Penn State faculty continue to demand vaccine mandate, set to stage a ‘Zoom-In’ protest for classes
At least 250 Penn State faculty — and, potentially, significantly more — are protesting the university’s decision not to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine by staging a “Zoom-In,” where in-person classes Monday and Tuesday will be held virtually.
Coalition for a Just University (CJU), a faculty-based group formed last year out of growing concern with Penn State’s COVID-19 plans, is organizing the protest while other university-wide groups — such as the PSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors — are supporting the effort. Estimates include only those who’ve confirmed participation, not professors who simply decided on their own to temporarily go virtual.
“It’s partly about the idea that if we buy an extra week for people to get vaccinated, and an extra week for the university to do some testing and think about it, then maybe there’s a possibility that they actually will make things safer,” said Mike Schmierbach, an associate professor of communications who’s taking part in the Zoom-In. “But more likely, symbolically, it shows that the faculty are willing to do what it takes to protect the health of the university community — even if the administration isn’t.”
The protest is just the latest in a long line of acts, letters and statements that highlight both the faculty’s and the greater Penn State community’s concerns over the university’s mandate-free COVID-19 plan. In just the last four weeks, several dozen faculty staged a rally in front of Old Main, the faculty senate passed a no-confidence vote on the university’s fall COVID plan, two local student governments issued a joint letter urging a vaccine mandate, and the Centre Region Council of Governments — which represents six local municipalities — drafted a letter to “strongly encourage” a vaccine requirement.
That’s on top of faculty op-eds in The Atlantic, StateCollege.com and the CDT urging the same. But university officials have so far refused to bend toward a mandate, so faculty have so far refused to stop protesting.
“The danger (of the delta variant) is real and the disruption to our society is real,” said fellow Zoom-In participant Jesse Barlow, a professor in the College of Engineering and the State College Borough Council President. “We have to fight it with everything we got.”
The idea for the Zoom-In on the first two days of class came earlier this month, reflecting an open letter/petition from CJU that demanded a vaccine mandate and other steps toward a safer campus, like a more flexible remote-teaching policy. To date, more than 1,200 faculty have signed that petition in addition to more than 1,700 students, alumni and community members.
Both the university and the Penn State Parents Council, comprised of more than 50 parents and family members of current students, oppose the Zoom-In.
The university has repeatedly expressed confidence in its current plan that “heavily incentivizes” the vaccine, requires universal masking indoors and tests those without proof of vaccination once a week. University spokesman Wyatt DuBois also pointed to sanitation stations and high ventilation standards as promoting safety.
“We expect faculty to provide in-class instruction and any classes designated for it,” DuBois said in a written statement. “The university already has begun to hear from students and families upset that some faculty are planning to observe the ‘Zoom-In’ and teach remotely at the start of the semester. We understand why students and families are concerned. It is important for faculty to meet the expectations of our students, and deliver the mode of teaching designated for each course. Faculty and instructors who do not meet their in-class teaching obligations may of course be subject to disciplinary sanctions.”
Barlow pointed out that those initial classes usually aren’t the most crucial when it comes to instruction. Typically, professors share the course syllabus and discuss expectations the first class; students can freely add or drop a course that first week.
CJU members said that’s why Monday and Tuesday were intentionally chosen as the Zoom-In days. They’re least likely to disrupt students’ learning, while still affording faculty the ability to make a statement.
“There’s a lot of concern, and it feels like faculty are acting in everyone’s best interest right now,” said Michelle Rodino-Colocino, president of the PSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “But we are getting pushback from the administration. And it’s unsettling and disappointing when you’re just trying to advocate for people’s health and access to education because everyone can have access to Zoom and still do their classes.”
According to a university email sent to academic unit leaders, shared with faculty and obtained by the CDT, an in-person course can consist of up to 24% of Zoom classes while still meeting the definition of an in-person class. (Faculty are told to alert unit leaders if normal delivery will be interrupted for more than one or two class periods.)
In the email, Executive Vice President and Provost Nicholas Jones explained Zoom classes become problematic above 24% because that changes the official instruction mode, which is reported to state, federal and accreditation agencies. If an instructor goes above 24% without permission, a “constructive conversation should be held ... prior to applying any sanctions.”
Added Schmierbach: “Even by the university’s own rules, having a class — or even a couple classes online — doesn’t violate anything.”
To date, more than three dozen Pennsylvania colleges have mandated the vaccine — including Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon and Penn — while more than 700 nationally have followed suit. More than half of Big Ten schools also currently have a vaccine requirement.
The ultimate reasoning behind Penn State’s decision not to mandate the vaccine hasn’t been made totally clear. But, in an open letter earlier this month, university President Eric Barron alluded to a national split on mandates, potential legal challenges and a Republican-controlled state legislature that oversees part of the university’s funding.
(State Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, told the CDT last week that he wouldn’t cut the university’s appropriation if it chose to move forward with a mandate — but he couldn’t promise his colleagues would act in the same way.)
“The administration’s continued refusal to treat faculty as true partners in efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 at Penn State has forced us into this action,” Zoom-In participant John Champagne, an English professor at Penn State Behrend, said in a written statement. “All of us want to return to face-to-face instruction, but we must do so in a way that is guided by science and not external financial and political interests.
“This Zoom-In signals to the entire PSU community the urgency of returning to the principles of shared governance that once characterized the relationship between faculty, administration and the board of trustees.”
Based on anonymous, nonscientific student surveys — which could skew in the vaccine’s favor — 88% of University Park respondents, 73% of Commonwealth Campus respondents and 84% of World Campus respondents report being vaccinated. Of the 4,664 students who moved in to on-campus UPark housing through Wednesday, about 77.5% had proof of vaccination.
Those numbers didn’t pacify many, who pointed out that a 300-person class might still include 30-80 unvaccinated students especially susceptible to the delta variant. For instructors who have children younger than 12, too young to be vaccinated, and those who live with high-risk individuals, there is a fear that campus might put their households at risk either now or later in the semester when cases likely rise.
After all, CJU expressed concerns last year in a simulation/report that was widely dismissed by the university. The simulation estimated 2,500 COVID cases at UPark; there were more than 5,000 in the fall. Now one of those same co-authors is “extremely concerned” the unvaccinated in the community — students, residents, staff and faculty — could be in for a difficult semester.
Faculty sharing that concern are hoping to reiterate their desire for a vaccine mandate with the Zoom-In. And, according to several CJU members, they won’t stop voicing their disagreement with the university until something changes.
“I think that they have shown a willingness to take actions to avoid criticisms from people who aren’t actually stakeholders in the university,” Schmierbach said. “And maybe it’s time that they start dealing with criticism from people who are stakeholders in the university, who have a much more direct investment in Penn State being the best and safest education experience it can be.”
This story was originally published August 22, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
