Instructors 
across 
campus 

are expressing concerns about 
COVID-19 protocols currently 
in place despite being told the 
classroom is “the safest place to 
be on campus” by University of 
Michigan administration. 

Among those concerned is 

Rackham student Ryan Glauser, 
co-chair of the Graduate Employ-
ees’ Organization’s COVID-19 
caucus, who told The Michigan 
Daily he felt no reassurance in 
returning to the classroom this 
semester.

“It more pissed (GEO) off 

because we know of students 
who are positive (for COVID-19) 
coming to our classrooms, sitting 
in class and then leaving,” Glaus-

er said. “We don’t know how 

(the University) is making (the) 
assessment (that classrooms are 
particularly safe), but we know 
it’s not based off of numbers 
because they can’t provide them 
to us when we asked them.”

In August, the University 

announced 
that 
they 
would 

require all students, faculty and 
staff to be vaccinated against 
COVID-19. 
U-M 
community 

members 
who 
were 
granted 

exemptions are required to get 
tested weekly. Currently, 96% 
of students and 88% of staff, 
including 96% of faculty, are 
fully vaccinated against COVID-
19. The University also requires 
everyone to wear masks in all 
on-campus buildings regardless 
of vaccination status.

At the start of the fall 2021 

semester, 
COVID-19 
cases 

increased dramatically, by over 
100 cases during the first three 
weeks of classes. By the end of 
September, the positivity rate on 
campus dropped to about 0.8% 
and has remained low.

Even with high vaccination 

rates among students and fac-
ulty, Rackham student Erick 
Aguinaldo, 
graduate 
student 

instructor in the Department 
of Women’s and Gender Stud-
ies, told The Daily on Sept. 30 he 
has yet to experience a full week 
without a potential COVID-19 
exposure since the beginning of 
the semester.

“I get overwhelmed by emails 

every 
week 
about 
students 

who’ve either tested positive for 
COVID, are showing symptoms 
or think they might have been 
exposed,” Aguinaldo said.

Aguinaldo said he found it 

impossible to properly social 
distance in the classroom, espe-
cially without personal protec-
tive equipment being supplied 
by the University. As a result, 
he decided to teach both of his 
Introduction to Women’s and 
Gender Studies sections out-
doors, weather permitting.

“I’ve been teaching outside 

because of fear of COVID, but 
to my knowledge, there are not 

continuously refilled masks in 
the classroom,” Aguinaldo said. 
“From my understanding, (the 
University’s) masks aren’t great, 
so I went out of pocket and 
bought all of my students KN95 
masks for their safety and my 
safety as well.”

Aguinaldo also said his stu-

dents’ 
mental 
and 
physical 

health remain the top priority in 
discussion sections, something 
that is reflected in how he han-
dles COVID-19 cases.

“I’ve been telling students 

(who tested positive for COVID) 
to stay at home and that we’ll 
work things out, which involves 
them doing the assignments 
from home,” Aguinaldo said. “I 
definitely encourage them to rest 
and focus on their well-being 
instead of tripping out about the 
class.”

The motivation for these pre-

cautions, Aguinaldo said, is his 
fear of contracting COVID-19 
and transmitting it to his ten-
month-old daughter, who is cur-
rently ineligible to be vaccinated.

“As (the delta variant) con-

tinued getting worse, I became 
more and more hesitant about 
being in person,” Aguinaldo 
said. “My daughter’s ten months 
old right now, so that was a big 
worry for me.”

Echoing 
Aguinaldo’s 
con-

cerns, 
Lydia 
Kelow-Bennett, 

professor of Afroamerican and 
African studies, said she also felt 
nervous returning to the class-
room in case of breakthrough 
infections that could put her two 
unvaccinated children at risk.

“With unvaccinated children 

at home, I have had to change the 
way we relate as a family which 
has been devastating,” Kelow-
Bennet said. “Distancing from 
my own children seems too much 
to ask for a job.”

For faculty members to teach 

remotely, they must submit a 
request through Work Connec-
tions, the University’s disability 
management program. Accord-
ing to University President Mark 
Schlissel in an email obtained 
by The Daily, 28 requests for 
remote teaching were submitted 
through Work Connections. Of 
those requests, 20 were denied 
and 4 were accepted.

The Faculty Senate met last 

week to discuss and ultimately 
approve five motions, including 
the University’s COVID-19 pro-
tocols and the lack of options for 
instructors requesting remote 
teaching. Prior to the meeting, 
Schlissel wrote in an email to 
the assembly defending the Uni-
versity’s widespread return to in 
person learning. Schlissel also 
said that instructor requests to 
teach remotely are carefully con-
sidered by medical personnel. 

Schlissel added that “ 
it is not 

in Work Connections’ scope to 
review requests related to the 
health status of an instructor’s 
family members or others with 
whom they reside.”

German professor Silke-Maria 

Weineck, who has been advocat-

ing for faculty with serious pre-
existing conditions to be given 
more consideration for remote 
teaching options, said Work Con-
nections often rejects remote 
teaching requests for faculty 
who may be immunocompro-
mised.

In an email to The Daily, Wei-

neck said this includes faculty 
who are currently in chemother-
apy or who have lost multiple 
organs.

“Faculty who need to teach 

remotely due to high vulner-
ability are directed to Work 
Connections; a unit that has 
overwhelmingly 
declined 
to 

validate these requests,” Wei-
neck said. “These colleagues’ 
own physicians, overwhelmingly 
UM physicians themselves, have 
endorsed these requests. … Case 
managers who are not equipped 
to evaluate patients are given 
the power to overrule experts in 
their field.”

For Political Science Profes-

sor Deborah Beim, who recently 
tested positive for COVID-19, 
the chair of the Political Sci-
ence Department helped piece 
together a plan for asynchronous 
instruction during her quaran-
tine period. Still, Beim said she 
wishes she had originally pre-
pared a plan in case of a positive 
test this semester.

“(My 
department 
chair) 

helped me put together a plan 
where I uploaded asynchronous 
lectures from last year, which 
allowed me to take a week of 
rest,” Beim said. “I wish, in ret-
rospect, that I had had a plan 
that I could just like immediately 
kick into action.”

After testing positive for a 

breakthrough case early on in 
the 
semester, 
Kelow-Bennett 

said she immediately canceled 
her classes but initially could not 
find anyone to take over instruc-
tion while she stayed home and 
recovered.

“My department just really 

struggled to figure out a way to 
cover my classes, which is par-
tially about everybody being 
incredibly 
stretched 
thin,” 

Kelow-Bennett said. “But it’s 
also about (departments) and 
the larger University not having 
plans in place for the fact that 
professors were going to get sick 
and be out for extended periods 
of time.”

Once Kelow-Bennett’s quaran-

tine period officially ended, she 
still felt the lingering symptoms 
of COVID-19, so much so that she 
was physically unable to hold a 
lecture without running out of 
breath. When Work Connections 
denied Kelow-Bennett’s request 
to continue teaching remotely, 
she said she felt helpless.

“I felt disposable when I read 

that email,” Kelow-Bennett said. 
“I realized that if all (the Uni-
versity) cares about is that I’m 
infectious, not the fact that I will 
pass out either walking to class 
or talking to students, then that 
means that there’s no value put 
on my well-being and my life.”

When GSIs want to opt for 

remote instruction, Glauser said 
they are not allowed to use Work 
Connections and must instead 
submit both an Americans with 
Disability Act work request and 
a Services for Students with Dis-
abilities request.

Hoping to teach remotely, 

Aguinaldo said he sought assis-
tance from his instructor, as 
well as the Women’s and Gender 
Studies Department, to switch to 
a fully virtual format for his dis-
cussion sections. 

Though the department pro-

vided Aguinaldo with a lecture 
hall for his discussion sections to 
be better able to social distance, 
he said they ultimately declined 
his original request to teach over 
Zoom.

“I 
met 
with 
the 
interim 

department chair, and they were 
willing to provide accommoda-
tions to make me feel safer, but 
there’s no way to completely 
teach online,” Aguinaldo said. 
“They essentially said, ‘if you 
refuse to teach in person, then 
we have to remove you from your 
position.’”

Individual departments at the 

University are subject to college 
guidelines concerning teaching 
format and online instruction 
requests.

After the meeting, Aguinaldo 

said he left feeling like his voice 
was not heard and his situation 
not considered.

“I made it pretty clear that 

I was angry with the way the 
conversation went and the way 
consequences 
were 
framed,” 

Aguinaldo said. “I felt like it kind 
of devalued the safety of my fam-
ily.”

According to Glauser, these 

feelings of frustration are the 
general sentiment felt among 
GSIs whose requests for accom-
modations have not been met.

“I know of at least ten people 

who have not been able to get 
accommodations,” Glauser said. 
“At this very moment, we’re still 
fighting to get them remote work 
or extra accommodations for in-
person work so that they’re safe.”

With the Faculty Senate’s 

recent passing of the motion 
advocating for the incorporation 
of faculty input into the Univer-
sity’s in-person teaching policy, 
Kelow-Bennett said she hopes 
University leadership will con-
sider faculty concerns and trust 
instructors 
to 
govern 
them-

selves.

“This moment is a critical 

moment for central adminis-
tration to rethink how they are 
using their power and to rethink 
what faculty governance really 
looks like,” Kelow-Bennett said. 
“What we need are the flexibil-
ity and the support to be able to 
make the decisions that we need 
to make in order for everyone to 
navigate this pandemic.” 

Daily Staff Reporters Justin 

O’Beirne and Evan DeLorenzo can 
be reached at justinob@umich.
edu and evandelo@umich.edu. 

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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ACADEMICS
UMich faculty experience difficulty with 
requesting the ability to teach remotely

Some professors, GSIs are frustrated they can’t teach online despite safety concerns

EVAN DELORENZO &

 JUSTIN O’BEIRNE 

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