Open Letter to Governor Whitmer
Dear Governor Whitmer,
As faculty members from a number of public universities across the state of Michigan, we are asking for your leadership in the protection of all students, our colleagues actively engaged in providing the public good of education as well as those in the communities that support this endeavor. We are requesting that you mandate that classes that don’t require face-to-face teaching as part of their pedagogy (as determined by faculty and departments that teach these classes) must meet fully online. We are also requesting that you set requirements for levels of testing, data reporting, contact tracing and quarantining, per epidemiological recommendations (e.g., GTU study).
You no doubt know that our schools are planning a return to “face-to-face” classrooms in various forms (fully in-person classes as well as hybrid classes that include some face-to-face meetings) over the next few weeks. We have come together in this letter to you because while we appreciate the work our universities have done to facilitate a “return to the classroom,” the current situation around us, both in Michigan and in the rest of the country, demonstrates that classroom learning remains fraught with risk for students as well as university staff and faculty. We are asking you to step in, either to move most university classes online (except those whose pedagogies absolutely will not work online) or to offer clear regulations about how in-person standards must be maintained and what situations must trigger a return to primarily online learning.
Plans to return to face-to-face learning were first proposed in April and May, generally based on a very optimistic view of what this summer would bring. Cases of COVID-19 dropped in June and there was a sense that the first wave was ending. As you know, we never got past the first wave but an early lull convinced many that we could mitigate any problems with face-to-face teaching this fall. We find ourselves in August, however, and it is clear from many schools around the country that bringing large groups of people to live together, socialize together and study together remains something that cannot be done safely. While we absolutely understand universities’ desire to bring students a near-normal experience, the example of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/17/us/coronavirus-college-university/index.html) demonstrates very clearly that universities, by their very nature, serve as excellent breeding grounds for COVID-19. We faculty have expertise in many areas and agree that UNC’s terrible experiment is something likely to be repeated here in Michigan unless you step in.
Certain disciplines and classes are almost impossible to teach unless faculty and students are in the same room, such as some labs, some classes in health sciences, and certain types of performance, like dance. The vast majority of classes, however, can be taught perfectly well online. We find that rather than limiting in-person classes to those that need to be in-person, however, our universities are relying on a perceived student preference for face-to-face instruction to decide what and how many courses are offered in-person. In these dangerous times, if a class can be taught well online, that should be the mode of instruction, regardless of student preference. After all, we don’t ask students in chemistry labs whether they’d prefer to wear goggles or not, and we don’t let student athletes opt out of safety equipment if they prefer not to use or wear it. Students rely on university and government authority to set and maintain rules of safety, and we must do so here, to protect students, and our larger community, from harm.
There is, without a doubt, a serious financial impact to moving the majority of university courses fully online and limiting the numbers of students, staff and faculty who will be on campus. We ask you to help mitigate this cost. Our administrations are caught between trying to keep university communities safe, on one hand, and trying to keep university staff and faculty employed, on the other. This has led to decisions, like that made by the University of North Carolina, where lives were put at avoidable risk for financial reasons. Financial worries mean that faculty feel pressured to teach face-to-face (there are implications that those of us who oppose a return to face-to-face instruction are either primarily afraid for ourselves, personally, or lack a spirit of community, neither of which is true) and this pressure is especially hard-hitting for less secure faculty, including those who work as visitors or adjuncts and those from vulnerable populations. You, as Governor, could step in to help by offering financial incentives for those universities who choose to put safety first or by publicizing the kinds of low-interest loans that are available to help our institutions of higher learning stay solvent during these extremely challenging times.
While the COVID-19 situation has been improving in some parts of Michigan, we have reached the point where what state universities do in the next few weeks will dramatically impact whether things continue to improve or whether the gains made will be quickly and irretrievably lost. Governor Whitmer, you have the power to step in and protect students, staff, faculty, and our communities around the state. We faculty are not motivated by fear for ourselves; we are motivated by what we see around the country in other schools, first-hand knowledge that university students don’t always make decisions based on what is safest, an understanding that the COVID-19 spreads easily among people meeting in groups (especially indoors), and a conviction that moving forward with a plan that includes unnecessary face-to-face teaching will make people sick, cause lasting damage in many (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768351), and will certainly kill some. All of this is avoidable, but our universities are doing everything they can to proceed as planned. Please use your authority to limit the damage that is barreling toward Michigan.
Sincerely,
