Hunter
09/02/20
Hundreds of University of Iowa students have pledged to call in sick to their classes today after an anonymous coalition of undergraduate students, graduate students, instructors, faculty and staff launched a social media campaign with the ultimate goal of moving to online-exclusive learning.
The organizers sent a prepared statement to the Daily Iowan after Monday’s update from the university showed 922 students and 13 employees have self-reported testing positive.
Those 922 students, according to the statement, “may have already unwittingly spread the virus to their parents and grandparents, to their friends, to their neighbors, to essential workers, so we aren’t seeing the true height of the spread at UIowa yet.”
Organizers, who started the social media campaign on Twitter and Instagram on August 23rd, say they’re hoping to have at least 500 pledges by this morning.
University officials have pushed back at the sickout. The DI reports that UI Associate Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate College John Keller and UI Interim Provost Kevin Kregel sent an email to the Campaign to Organize Graduate students and to all UI faculty to express their disagreement with their plans to call in sick Wednesday. The message said while administrators acknowledge the group’s concerns, they disagree with their manner of expressing it, and remind faculty about “their obligation to deliver instruction as assigned.”
The organizers say that they had been discussing the sickout event for some time, but held off originally because they expected the UI to shut down within the first week.