POSTED BY MARTIN KICH
I have been posting a number of items related to how campuses might be re-opened in the fall 2020 semester.
If you have not seen it, the following series, written by Edward J. Mahoney and Joshua Kim for Inside Higher Ed, fairly exhaustively catalogs the various ways in which courses might be delivered:
Here are 15 scenarios for the fall that we think schools will be considering (the title phrases are linked to the articles, except for #15):
2. A Late Start
9. A Block Plan
10. Modularity
11. Students in Residence, Learning Virtually
13. A HyFlex Model
15. Fully Remote
Pingback: 15 Scenarios for Fall 2020 – Provisional Hermit
I’ve studied this issue at great length at a private committee level with primary data and expert representation. There is another alternative being overlooked: go back to normal. Fully re-open the college campus with no changes whatsoever from 2019: no masks, no distancing, no checklists, no question forms, no tracing and tracking, no protocols, no nothing. Do nothing. Erase the program. The actual data show two things: C-19 was and is, a political program; and to what extent it may be pathogenic, it is a normal risk except at a research level (meaning, several R1s are under federal and commercial contract to develop numerous viral and RDS agents and systems). This is now a mental illness and political risk more than any other attribute. Regards, ’96, University of Chicago.
You are entitled to post in the comments whatever nonsense you wish, but this is so irresponsible as to verge on the criminal, not to mention being a prime example of the assault on expert knowledge and higher education that the AAUP has been decrying. No one cares about your alleged “private committee’ and whatever secret “data” you claim to have seen. You are not an epidemiologist. You are not even a doctor. You are not a scientist. The notion that COVID-19 is “a political program” or at least “a normal risk” is itself a crude, demagogic and dangerous political lie exposed by, well, everything we know. It is personally belied by my own family’s experience with this contagious and sometimes deadly disease. As an editor of this blog I am tempted to remove this hideous comment, but won’t not only out of respect for freedom of expression but also to let it illustrate why no one should pay attention to any drivel that you write.
Dear Mr. Reichman:
My goodness: You are also entitled to express your opinion, and if it could be removed here by cooler heads, perhaps it should be; but it should stand as an example that speaks for itself: emotionalism and ideology do not mix fully with rational thinking.
You made this unnecessarily personal, and I can only say that, surely the rules of professional conduct in your profession, and within the AAUP, do not sanction it. Would you talk to students, their parents, corporate donors, or your peers, this way? Is this what a parent should expect in your classroom, at your university? An apology seems in order, but none is sought or expected.
As for irresponsible, your unfortunate ad hominem barrage not only avoids reasoned consideration (and makes much assumption as to fact) but is an excellent and instructive example that in fact ratifies most of my argument.
Back to the actual subject:
You may otherwise misunderstand (or perhaps I did not explain clearly) the implied reference to “herd” immunity evidence, increasingly seen by a number of sources, as legitimate if not superior. Hence, a fully open “back to normal” campus is certainly not without some strong basis in reasoned alternative policy. Closing college campuses has been utterly unnecessary in my view and in the view of some others in the policy public domain.
Allow me to re-state my position in a format you may find more palatable, and may be a better tone for any future expression:
“There are a number of legitimate sources that suggest that an alternative policy of college campus re-opening criteria might consist of a withdrawal of all consensus protocols consistent with screening, tracing, tracking, testing, quarantine, and distancing, and based on herd and related immunity data.”
Certainly, herd behavior is at least consistent with general academy culture.
With Regards.