[Teaching-Faculty] New responses to Faculty questions about Fall 2021 teaching

[Office of the Provost]

Colleagues,
Some new information sharing below.  If you submitted a question that I
have not answered, I am still following up and don't have a full answer
yet.

Question: Now that students are required to be vaccinated, will SUNY
mandate that faculty and staff also vaccinate?

Contractual agreements (UUP and CSEA) prohibit this.  Unless a different
agreement is reached with the leadership of both unions, I don't expect
this to change.  As I have shared earlier, unvaccinated faculty and staff,
like students who ultimately have a medical or religious exemption, will be
required to test weekly until such time as they are vaccinated.

Question: What do we do if students are not wearing their masks correctly?

My hope is that faculty would speak to this concern, though I know when you
are teaching, it is very hard to be aware of everything that is going on in
every seat in the room.  I can tell you that last year, I did receive
periodic emails from students who saw classmates who were pulling their
masks down under their nostrils, and when these students wrote, they were
upset that the faculty members were not addressing this concern.

Here is the language from the CDC on proper mask wearing:  "Masks should
completely cover the nose and mouth and fit snugly against the sides of the
face without gaps."
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-guidance.html

I think it would be wise to include some language of this type within your
syllabi that sets the expectation for behavior within your classrooms.  You
might also include policy language about our fall restart (off our home
page) that details masking requirements:
https://www.plattsburgh.edu/covid-19/index.html.

Question: We have received emails from students requesting fully remote
semesters.  May we have some more guidance on this question.

We do not have the ability to offer every class being taught in-person as a
remote class as well.  So, no, we cannot meet these requests in many or
even most cases.  Having said this, I would ask chairs/advisors to see if
there are multiple sections of a given course, and perhaps there are
available seats in a course that is scheduled for remote delivery (or for a
comparable course).  Last year, our faculty were wonderful in working to
support students who were quarantined or in isolation even if the class was
an in-person class.  But there are simply limits to how flexible we can be,
and the college is not asking departments or faculty to meet every request
that comes to them.

Question that came up in Senate Exec earlier this week:  According to our
policy, if a student refuses to mask in the classroom, the Campus Police
can be contacted to assist.  A faculty member shared in Senate Exec that
some faculty may not ever want to choose this option.  I understand this
concern because of the history around police violence and police treatment
of BIPOC individuals.  I appreciated that this question was raised in
Senate Exec.  A suggestion was shared in that meeting that if this happens,
the faculty member and students who are masking could simply stand up and
leave the classroom.  After that point, our Student Conduct office could be
contacted, and there would be follow-up (518-564-32820).  I sought further
guidance on this question with others who have worked to create
alternatives to Campus Police involvement in the past.  Here's another
suggestion: If the student will not mask, ask them if they'd please move to
a location where they are socially distanced (6 feet apart from others).
That may help the situation.  I was told that even if unmasked, if everyone
else in the class is masked, the risk level is actually very low for
infection within the classroom.  The faculty member could continue to teach
the class and following the class' completion, contact Student Conduct and
report the student's name and the violation of our masking policy.

I don't expect there to be numbers of students who behave in this way. Much
more likely to see masks not properly worn or pulled down lower than they
should be.

All for today, colleagues.

best,
Anne
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