Fall classroom policy on social distancing

[downer]

We are not allowed to:

1. require anyone to wear a mask either in a classroom or in our offices.

2. enforce social distancing anywhere.

3. have all office hours online. We have to maintain some face-to-face office hours.

I can imagine that some faculty might find ways around such restrictions, or would act out in other ways in response. How easy will it be to rely on any faculty good will in the coming semester, year, or decade?

[lightning]

A month ago, the fall semester was back to normal, with much fanfare.

Today, I found out that one of my courses has been converted to half in-person/half remote with students alternating (faculty is burdened with setting, administering, and enforcing the alternation schedule). My other course is on the threshold of being converted, also.

Fvck that!

Courses should either be all synchronously remote, all asynchronously online, or all in-person. This half-and-half best of both worlds is a bunch of crap.

Of course, what really needs to be mentioned here is that the conversion was never once communicated to me and that faculty lost their governance over delivery formats, with the pandemic as the excuse to take it away from faculty.

[Caracal]

A month ago, the fall semester was back to normal, with much fanfare.

Today, I found out that one of my courses has been converted to half in-person/half remote with students alternating (faculty is burdened with setting, administering, and enforcing the alternation schedule). My other course is on the threshold of being converted, also.

Fvck that!

Courses should either be all synchronously remote, all asynchronously online, or all in-person. This half-and-half best of both worlds is a bunch of crap.

Of course, what really needs to be mentioned here is that the conversion was never once communicated to me and that faculty lost their governance over delivery formats, with the pandemic as the excuse to take it away from faculty.

Yeah, that's a ridiculous solution and doesn't work well. This is what worries me. When you have crappy planning, people both under and over react, or react in dumb, unhelpful ways. The annoying thing is that, in theory, the problem is much more manageable than it was last year. Most faculty are not incredibly worried about contracting Covid and getting really sick. That ought to make it easier to find ways to accommodate people who have reasons to be more concerned. And hey, it just so happens that while classrooms seem relatively low risk, it is still probably a good idea to avoid packing people into them. With some actual foresight and planning, you could take those two things and make them work, but probably that's too much to ask.

[Sun_Worshiper]

My state won't allow vaccine or mask mandates for public institutions, but the university is recommending both and, from what I can tell, plans to make it difficult for the unvaccinated by requiring frequent testing. However, on a classroom-by-classroom basis there doesn't seem to be much in place to ensure the protection of students or faculty.