They prefer "residential spread" for things like small discussion classes. I simply do not see how a small discussion class can function when everyone is sitting 6 feet away from each other, struggling to be heard.

The hybrid models listed above assume that all students enrolled will be able to make it to campus and into the classroom. It completely ignores disabled and high-risk students who cannot safely be in the classroom. What are we supposed to do for them?

Remote teaching is listed last, because we are now told that a very small number of circumstances will qualify for accommodation. These slides explain. First, massive data collection on faculty and their health (spreadsheets). That's troubling.

"Mode assignments" won't be finalized until mid-July (they think), giving us 4 weeks to prepare syllabi that will look wildly different based on what we are assigned. For those who do get to teach remote, 4 weeks is not enough time to prepare materials.

We know–years and years of online teaching work and analysis has shown–that the labor outlay for online teaching is front-loaded and takes a huge amount of time. Tech is setting us up to fail, and completely disregarding our time.

If they truly cared about "maximizing student learning" they would address the things I've mentioned in this thread. Face-to-face DOES NOT equal better teaching. And it cannot during a pandemic that is killing people all around.

So, let's see who will be considered for remote teaching accommodation. Keep in mind that, as of YESTERDAY, we thought that any request for accommodation would be approved by our bosses, no matter the condition. Like I said, many of us already had approved accommodations.

Suddenly we are back to "over 65 or high-risk." Absolutely no mention of caretakers and family members of high-risk people. No mention of the fact that COVID can kill anyone, no matter their risk status. (And a nice typo towards the bottom there.)

How can they guarantee that we'll secure a remote accommodation? By demanding that we provide proof of our conditions. Again, massive data collection on faculty health and well-being, violation of our privacy, potential to be weaponized against us (especially the contingent).

Here is the form Tech is requiring us to fill out: https://hr.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Benefits/georgia_tech_covid-19_higher_risk_alternative_work_arrangement_request_form.pdf It is FIVE PAGES and includes consent to let HR communicate directly with our healthcare providers.

Finally, the powerpoint says that denied requests can be appealed. But there is no information on how to file an appeal, what the decision process will look like, nor how long it will take. Again, we will have FOUR WEEKS to do this before the semester begins.

So, if we are denied, we will have to design a course for a particular mode and appeal and hope the appeal is successful and also design the course we could teach in our desired mode and wait around for we don't know how long until we are told which we get to do.

And, oh yes, those of us who will have to appeal could: be caretakers of at-risk family members; be parents; be disabled in ways that don't "qualify."

So that's all the info we have right now from @GeorgiaTech, and in fact, I have more info than most because I acquired this powerpoint. And to conclude, I will leave this story, about how many colleges with students on campus have COVID outbreaks: http://cnn.com/2020/06/10/us/university-athletes-coronavirus-spt-trnd/index.html

addendum: i apologize for the slide images in this thread being inaccessible for screen readers. i'm happy to email the powerpoint to anyone who can't read the images i included here.

addendum 2: I learned from this petition that @GeorgiaTech is not letting students cancel housing contracts based on course delivery modes, which again, we don’t know yet anyway https://www.change.org/p/georgia-tech-students-push-back-gt-housing-decision-until-class-info-is-released

My focus in this thread was faculty perspective, but I am also outraged that students are expected to be on the hook for thousands of dollars in housing fees without knowing how their classes will be delivered.

Addendum 3: I have also not touched on staff perspective here. @GeorgiaTech has already had a staff member die from COVID. They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.