In the Summer of 2020, OU Workers United issued a plea for additional COVID safety measures, along with over 1800 signatures. That same summer, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee issued a statement calling for better COVID policies. The Chronicle of Higher Education recently published a tragic and passionate essay from an OU faculty member who describes the insufficient policies and untenable position in which faculty and staff find themselves. On August 11, 2021 the OU chapter of the AAUP published an Open Letter to University Decision-Makers, with hundreds of signatures, demanding that OU:

• Publicize a legal rebuttal to Oklahoma Senate Bill 658 and Executive Order 2021-16 or challenge both of these statutes in the state courts;

• Add the Covid-19 vaccine to its list of required immunizations for employees and students, or create policies that ensure a vaccinated campus community;

• Engage in all aspects of robust, effective and ongoing public health vaccination promotion campaigns as recommended in Section 1 of CDC’s Considerations for Institutions of Higher Education published on July 23, 2021;

• Enact a mandatory mask mandate in all indoor public spaces whenever Cleveland County’s Covid-19 community transmission rate is rated as Substantial or High by the CDC;

• As long as the global pandemic continues, allow all workers and students to complete their activities remotely, to the extent that it is possible;

• Grant hazard pay to compensate employees for using their home utilities to complete remote work or for working on campus under hazardous conditions;

• Create and publicize—through inclusive shared governance and allowing for public comment—a pandemic plan outlining OU’s preparedness and response to the current and other further scenarios related to the Covid-19 situation. This plan should include outlining how OU will act to limit the spread of a pandemic while sustaining OU infrastructure and mitigating impact to OU operations, with clear benchmarks and planned responses to various scenarios. This plan should include protocols for booster vaccinations due to the expectation of current Covid-19 vaccinations wearing off over time, and public health protections for those who are immuno-compromised.

And yet, as this Fall 2021 semester starts, OU remains committed to forging ahead recklessly, with no meaningful COVID policies in place, having ignored these pleas from its community, refusing any semblance of shared governance. With procedural options clearly exhausted, we must take the next step.

It is time to take action to demand action.