Colleagues:
A number of faculty members have been contacting those of us on the Executive Committee about the College’s plans to offer more face-to-face classes and on-campus services this fall. At the same time, discussions have been occurring amongst many of you who are part of our organizing group on the same topic. We have all been working remotely since the start of the COVID crisis in March 2020 and adjusting to working remotely was difficult for many of us. We adjusted and are very used to working from a non-college site to do our jobs. Returning to our offices and classrooms is going to require us to adjust to this shift back to campus and this adjustment is going to take time. We all knew this was going to happen but we didn’t think it would be happening this fall because of information we previously received from the Administration.
For a variety of reasons, the members of our Administration announced last spring that the majority of our classes would be taught remotely this fall and then that changed. Initially everyone was going to be required to wear a mask when we returned to campus and now we are not going to be required to wear a mask. These changes are causing quite a bit of concern for many of us and rightfully so.
As an Executive Committee, we think it is important for as many of you as possible to attend a full faculty meeting to express your concerns and to hear from a panel of experts who are very knowledge of the COVID-19 virus, information coming from the CDC, and the vaccinations that are available to us. Collins Jones and Lori Kelman who teach in our Biotechnology Program and Jennifer Capparella, Germantown Natural Sciences Department Chair have agreed to be our panel of experts. They have a very unique perspective on the virus and we are pleased that they are willing to share their expertise with us. Jennifer has a graduate degree in public health and used to work at the CDC. Collins and Lori also understand the science behind the creation of the vaccinations, the virus itself, and they all can speak to how the virus spreads.
We know that hosting summer meetings is tough and that not everyone will be available to attend the meeting. However, we feel that hosting a meeting on these topics is very important to all of us. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 21 at 3:00 and it is scheduled to last until 4:30. An e-mail with a Zoom link to the meeting will be sent to all of you early next week along with an invite for you to submit questions you have in advance of the meeting.
If your schedule permits, please plan on attending this meeting.
On behalf of the Chapter,
Harry Z.
Harry N. Zarin, Professor/Counselor
President-AAUP
Link to Recording
Topic: AAUP Summer Meeting
Start Time : Jul 21, 2021 02:34 PM
Access Passcode: aaupcovid!21
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