BY SUSAN E. MASON May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency declaration. COVID-19 is not gone, to be sure, but we now have a better understanding of the severity and spread of the virus, how to protect ourselves, and how to protect our students. We were all in the…
BY PAUL DILLER COVID-19 vaccine mandates have been in effect at hundreds of universities for more than a year now. The 2022–2023 academic year is the second consecutive year during which many universities require some amount of COVID-19 vaccination from students, faculty, and staff. As the Centers for Disease Control’s recent guide to COVID-19 prevention…
BY FRANK E. RITTER AND DONALD A. DONAHUE COVID-19 has disappeared from the headlines, but not from our lives or classes. What steps should we take this fall? We note thirteen. COVID-19 has been declared as endemic, necessitating continuing precautions like those taken against influenza. Campuses continue to be places of increased risk for communicable…
BY FRANK E. RITTER AND DONALD A. DONAHUE We will need to continue to protect ourselves from COVID-19, probably through spring 2022. Colleges and universities have long been recognized as places of increased risk for communicable diseases. While higher education has benefited from immunization mandates against “childhood diseases” in primary and secondary schools, they have…
BY JENNIFER RUTH As Carolyn Betensky’s posts made clear (see here, here and here), universities and colleges are not prepared to safely protect faculty and students as classes begin this fall. Individual crises are erupting everywhere (as this Inside Higher Ed article about more professors quitting over face-to-face teaching mandates details) and some organized actions…
BY ALEX ZUKAS Like many other university administrations across the United States, National University in San Diego, CA, is using the COVID-19 crisis as cover to enact draconian measures, some of which were mentioned on this blog in July 2020. Most recently, the university is requiring faculty to sign a liability waiver to access their…
BY OGNJEN Š. MILJANIĆ The start of vaccinations against COVID-19 has brought hope that the pandemic’s end is near. Over the coming months, as things return to normal, many of the changes brought about by the pandemic will be reversed. I will be glad to see my kids return to their physical school, which will…
BY GREGORY SCHOLTZ The American Association of University Professors has authorized an investigation of the crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a focus on seven institutions: Canisius College (NY), Illinois Wesleyan University, Keuka College (NY), Marian University(WI), Medaille College (NY), National University (CA), and Wittenberg University…