign-after-showing-during-livestreamed-video-meeting

[peitho]

In breaking news, not only are we still planning f2f, students, faculty and staff will be required to self-check via an app before reporting to the classroom.  I have great faith in the efficacy of this new policy.

[downer]

In breaking news, not only are we still planning f2f, students, faculty and staff will be required to self-check via an app before reporting to the classroom.  I have great faith in the efficacy of this new policy.

If only we had a smiley emoji available to clarify when someone is being sarcastic.

[Hibush]

The difference is that I'm reasonably pleased with the admin's management of the situation so far, and with their handling of the fall situation (which basically just follows the lead of the other major universities in the area, and is a total shift to online education despite our pandemic curve's being flat and having been under control for quite some time now). And I'm very confident in the province, its public health authorities and measures, and its handling of the situation. (Frankly, I think this province has been the clear leader on COVID-19 and containment measures. I could be wrong, of course, and I'm no kind of expert.)

It sounds as if the intensity of spread prevention will be uniformly high on campus and off campus. That situation has a big impact on the effect of different teaching modes.