Faculty members at the University of Georgia protesting its public-health protocols.
Dear Commons Community,
More than 50 faculty members at the University of Georgia say they will require masks in their classrooms, in violation of the University System of Georgia’s rules, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
On Tuesday a group of mostly associate and full professors, many of whom have expertise in infectious diseases, wrote in a letter to university administrators that “all reputable research” indicates that “vaccination, social distancing, and mask requirements can reduce Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths.”
“The absence of these requirements has led and continues to lead to infections and outcomes that were avoidable and [to the] continued spread of this highly infectious disease,” the letter says.
The system, which oversees 26 public colleges, has encouraged but not required masks to be worn indoors. Instructors aren’t allowed to mandate face coverings in their classrooms. The system has also encouraged but not required vaccinations against Covid. (Gov. Brian P. Kemp, a Republican, has barred state entities from requiring proof of vaccination and has opposed mask mandates.)
Due to the “extreme inaction and inappropriate requirements” placed on public colleges by the system’s Board of Trustees and the acting chancellor, the letter says, “we have chosen to take what action we can to protect the students and staff we directly teach or supervise, even if these actions are in defiance of current USG rules” and could lead to discipline, including dismissal. The signatories will require all students and staff members in their classrooms and laboratories to wear masks “until local community-transmission rates improve,” the letter says. The Journal-Constitution said the professors planned to start mandating masks in two weeks.
Faculty and staff members across Georgia have been agitating for months against the system’s Covid policies. At least one Georgia professor has already been made aware he could be disciplined for mandating masks.
Joseph H.G. Fu, a mathematics professor, told his students that he’d require face coverings in his classrooms and that he’d move his courses online if the number of local Covid patients surpassed a certain threshold. His dean, Alan Dorsey, told him in a letter that if he continued to enforce that requirement, or if he changed the modality of his instruction without the provost’s approval, it would “constitute grounds for disciplinary action.”
And a laboratory coordinator at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College was fired after she told her college that without the ability to require masks, she wouldn’t teach in person.
Congratulations to these faculty for putting the safety first!
Tony
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