BY MARY ELLEN JUNDA, JEFFREY OGBAR, AND MICHAEL BAILEY
Mandatory Vaccination Policy
The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected all facets of our world in a range of ways. Higher education was forced to fundamentally shift over the last year and a half, making many campuses empty of students, staff and faculty, while we pivoted to online teaching. The development of vaccines has been of critical importance in returning to some degree of normalcy. This promise to help protect the health of university communities has prompted many universities and colleges to mandate that all students be vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning fall 2021. Though few schools have insisted on a similar mandate for faculty and staff, there were conversations about that possibility for the University of Connecticut this summer. (The university is comprised of 24,000 undergraduates with 8 percent international from 110 different countries, and 28 percent non-residents of the state on the main campus.)
In July, the University of Connecticut AAUP sent out a survey to its members to elicit their responses to the need for a vaccination policy for faculty. The feedback was a clear and overwhelming expression in favor of a vaccine mandate. Over the three-day period of collecting the responses, more than 50 Percent of the membership responded with 94 percent of respondents indicating support for mandatory vaccinations. On Friday, August 13, 2021, UConn-AAUP and UCPEA (University of Connecticut Professional Employees Association) finalized a memorandum of agreement with Interim President Andy Agwunobi that requires all faculty and staff at the main and regional campuses to be vaccinated. We believe this agreement, along with the mandatory vaccination of students, provides the best opportunity to keep the university community healthy and to fight back this latest surge of the Delta variant. An agreement also was reached with UConn Health-AAUP and University of Connecticut Health Professional at the University of Connecticut Health Center.
The agreement, in part, requires the following:
- Faculty and staff, whether working on-campus or remotely, to be fully vaccinated by October 30, 2021;
- Applications for a medical exemption, religious exemption or deferral of vaccination to be submitted by September 1, 2021;
- Proof of vaccination to be provided or first dose of a vaccine to administered by September 10, 2021;
- Weekly testing protocol for all exemptions and deferrals to be administered and paid for by the university.
UConn-AAUP Member Wellness Initiative
UConn-AAUP also developed a Member Wellness Initiative program to help to mitigate the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on higher education. A number of our members have experienced personal and professional challenges during the past 18 months that have negatively affected their wellbeing. We are especially concerned that individuals who have been at UConn for only a few years may be particularly impacted due to complications with the promotion, tenure and reappointment process for tenure track and promotion and reappointment process for non-tenure track, additional family responsibilities, and a potentially smaller support network.
One element of the Wellness Initiative program is to sponsor a three-month Support & Resources Group in fall 2021. The goals of the group will be to provide:
- Peer support and connection;
- Information on relevant pragmatic resources (e.g., stopping the tenure clock, etc.); and
- Instruction in evidence-based tools for emotional wellness (e.g., mindfulness, relaxation techniques challenging self-doubt or perfectionism).
The current plan is to have the group meet between September through December once a week for about one hour. Based on the responses from interested faculty members, topics within the work domain will include 1) establishing family-work balance; 2) research or creative activity (e.g., getting initiated/maintaining, delays because of COVID, perceived value by university, etc.); and 3) student needs (e.g., formal and informal advising). Topics in the personal domain will include 1) managing psychological barriers (e.g., self-doubt, perfectionism, inner critic, imposter syndrome); 2) managing work-related stress; and 3) personal health.
The UConn-AAUP will continue to engage our membership and ensure that its wellbeing is addressed across various professional arenas. We are pleased that our health—physical and mental—will remain central to these efforts.
Tenure Clock Extension
In March of 2020, at the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus, UConn-AAUP and the UConn administration determined that the pandemic would require the University to alter operations for the foreseeable future. Within a two-week period, faculty were required to pivot from their traditional responsibilities, to one that would seriously impact their ability to engage in research, teaching and service. It was clear that the parties should move to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 virus on tenure-track faculty members in their probationary period.
On March 24, 2020, the parties entered into a Memorandum of Agreement concerning a tenure clock extension for all tenure-track faculty employed at the university on or before March 1, 2020, and then agreed to a second eligibility in May 2021 for newly hired faculty until March 1, 2021. The ease with which the parties reached agreement is recognition of the significant challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has had on scholarly productivity and a willingness of the parties to address it.
Guest bloggers Mary Ellen Junda, Jeffrey Ogbar, and Michael Baeiley are UConn AAUP’s president, vice-president, and executive director, respectively.
