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August 4, 2021
 
Dear Colleague,
 
I am writing to plead for swift action and compassion. I’d like to urge our administration and the Board of Regents to put policies in place that will protect our students, faculty, and staff and will preserve the teaching excellence that is a hallmark of the University of Iowa. I write today to advocate for vaccine and mask mandates/incentivization and online options for teaching and meeting.
 
Vaccine/mask mandates or strong incentivization in combination with flexible online options provide the following critical benefits:
 
Safeguard student safety
Encourage successful pedagogy
Ensure faculty and staff wellbeing
Preserve departmental course offerings
Promote campus and community morale
Protect community safety
 
Like everyone I am deeply concerned for the welfare of our faculty, students, and staff, especially those with children under the age of 12 or household members who are immunocompromised or elderly. Many people have caretaking responsibilities. I recognize that vaccinations and masking decrease the spread of Covid significantly, but I can also imagine a scenario where an unvaccinated, unmasked student, faculty or staff member transmits Covid during contact in a classroom or during an office visit and then the infection is transmitted to a household and devastating sickness or even death is the result. It seems like a gamble for the university to consider taking such a risk. Under the OSHA Act of 1970 SEC. 5. (1) 29 USC 654
 
“Each Employer shall furnish to each of his [sic.] employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;”

Losing a child or a vulnerable family member due to employment or educational requirements obviously would be considered serious harm.

For faculty, students, and staff who are parents of children under 12 the decisions they are facing are difficult and filled with risk.
 
I do understand that the university has tried to make processes available and transparent through faculty and staff disability services with regard to sick leave and FMLA. This option does not seem practical for entire departments who have multiple faculty with caretaking duties who are mandated to teach in-person courses. Even missing one week of class is a significant disruption in terms of pedagogy and student learning outcomes.
 
The school year of 20-21 was a horrible time for our university and our community in terms of sickness. It is important to acknowledge that people at our university worked tirelessly around the clock to mitigate the effects of Covid-19. There are so many lessons we can take into this school year in order to avoid high rates of infection and disruption.
 
I am hoping the Board of Regents will consider some of the following options for all three regents institutions:
Reinstating flexible work arrangements for all faculty and staff who can work from home.
Requiring vaccinations, like other Big 10 schools such as the Universities of Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State, the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Rutgers University.
Charging unvaccinated students, faculty and staff additional health fees or giving vaccinated students a tuition discount and vaccinated employees hazard pay.
Requiring unvaccinated staff, students and faculty to be tested regularly for Covid.
Allowing faculty and staff to meet with students via zoom for some classes regardless of the size.
Offering hybrid options for all meetings.
Creating clear and swift guidelines informed by epidemiologists, virologists, and high-level health researchers which can be adapted to numerous scenarios and sharing these guidelines immediately so we are prepared and can plan our instruction. I want the university to be proactive.
 
This list is not exhaustive and with creativity and innovation other options might be added or considered.
 
Finally, as you probably know morale is at an all-time low. We are at risk of losing faculty, students, and staff who seek opportunities at academic institutions that have mandated vaccines for Covid and can institute mask wearing. While I recognize that our public universities are subjected to intense political pressures, I also feel that the morality of our academic institutions is at stake. This pandemic has taken a huge toll on productivity, mental health, teaching and learning.
 
Thank you for reading these concerns,