Welcome to a new Academic Year. We were all hoping for a “return to normalcy” but it appears that the delta variant has thrown a substantial monkey-wrench into that aspiration. In a coming email we will ask for your views on DFA activities for 2021-2022. For the moment we would like your feedback on actions the DFA might take concerning the guidance issued for in-person instruction. As you may know, many faculty feel the recent procedures issued by the administration are problematic, eg having faculty continue to do in-person instruction even with a COVID-positive family member, or insisting that faculty with unvaccinated children do in-person instruction. On the other hand, there are also huge benefits to a return to an ability to teach and mentor in a more effective, personal setting.
We are therefore writing to solicit your views on how the return to in-person instruction should be implemented and whether the DFA should issue an official request to the administration. For example, should faculty be free individually to decide on in-person vs. remote instruction? Should the provision for permission for remote instruction currently limited to those who are immuno-compromised be extended to faculty with unvaccinated household members? Please respond with your thoughts to our email address.
The Provost’s Fall 2021 Campus Planning Update for August
Some additional resources include:
Letter from the Berkeley Faculty Association
UCD Women in Medical and Health Sciences Program letter of support for
families and caregivers
Thank you,
The DFA Board (Richard Scalettar (co-chair), Physics; Jesse Drew (co-chair), Cinema and Digital Media; Donald Palmer, Graduate School of Management; Susette Min, Asian American Studies; Valeria La Saponara, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Seth Sanders, Religious Studies; Glenda Drew, Design; Joe Kiskis, Physics).