Teresa Schuster and Valentina Palm / PantherNOW Staff
FIU announced faculty and staff are expected to return to campus next week, but the decision sparked controversy among professors who say the decision is premature and compromises their safety.
During yesterday’s Faculty Senate meeting, professors argued FIU’s mandate to have faculty and staff return to their offices by March 1 is unsafe and unnecessary while the Board of Trustees, who met at the same time, pushed for the repopulation of campus.
“We’re forcing staff to go into a bunker to serve what conceivable purpose?,” asked professor Clarke Wheatley during Faculty Senate.
El pagnier Kay Hudson, FIU’s Vice President of Human Resources sent an email yesterday to faculty and staff directing them to fully return to working from their on-campus offices starting next week. On Feb. 11, the university announced an increase in campus presence requiring a minimum of 3 days per week for all faculty and staff.
This excludes faculty with exceptions for health concerns, qualifying childcare constraints, Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations, and COVID-19 policy exceptions.
FIU faculty are currently protected by a memorandum of understanding negotiated between the UFF-FIU faculty union and the university. The agreement provides they cannot be forced to return to campus, and is in effect for the remainder of the spring 2021 semester.
However, the agreement does not protect adjunct professors, graduate students, teaching assistants or staff. Currently, there is no agreement in place for the summer or fall terms.
“Continuing the trend for increased presence, we announced that all faculty and staff with individual offices, are expected to return to a normal work week beginning Monday, March 1 while all others who do not have offices or are using shared offices, would adhere to a rotation schedule to facilitate a minimum of 3-day physical presence on campus as space guidelines permit,” wrote Hudson in the email.
Faculty senators disagreed with Hudson’s approach.
One faculty senator said, “It really doesn’t make sense that you are conveying ‘what was normal before the pandemic’… because we are in a pandemic.”
The university’s urgency to repopulate campus is to ensure it creates an active and vibrant campus experience for students, according to the email.
But faculty opposed the idea, saying it is unnecessary because class schedules for this semester are already defined and their return wouldn’t make a difference in student presence on campus.
“Based on data, that passing rates are up and students’ satisfaction is up [with remote classes], this is a very poor time to ask faculty to come back to campus because it’s eroding the trust of the faculty in the institution,” said Kathleen Wilson, vice provost for faculty leadership and success.
“Faculty have never been expected to be in their offices five days a week or even three days a week,” said Wilson.
Wilson called the email announcement disturbing. “You need to do what’s right for you,” she said.
Other faculty senators also criticized the university’s messaging — according to them it is confusing and illogical. Many questioned why the university wants them to return.
“One thing that has confused me about the messaging is: if we come to campus but remain sequestered in our offices, what’s the point? I can sit alone in my office at home just as well, and it sure is safer,” said professor Mark Finlayson.
Education professor Martha Pelaz said the university would be putting faculty at risk, explaining their fear of going back to teaching in closed classrooms without windows or adequate ventilation.
“We’re packed with 30 to 35 students in that classroom and they’re probably less than one or two feet apart so I cannot visualize faculty going back to the normal before the pandemic,” said Pelaez.
Librarian Patricia Pereira-Pujol added that her colleagues were “freaking out” and confused about the university’s expectations.
Elizabeth Marsh, a communications professor, shared similar sentiments.
“I have asked over and over why we’re doing this now,” she told senators. “So far I have gotten a lot of happy talk but no actual answer. I understand that there are real class concerns over virtual learning, and I agree. But addressing those concerns becomes less safe if everyone is brought back to campus at the same time.”
During the Board of Trustees meeting, FIU President Rosenberg said he wants all employees who have a private office to come back to campus next week for the full five-day cycle and the option of remote learning will no longer be an option for future terms.
“We’ve already basically agreed that we are eliminating remote for summer terms A,B and C and for the fall semester,” said Rosenberg. “We want to make sure that the students have the opportunity to do that normal face-to-face.”
While COVID-19 vaccines are not available to many students, Student Government Association President Alexandra Valdes said they should return to campus.
“We have been on the idea of trying to reinvent the wheel when we just want to be able to bring solutions back to normalcy when it comes with campus life and student presence,” said Valdes. “For campus life to flourish we do need the students here.”
Valdes added faculty should encourage students to attend in-person classes, saying online learning allows for more “dishonesty within the academic world”.
The faculty senate opposed Valdes’s comments. Wilson argued against Valdes’ statement that students’ passing rates have increased in synchronous and remote learning because they’re cheating.
“Smoke was coming out of my ears when she said that and nobody corrected her,” said Wilson. “We have Honorlock and we have proctoring and by the way people cheat in face to face classes so I think these were her personal opinions…she tended to focus more on the fact that Starbucks wasn’t open after three o’clock.”
Valdes told PantherNOW senators were taking her remarks out of context and that she discussed dining options “to highlight that students studying on campus need options.”
“I have been advocating for our student body since the first day of my term and advocating for our students to have the option to choose their preferred form of learning (which wasn’t the case for fall and not enough for spring semester),” Valdes said, adding that she stands by her comments at the meeting, including those on academic misconduct.
Professors reiterated their opposition to the idea of a complete return to campus because the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is only in its initial stages and forcing staff and faculty to return to campus endangers them and students.
They also pointed out Miami-Dade County is just starting to see a decrease in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
“All of us old folks are vaccinated but you youngins are not, and the students are not, and that sounds like a super spreader event waiting to happen,” said journalism professor Neil Reisner at the Faculty Senate meeting.
Many trustees were against the Faculty Senate’s arguments, which were presented by trustee Joerg Reinhold who also serves as the Faculty Senate chair.
Reinhold said a complete return of faculty this semester and during the summer terms would be “highly premature” but supports the full return of students and faculty for the fall term.
“There is frustration and also a fear that in a sense we are rushing things too early,” said Reinhold.
Trustee Marc D Sarnoff shared some of Reinhold’s reservations, saying FIU should not force students to come to campus if they don’t want to and vice versa.
“Are we giving the ability to students to be able to come back on campus if that’s what they prefer to do? At this point, I don’t think we have,” said Sarnoff. “For us to make a decision on the reverse…you’re limiting their ability to make the decision on their own to come on campuses, if that’s what they prefer and I think that’s what the debate is about.”
Professor Maida Watson said the university should continue with its existing COVID-19 precautions instead of increasing repopulation.
“We’ve been seeing some great, wonderful decreases in COVID-19 cases and positivity rates and so the precautions at least to some extent are working,” Watson commented. “So it’s just completely illogical to remove the precautions that have been successful.”
Additional reporting done by Jordan Coll / PantherNOW News Director.
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