Dear President Cauce, Faculty Senate Chair Angotti, incoming Faculty Senate Chair Laws, incoming Faculty Senate Vice- Chair Reddy, and the members of the UW Board of Regents,

Recent communication (both on and off our listserv) from our UW-AAUP membership and list subscribers, alongside countless conversations we have held with colleagues in our units and networks, has made apparent to us the extent of faculty worry and dismay at the conditions of our planned return to campus in the fall. The UW-AAUP Executive Board joins our members and colleagues in affirming that the currently existing plans and guidelines for an autumn return are inadequate, as we do not have in place the measures necessary to ensure faculty and students have the safety and support we need and deserve.

It is simply incomprehensible why the Covid vaccine “requirement” is not being handled in the same way as all other vaccination requirements on campus, through the mandatory submission of vaccination records. We note, too, that with respect to other required vaccinations, medical, philosophical or religious exemptions must be documented and are subject to review (before approval) by a healthcare professional. By contrast, UW is requiring merely “attestations” without proof of Covid vaccination, and we understand that “philosophical exemptions” may be claimed, without documentation or review, by the mere click of a box. Why is our response to an actually existing, ongoing pandemic less stringent than our efforts at the prevention of other virulent diseases? It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the university is more concerned with tuition revenue than with the health and safety of its faculty, students, and staff.

At the same time, faculty are confronted with highly ambiguous guidelines concerning fall quarter teaching. Crucial questions around working conditions and accommodations for faculty are apparently to be resolved at the unit level; in the absence of coherent directives and protocols, units are literally scrambling to devise their own (radically different) interpretations of how autumn quarter teaching will proceed. This is a recipe for inequity.

In the two groups responsible for planning the fall return; the UW’s “Back to Work Taskforce” (https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/work-task-force/) and “Back to School Taskforce” (https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/learning-task-force/), there is virtually no faculty representation.  Each body includes only a single faculty representative (1 of 14 and 1 of 10 members, respectively).  This top-down approach to classroom planning suggests a serious lapse of shared governance; it is not shared governance if faculty are not at the table. 

The UW-AAUP Board calls for the prompt creation of a joint, UW faculty-led Senate/AAUP Emergency Safety and Support Task Force. The emergency task force would develop requirements for safe and healthy learning and working conditions.  In particular, this task force would address the following, urgent safety and support needs.

a. Ensure all students, faculty, and staff submit proof of vaccination, not just attestations of having received vaccinations.

b. Ensure all requested exemptions are documents and reviewed by a healthcare professional.

c. Ensure vaccination proofs are submitted before the start of Autumn Quarter classes (currently, students may delay even so much as “attesting” to their vaccination status until registering for winter quarter). 

d. Robust testing, tracing, and isolation programs, along with a universal masking mandate inside buildings until there is a marked decrease in community transmission of Covid-19.

e. Work environment improvements, including: upgrading HVAC systems to MERV 13, timely filter replacements, improving indoor ventilation and airflow, social distancing infrastructures, and enhanced daily cleaning of classrooms and workspaces.

f. Clear guidelines for fall quarter teaching and a single, clear, and efficient mechanism for faculty to request accommodations, including assignment to on-line classes, when a return to the classroom continues to pose a health risk to the faculty or their housemates. The safety of faculty must be paramount in these decisions, and the decisions cannot simply be delegated to units. 

g. Recognition that “multi-modal” teaching (accommodating both in-person and remote students in a single class) constitutes a course overload that should be compensated as such; further, assurance the university is not exploiting the pandemic to generalize expectations for a “hybrid” teaching model, in which in-person instructors would routinely be expected to also accommodate remote learners.

h. A dedicated COVID 19 Tech and Teaching Support Team at UW IT to keep pace with the volume of instructor needs resulting from the mix of face to face, distance and hybrid learning environments. 

This is a matter of the utmost urgency. We look forward to your prompt replies.

Respectfully,

The UW-AAUP Executive Board