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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We just heard from our uni for the first time. The admin is completely deluded. There will be 3 semesters to reduce density, students will be quarantined along the lines of the oped, we can trust the students to protect the community by social distancing and wearing face coverings. Nobody asked the faculty if they are willing to spread their teaching over 3 semesters, or if students will be happy with 3 semesters...and everything will have to be prepared for online and in person instruction. But no worries, our teaching loads are not increasing. 
It's pretty obvious that their committee on reopening consisted almost entirely of administrators, not teaching faculty...Other unis have apparently surveyed faculty about their comfort teaching in person, their health conditions etc. Nothing here so far - just decisions by admins removed from education. Oh and only 1/3 of our faculty are in an at risk age group (what to they consider at risk?).
What I think will happen is that we start out with this plan, a huge outbreak inevitably occurs so that we move online again, and then both students and faculty are stuck with this moronic 3 semester layout, but online! The worst of both worlds.
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You're faculty, right? I'm sorry they didn't consult with faculty because that sounds like an absolute must in this situation. How devaluing of faculty, not to  include them in the decision.

I know this site and I know someone else will come to ask this so I'll just go ahead and do it: Can you name the university? I get that you might not want to. I wouldn't. Can you at least tell us -- what size school is it and is it in the US? (You referred to it as "uni" which I hear done by people in the UK and Canada but less here.)

I am asking not because I think it's my own kid's college but because I'd like to get a bead on what size your university is just for comparison. Is summer supposed to be the third semester? Are all three semesters shorter? That would be more like my own undergrad with three quarters Sept-June and the fourth quarter being summer -- that's not "semesters" at all and you'd have to cut the number of classes in a student's class load if you have much shorter "semesters."  ??

And I agree that your employer is insane to think that students are going to wear masks and practice social distancing for long or in any meaningful way. They still have to share dorm rooms, bathrooms, dining halls, etc., right? That alone -- forget classrooms -- will cause the virus to spread. I would not blame any faculty member, administrator or staff member who quit as these kinds of wildly stupid plans emerge.[/quote]

PP here. We are a top private school in the US in an urban location, with a student population on the order of 10K. The semesters will all be regular length, with a summer semester. Vacations would apparently be cut short or eliminated. But we haven't heard the details yet on dates. Each student would attend 2/3 semesters in person.[/quote]

I work at large top 50 university and they most certainly have not surveyed faculty about anything. We're told that we will be doing whatever the administration decides, and they have no idea what that will be but it sounds like a mish mash of terrible ideas. Putting students on the basketball court for class and doing some kind of weird half asynchronous combo for kids who don't want to be there. No idea where they are going to find basketball courts for 1,000 different classes. It would be awesome if this whole fiasco thins out the admin ranks by about 33% but I can only imagine a few NEW offices getting created. "Office of Emergency Lockdown Preparedness," "Associate Director of Diversity During Outbreaks," "Supervisor of Supervisors of Disinfection of Facilities". What a mess[/quote]

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