Now, with the Delta variant tearing through a deeply divided country, instructors have moved from excitement to unease.
Months ago, many of them agreed to teach in person this fall, in classrooms at full capacity. Now, they wonder how that is going to work. While The Chronicle has identified at least 730 colleges with some form of vaccine mandate, the country has several thousand colleges. Some states have forbidden their institutions from mandating vaccines or masks. So higher ed finds itself in a “patchwork pandemic,” the term coined by The Atlantic’s Ed Yong to describe the country’s uneven experiences and the policy challenges that creates.
Professors who might have thought they wouldn’t have to worry about their own health post-vaccination are no longer as confident. While vaccines protect from the virus’s worst outcomes — hospitalization and death — they do not eliminate the risk of becoming infected or infecting others. How, many professors are wondering, could this affect vulnerable family members and children too young to be vaccinated? Going back now looks a lot riskier than it did earlier in the summer.
Classes may well experience disruption. What will happen when students get Covid, are exposed, or have an illness that presents similarly this year? Will faculty members be expected to offer them an online option? Professors with young children must consider the possibility that schools will move back online or send students home to quarantine. Will their campuses show leniency if they need to work from home or revert to teaching online in order to care for their children?
We want to hear how you’re feeling about the fall and what you’re doing to set up your classes for this next phase of the pandemic. What’s on your mind, and what ground do you hope the newsletter will cover this term? Share your thoughts with me at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, and they may appear in a future newsletter.
The Opportunity to Learn Something Meaningful
Given the general state of things, it seemed like a good time to share this column James Lang wrote for The Chronicle back in January about how your class can be a refuge. “Amid so much anxiety and tension,” Lang writes, “faculty members have an incredible gift to offer students: the opportunity to come together and learn something meaningful.”
ICYMI
- This powerful (and distressing) essay on what it means to teach through the pandemic, in Queer Mormon Women & Gender-Diverse Folx, has resonated with many professors online.
- Matthew R. Johnson walks through 10 class policies he encourages professors to revise this fall, including those related to attendance and late work, in an advice piece for The Chronicle.
- Students will be sick this fall, and classes will be disrupted. In Inside Higher Ed, John Warner offers ideas for planning a course around these challenges.
Friendly Reminders
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com or beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.
— Beckie
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