HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The July memo was blunt. Students at Sam Houston State University had been promised “direct contact” with faculty, and even in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, the Huntsville school needed to deliver, Provost Richard Eglsaer told the faculty.
“Since students pay tuition to have in-person instruction, they are free to opt out of it by choosing the remote option,” Eglsaer wrote. “However, as faculty we are paid to teach in person and therefore the option of entirely remote instruction is not open to us.”
When fall classes resumed on campus, Eglsaer wrote, social distancing would not always be possible, and underlying health risks would not qualify faculty to teach only remote classes.
Before students returned to campus this week, SHSU President Alisa White told faculty the school will try to remain flexible, accommodating individuals with health risks or high-risk family members. But she said she wasn't comfortable starting the fall semester without in-person instruction, as faculty had requested.
As it reopens, the university is reporting 99 COVID-19 cases among students, faculty and staff, according to our news partners at the Texas Tribune.
Like Sam Houston State, most Texas universities are plunging forward with varying degrees of in-person teaching this semester, eager to preserve some semblance of a normal academic year.
They're asking reluctant instructors to cooperate, but some faculty members call the pressure to return to face-to-face instruction a callous decision that prioritizes money and the college experience over the safety of the university community.
“People are pretty upset and feeling like they’re being forced into a situation that's really unsafe,” said Jay Ganz, a special education professor at Texas A&M University’s College Station flagship. “We’re being treated as guinea pigs.”
Ganz, who has tenure and was able to request remote work through the Americans With Disabilities Act, said faculty members received several emails from the Texas A&M administration in the early days of the pandemic pressuring them to return to campus for in-person instruction.
“There were a lot of emails saying we needed to sacrifice and volunteer to teach face-to-face and that the risk had to be shared,” Ganz said. “The university seems to be really focused on ... pushing faculty to teach face-to-face to the limits of their liability.”
In an interview, Provost Carol Fierke said Texas A&M prioritized granting remote-only requests from individuals in the highest risk-categories designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If faculty members didn't fit in those categories and still wanted to teach remotely, they were asked to have conversations with their department heads about specific accommodations.
"In order to do what was fair and transparent, we had to pick some medical guidelines, and that was what we chose," Fierke said. "Our goals are twofold: to give students the best possible experience as safely as possible."
Texas A&M will have around 1,800 faculty members teaching courses with an in-person component and 1,300 teaching online-only classes, Fierke said. Around 45% of the school's credit hours this semester will offered in person.
SHSU responded Thursday with the following statement:
"As for specific campus-wide measures the university is taking, I would recommend visiting our comprehensive website, Restart 2020, devoted specifically to our university response to COVID-19. Here you will find that over the last few months Sam Houston State University has gone to great measures to enhance the safety of our teaching and learning environment for the fall semester. Also, our president recently sent a letter to our campus community and it provides excellent context. You may read her remarks at https://www.shsu.edu/katsafe/restart2020/letter-from-the-president-august-12-2020.
Based on CDC guidance, we have combined physical distancing strategies in classrooms, dining halls, residence halls, etc. with a face covering requirement for all faculty, staff, students, and campus visitors. The university is also supplying all requesting faculty with face shields as a supplementary safety measure. Other measures include: institution of a hybrid learning model for students; numerous to-go meal options, contactless payments for meals, etc., enhanced cleaning and disinfecting of classrooms, common/high-traffic areas, etc.; and increased remote access to student services.
Additionally, we have installed signage throughout campus directing people how to move safely through buildings and spaces including hallways, stairwells and elevators. We know keeping surface areas clean is very important, so we have enhanced our cleaning procedures and installed hand sanitizer stations across campus, in buildings and common areas. Classrooms are equipped with disinfecting wipes for student/faculty use before and after class.
When our students returned last weekend during move-in, numerous precautions were in place to keep them safer. Residence Life staggered move-in times over a three-day period; all residents were assigned a designated time for move-in to ensure individuals were spread out among floors and wings for reduced density and were limited in the number of people who could assist them in moving.
With regards to instruction, Sam Houston State University, like many other public institutions across Texas, has implemented a flexible instructional model that combines remote learning with reduced face-to-face engagement. Reconfigured classrooms and common areas now facilitate social distancing and lower density. This method provides a safer environment for the campus community while addressing the learning needs of our students.
Testing is available through our SHSU health center, county and hospital testing sites as well as through private healthcare providers. The university is in the process of evaluating testing options and pricing structures.
As we move forward, we will continue to carefully monitor the health and safety of our campus community and work closely with local, regional and state health service agencies.
The links below to SHSU videos provides more information on SHSU’s Restart 2020.
Faculty members at some of the A&M’s 10 other campuses have expressed fears in an open letter to the A&M System that asks for the flexibility to move to online-only classes. The letter has garnered over 900 signatures, many from faculty members at the system's San Antonio and Corpus Christi campuses, who say their communities cannot risk any surges in COVID-19 cases linked to campus returns.
They point to system officials including Chancellor John Sharp as the source of the pressure to reopen. Sharp has long maintained that the campus experience is invaluable and has championed normal campus activity.
"You can get a degree online, but it's very hard to become an Aggie online," Sharp said during a board of regents meeting earlier this summer.
In a statement responding to the petition, Sharp and Elaine Mendoza, chair of the A&M board of regents, stressed the measures the system has taken to ensure a safe return, including monthly distribution of 15,000 COVID-19 tests across all institutions.
“The Texas A&M System leadership and our university presidents have worked for months on reopening plans that emphasize the safety of our students, faculty and staff, while also recognizing the educational benefits of in-person instruction when feasible,” the statement reads. “It is inevitable that people will differ on how best to respond to this pandemic. We recognized that by providing online and remote choices while also responding to those students and faculty members who value the classroom experience.”
The University of Texas at Austin, meanwhile, is anticipating that students in nearly 75% of class seats and over 60% of faculty members — or 1,859 instructors — will be learning and teaching online only this fall. The school provides accommodations based on CDC guidelines and is working with faculty seeking course delivery changes, spokesperson J.B. Bird said in an email.
"If an instructor can demonstrate to their supervisor that their class can be taught online, then accommodations would be made and necessary resources provided to adjust the coursework delivery to remote instruction," Bird said.
This story is from our partners at the Texas Tribune. Read more here.