My summer is ending even earlier than usual this year. Classes are starting a week earlier than usual, with the understanding that they will end before Thanksgiving, after which students do not need to return (as they normally would). Instead, final evaluation would take place on-line.
Lectures can be delivered on-line, but at least some portion of a chemistry laboratory, if it is to be performed safely, must be taught in a face-to-face environment. Not all of them need to be face-to-face—some simulations and dry-labs can be substituted for the real thing—but students really need to learn how to handle and use standard chemistry laboratory equipment.
We have come up with a scheme that ought to allow for sufficient social distancing in the lab, and I hope it works out. But in the grand plan, there are other concerns. While any lecture course could be delivered on-line, the university is sung ho on face-to-face course delivery, because that’s what students want. Residence halls will be occupied with one student per room or suite. If it is determined that a student came in contact with someone carrying COVID-19, they will have to self-isolate for 14 days, and the course instructor has to accommodate. The same is true if a student becomes ill with COVID-19. Course sections have been reduced so that it is possible for students to practice social distancing in the classroom. Everyone is expected to wear a mask, including the instructor. I hope no one in any of my classes is hard of hearing, because lip-reading will not be an option. And as it is, my voice will be muffled by the mask.
We are wrestling with the university administration to make sure that our building HVAC brings in fresh air from outside other than recirculate the building air, which may be laden with virus. The university administration is balking at allowing faculty who are at increased risk for bad COVID outcomes, or who have family members who have such increased risk, to deliver their lectures on-line. Faculty do not think this is an unreasonable request, but administration is reluctant to do so.
I have yet to figure out quite what to do, but I better figure it out soon. There’s not much time left. I’m not happy about the short summer, but as with everything else in COVID world, there’s not much that can be done about that. Barring some extraordinary and unpredictable event (and given what’s happened this year, it can’t be discounted), I expect to retire at the end of this coming academic year. Even though I’m pretty young (I turn 61 next month), I feel like I’ve had enough turns on this particular merry-go-round. Indeed, it feels like it’s about to fly apart, like the one at the end of Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train.
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Top Comment (July 8, 2020):
From Puddytat:
Reddog1 had the perfect description of the new DK frontpage. Worth a look by everyone. From zenbassoon’s post About that new design…
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This comment by Bring the Lions in Christian Dem in NC’s recommended post on Cook’s claiming Trump near the “point of no return.”
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