Protect Our Campuses
The Regents of the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Legislature, and Governor Kemp
The COVID-19 pandemic still poses severe risks for campus communities throughout Georgia. However, the University System of Georgia still has not put adequate safety measures in place, lagging behind almost all other institutions in the Southeast. Please sign to tell the USG Board of Regents that we need them to exercise their leadership responsibilities now!
Sponsored by
To:
The Regents of the University System of Georgia, the Georgia Legislature, and Governor Kemp
From:
[Your Name]
Despite all of our hopes, the arrival of the Omicron variant of SARS-COV2 ensures that life on Georgia campuses this Spring Semester will not begin as normal. Many universities, including Duke, Emory, Morehouse, Spelman, UNC and LSU, have moved to protect their campuses and surrounding communities by delaying the start of the semester or by beginning the term online. Yet the University System of Georgia has so far failed to respond adequately to explosive infection levels in Georgia.
In order to protect the many vulnerable people who labor to support our campuses, and to ensure that students enjoy a safe and educationally successful year to the greatest extent possible under these difficult conditions, we urge you to change course. We all want to meet our classes in person as much as possible this semester. To make that possible we call on Acting Chancellor MacCartney, the Board of Regents, the Georgia legislature and Governor Kemp to take immediate action.
Instructors should be given the authority to conduct their classes online for the initial weeks of the semester.
In-person classes should begin only after employees and students have shown proof of vaccination. For those unable or unwilling to meet this requirement, weekly tests should be mandatory– a policy that is in force, for example, for students at the University of Kentucky.
Surveillance testing should be easily accessible in multiple locations on each campus. On campus testing should be available to all symptomatic and asymptomatic students, faculty and staff.
Following current CDC guidelines, N-95 quality masks should be supplied and required in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status. We note that this is already policy at the University of Alabama, the University of South Carolina, and many other institutions in the Southeast.
All staff whose physical presence on campus is not required should be permitted to work remotely. Those who must be present should be compensated for the risk they incur.
We, the undersigned staff, faculty, students, parents, and community members call on you to act on behalf of the core academic values of rationality, humanity, and science, to ensure that USG campuses have a healthy and productive semester.