This archive report was first published on 3 July 2020.
With the fall semester just around the corner, colleges across the US are gearing up to reopen their doors to students. However, not all professors are eager to return to campus, citing concerns about the safety of students and staff.
Some universities have taken a more cautious approach, opting to suspend in-person teaching requirements due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The University of Chicago, for instance, announced on June 26 that it would temporarily suspend its in-person teaching requirement, allowing professors to decide for themselves how to proceed.
Yale University has also announced plans to bring only a portion of its students back to campus for each semester, with freshmen, juniors, and seniors in the fall, and sophomores, juniors, and seniors in the spring. The university has stated that nearly all college courses will be taught remotely, allowing all students to enroll in them.
At Cornell University, Provost Mr. Kotlikoff has assured students that the university environment will be safer than the outside world, thanks to regular testing of students, even when they do not display symptoms. However, he also acknowledged that campuses are not fortresses, and professors in states with recent spikes in coronavirus infections are particularly worried.
Professors in Southern states, where hundreds of cases have been linked to universities in recent days, are particularly concerned. Terrence Peterson, an assistant professor of history at Florida International University in Miami, expressed his concerns, saying, “We’re all holding our breath to see what the policies will be.”
Joshua Wede, a psychology professor at Penn State, also shared his concerns, arguing that it is not possible to maintain a meaningful level of human interaction when students are wearing masks, sitting at least six feet apart, and facing straight ahead. He stated, “The value that you have in the classroom is totally lost. My style of teaching, I’m walking all over the room. I wouldn’t be able to do that.”
