POSTED BY THE AAUP

On August 23, AAUP President Irene Mulvey advocated for community health, safety, and faculty involvement in university decision-making in an interview with Michael Holmes on CNN. Watch the clip and read the transcript below.

Faculty need to be "in the room" for decisions on students returning to campus, says @imulvey of the American Assoc of University Professors @AAUP Also, with tuition pressures, is there financial incentive for colleges to push in-person classes over online? #coronavirus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/7sTXGXfFD8

— Michael Holmes (@holmescnn) August 23, 2020

HOLMES: Irene Mulvey is president of the American Association of University Professors. She joins me now from Fairfield, Connecticut. Thanks for joining with us. We have seen college after college report COVID cases on campus as the semester gets underway. What are your main concerns? What do you make of the data that’s coming out?

IRENE MULVEY, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: Well, there’re two kinds of decisions being made right now. There is the decisions about teaching and the decisions about reopening. And the decisions about reopening, — need to be made by — are typically being made by senior administrative teams or a COVID-19 task force. And it’s essential that they have faculty on those task forces in order to make sense of all the decisions because I don’t think you could make a good decision without the faculty perspective in the room.

HOLMES: Absolutely. So your concern for your members, primarily, is what? And what is not being done for them?

MULVEY: Our concern for our members is the health and safety of faculty, staff and everybody that works on campus communities. I think the faculty perspective is that step one is to make sure everyone is healthy and safe and so is everyone we touch.

Once that is put into place, faculty can figure out how to teach. I mean, there’s all sorts of people involved in a residential college. There’s faculty but there’s also the custodial staff, that has to clean the bathrooms and the common areas of the residence halls.

And these people shouldn’t be forced into unsafe conditions. So I think our primary consideration is that the health and safety of the campus community and the surrounding communities should be the number one priority.

HOLMES: You know, as a parent of one recent college graduate, with another one still at college remotely, I hear a lot about what’s going on. I guess the question, when it comes to spread on campus, is, how do you stop college kids being college kids? They will party, they are partying and getting together and so on if they are on campus.

MULVEY: That’s exactly right. I mean, decision-makers seem to think they are going to be able to control the behavior of college aged adults. But in my experience and perhaps yours as well, college age adults are going to behave like college age adults. And I think expecting anything less is kind of magical thinking.

HOLMES: Yes, I think you are right. I was curious, your thoughts on this, you’ve had some schools lowering tuition and fees. Others are facing demands to do just that. I’m wondering if you think there is a financial incentive for colleges to perhaps push in-person classes and if that can be driving some of the decisions, as opposed to making decisions based purely on science?

MULVEY: I am absolutely certain that there is a financial component to these decisions, which is why, I think, it’s crucial that faculty are in the room when these decisions are being made because I think, if they are just being made with regard to the bottom line, this is just unconscionable. It’s an unconscionable decision for the people that have to work in these campuses.

I mean, remote learning is less than ideal. We want to be in the classroom. We, faculty, want to be in the classrooms with our students. But we are in a global pandemic. And there are alternatives. Remote learning can work. It’s — every faculty member I’ve spoken to said it’s so much more work to do it well.

But it’s possible and I think most institutions are prioritizing health and safety along with prioritizing the bottom line. But I think for as far as the American Association of University Professors and our members would be concerned, that the top priority should be health and safety. That should be driving all decisions.

HOLMES: Yes, it does seem there are other factors at play, which is very concerning. A lot of concern about your members, Irene Mulvey, I appreciate your time. Thanks so much. An important issue.