Hunter
08/05/20
Nearly 300 University of Iowa instructors have signed a pledge to provide “the safest, highest-quality online experience” for students returning for the Fall 2020 semester.
The letter also demands that the University restrict the number of students returning to campus, citing concern for safety not only of those students, but for instructors, staff, and their families.
The Daily Iowan reports that some UI graduates and a professor held a press conference that shared the petition demanding online instruction and remote work whenever possible this fall.
Megan Knight is an associate professor of instruction in the department of rhetoric, she said some of her fellow instructors don’t feel safe voicing their concerns publicly, and said, “I work with some amazing colleagues and I have to be honest with you, I’ve never seen them this dispirited or frightened.”
The pledge cites ineffective state and national response to COVID-19 among the reasons that classes should take place mostly online this semester.
Johnson County Supervisor Royceann Porter joined the presser, and said the idea of 30,000 students descending on the area in the next few weeks “scares the hell” out of her.