thomas leverett weblog: cornered by coronavirus

Friday, July 03, 2020

cornered by coronavirus

Hartocollis, Anemona (2020, July 3). A Problem for College in the Fall: Reluctant Professors. New York Times. Online. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/coronavirus-college-professors.html.

Apologies if the article is behind a paywall. It is representative of a specific time, today, July 3, when coronavirus cases are rising dramatically and cornering universities dramatically. I have worked in universities most of my life, and know how people think. Fall semseter is coming, and it's their image, their essence, their survival that is at stake.

But on the other hand, as numbers rise, slowly but surely, steadily, the picture looks worse and worse. The article is right: the professors are older, and more vulnerable, and have kids to take care of, and those kids might not be in school. Our kids for example will be home three out of five days in the week, and that's if we're lucky, and New Mexico doesn't get any worse. As Arizona and Texas' hospital populations, boiling over, spill over into our state, we think it will get worse. But we are both retired now, and aren't forced to be physically present in any classroom.

We do have a son who was planning to attend New Mexico State this fall. And, we have a daughter who is a microbiology professor at the University of Kansas. She's embroiled in this dispute - according to her, people are yelling at each other in meetings. She thought she had an easy committee assignment, the Disabilities Committee, but it turns out to be the place where they give permission to people who are essentially trying to protect their own lives. Not a cushy assignment.

The professors are not stupid - there is FMLA, Family leave act, and lots of them are unionized - it would seem to me that those who are would marshall their unions' power to protect the lives of their members.

But in the end, it's a human thing. I don't think the schools can pull it off, and have a full-on, typical fall semester, with homecoming parade, football season, all of it. They just can't. They should cut their losses right now. Put absolutely everything online that can be put online (maybe labs can't, or physical education, ok) - put everything else off until spring, lower standards somewhat to accommodate those who have serious trouble getting things online, and give up the dorms entirely. It's not a great option, but it beats the obvious impending disaster - that college dorms will almost inevitably become epicenters if they are allowed to open. It's irresponsible to let that happen. And as we get cornered into that decision, while the numbers are rising the way they are, there's only one direction this whole thing can go anyway.

This whole idea that more young people are getting it is still rather new. Some people feel that's good because it means the death rate has gone down; fewer young people die from it. But there are still two facts that won't go away: first, the young are giving it to their relatives, and second, the covid does permanent damage to everybody and kills a fair number of the young anyway. The colleges can say, well, you just have to watch out for yourself, which is true, but they will be better off if they can say, we did everything we could to keep you safe, and allow you to get your education.

Haskell University was one of the first I know of to go online; I found that interesting. My daughter pointed that out as it is in Lawrence, right near the University of Kansas, and is highly regarded, though much smaller. Whatever the price, because some faculty will inevitably have trouble putting it online. But Kansas is one of what, forty-five states where cases are rising. Maybe they haven't overrun the ICU's yet, but that's coming. It's only July. And there is no downward trend, at least not now, July 3.