{"id":23752,"date":"2020-06-16T14:04:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/?p=23752"},"modified":"2020-06-16T14:04:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T18:04:09","slug":"bu-professors-ask-for-flexibility-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/2020\/06\/16\/bu-professors-ask-for-flexibility-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Professors Ask for Flexibility This Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" allow=\"autoplay\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/841319923&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true&amp;visual=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>BU Professors Ask for Flexibility This Fall<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">by Grace Ferguson<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This fall, Boston University is launching a hybrid learning program, but some professors have their doubts about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The program is called Learn from Anywhere, and it\u2019s part of the university\u2019s plan to let students come back to campus. Under Learn from Anywhere, or LfA, students can choose to go to class in-person or online, but the university has not given professors the same option. Professors are expected to teach in-person, and BU leadership told faculty that there will be very few exceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two BU philosophy professors published an <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.daniel-star.net\/fallteaching.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">open letter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about LfA earlier this month. Russell Powell and Daniel Star say faculty should be able to make a personal decision about whether or not to come back to campus, just like students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf there\u2019s going to be Learn from Anywhere, there should be Teach from Anywhere,\u201d Star said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Powell and Star aren\u2019t alone. They started a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1ZDTdd3Fd09pCblT1LRiJh91nTooHC5aEnU3jFpax_eM\/edit#gid=1375211635\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">petition<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for their cause, which has over 1100 signatures. On the list of names are BU professors, BU students, faculty at other universities, and other members of the public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are many reasons why professors might want to teach from home. Some faculty are on the older side, or they have medical conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19. But beyond that, some faculty have to care for elderly parents. Some have young children who they can\u2019t quarantine away from. Right now, BU doesn\u2019t have a process for letting professors in any of those groups teach from home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe fact that they didn\u2019t even make any attempt to take into account medical risks of faculty is quite shocking to the conscience, I think, of many or most faculty members,\u201d Powell said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university could offer medical leave to tenure-track faculty, but the two professors say that\u2019s not enough. In that case, grad students and adjunct faculty would have to teach in their place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThat\u2019s not solving the problem, that\u2019s just creating a further injustice,\u201d Powell said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is an obvious incentive for BU to push for in-person classes. Universities are bracing themselves for enrollment declines this fall as they launch partially or fully online programs. Students prefer an in-person learning experience, especially when that\u2019s what they signed up for. According to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/admissions\/article\/2020\/04\/13\/survey-shows-potential-impact-coronavirus-enrollment\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by the research firm SimpsonScarborough, up to a quarter of high school seniors might change their college plans because of the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Powell and Star say student perspectives aren\u2019t so simple as they sound. Some students might not have thought about the implications of reopening campus, but that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t or shouldn\u2019t, the professors say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cStudents who have read our letter find it important, compelling. [They\u2019re] like \u2018Let\u2019s talk about this, let\u2019s try to figure out what we can do together to get through this difficult period,\u2019\u201d Powell said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like students are just these consumers that are just looking for their services and are annoyed they\u2019re not getting them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some students have already voiced their support for a Teach from Anywhere approach. Jaclyn Tayabji is a law student at BU. She started a petition just for students and alumni, which has 170 signatures. More than 400 of the signatures on Powell and Star\u2019s petition come from students as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf students are willing to kind of put aside their own self interest and really advocate for the faculty and for the wellbeing of our community, then I think that that shows a lot about where the university\u2019s priorities should lie,\u201d Tayabji said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tayabji had been thinking about the fall since BU announced that her program would be taught in a hybrid model. But she said she hadn\u2019t thought about the moral perspective until she read Powell and Star\u2019s letter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think the overall response I\u2019ve gotten is students just haven\u2019t thought about it, or [they] assumed that the hybrid model would also apply for faculty,\u201d Tayabji said. \u201cSo having this petition written, I think, really started to open up a lot of students\u2019 eyes as to what does this fall look like.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eileen O\u2019Keefe, chair of BU\u2019s Faculty Council, said she thinks BU\u2019s current plan is a strong model for keeping everyone safe. The university is launching a large-scale testing and contact tracing program this fall.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think it\u2019s one perspective that faculty should have flexibility. I\u2019m not sure how realistic that is for all faculty,\u201d she said. \u201cI think if we take into account CDC guidelines and those who are at higher risk, and allow flexibility for those people, I think that\u2019s a reasonable approach at this time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">O\u2019Keefe said BU is still working on its reopening plan, including how it will accommodate faculty.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BU Professors Ask for Flexibility This Fall by Grace Ferguson This fall, Boston University is launching a hybrid learning program, but some professors have their doubts about it. The program is called Learn from Anywhere, and it\u2019s part of the university\u2019s plan to let students come back to campus. Under Learn from Anywhere, or LfA, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17683,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1597,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23753,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23752\/revisions\/23753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}