Hey everyone!

I will neither be teaching nor appearing in groups on campus in Fall 2020, and here is why:

I. COVID-19 is a mysterious infectious disease. There are lots of suppositions about how it can become contagious, and how long a person may be contagious before (or without) showing symptoms. There are no CLEAR, EVIDENCE-BASED explanations for this behavior. A person may be contagious and not know it. Unless everyone is tested, it will be essentially impossible to know who is potentially infectious. There is also not yet a proven vaccine to protect folks from infections. Prudence suggests that a person MUST consider every other person as potentially infectious.

II. COVID-19 is an unpredictable killer. When it doesn’t kill, it has a way of harming folks in other brutal and nasty ways. Ways like strokes, heart attacks, causing chronic damage to the hearts and lungs, and others. COVID-19 is a disease I intend to avoid at all reasonable cost.

III. I am reasonably healthy. However, I was advised long ago that there are many other things in this world that are more important than wherever I work. Those topics include personal health and well-being, and those of family as well. Though I am healthy, I have good reason to be protective of family members who have respiratory issues, and other chronic illnesses that make them susceptible to COVID’s effects. My personal health is important to me. My family’s health is yet more important. I will do nothing to potentially endanger them.

IV. I am both able and capable of teaching at a distance. All of my courses are designed to be offered 100% online. Even the course schedule to be taught in a traditional way has all of its lectures recorded, and all of its materials are available through the University’s online course management system. There are mechanisms in place that will allow me to continue my work as normal, even though I am not physically present on campus.

V. The Spring 2020 experience has shown that virtually all meetings can be held as video conferences. Video conferences remove the need for folks to physically attend the department and College Council subcommittee meetings.

VI. The University has a plan to re-open a bit earlier than previously advertised, and plans to resume remote learning with students’ departures from campus for Thanksgiving holiday break. However, recent outbreaks all over the country, as a result of overzealous re-opening of public establishments, have me additionally worried. My University has a growing student population, of which the institution may be rightfully proud. I fear that we will get everyone back to campus (of those who decide to return to campus) and a similar outbreak will shutter the place again. This is a decision far above my pay grade, however. Consistent with item III above, I will not ask any of my students to attend in-person course offerings, or meetings, when suitable alternatives (see items IV and V) exist.

Therefore, given:

  1. the as-yet-unknown infection and contagion profile for COVID-19
  2. the brutal consequences of fully expressing symptoms
  3. the potential for infecting family and loved ones, based on exposure with hundreds of folks who are unknown to me, and with unknown (unknowable) infections
  4. my ability and capability to teach my courses’ contents as online courses
  5. the lack of need to physically come to campus, due to the proven use of video conferences to host meetings
  6. the experience of other regions, when resuming “normal life” too soon

in Fall 2020, I will continue to satisfy my teaching and other work obligations from my home, through the use of video conferencing and other teleworking technologies. I anticipate continuing this stance until a proven-effective vaccine is available to me and my family members.

Comments?