Requirements during good times aren’t the same as requirements in bad times (hiring??). I’m sure if they took a long look at what is actually being done they could get by with 15-85 or even 10-90. The key point is that over the next few semesters the BEST thing that they can do is teach.
Wonder if they split up classes into smaller sections, if the prof could just lecture once, re-broadcast to the other sections, and then rotate which section they teach “live” every week. It would still be overall the same number of students in the class, just spread out for social distancing. I can see there being some potential scheduling challenges but it would eliminate the need for more work on the profs part.
@homerdog @Rivet2000 What do you propose they do with the research grants? Keep the money but don’t do the research? Return the money? Try to delay it somehow & depend on the university for funding teaching instead of research? Most of the professors I know are primarily funded by research grants which pay the salary/ benefits for everyone in their lab, all equipment, conference expenses, admin support, etc. They work about 70 hours a week.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: I’m not officially participating in this thread, but I have to say one thing - professors are some of the hardest working people I know. My dad was often up past 1 am. Grading papers, writing proposals for research money, reading theses and dissertations, participating on boards of directors of national organizations, overseeing other professors, etc., etc. I would say he worked at least 60 hours a week, every week, 52 weeks a year. Our “vacations” were always organized around engineering educator conferences each summer. I think 2015, his 51st year of teaching, was the first time he took a trip entirely for pleasure. OK, stepping out now. 
Crickets.
Just want to add that during the 2008-2009 financial crisis many state employees were furloughed for a period of time.
For faculty at some state universities, that meant they kept teaching regular hours, and weren’t excused from committee work. As far as I know, this wasn’t taken into account when judging publication and research to make decisions on retentions or promotions.
This may happen again it seems to me.
And again, why would most parents of current college students be aware of this?
We just received emails to the effect that the state is working on agreements for possible adjustments to Tenure Clock Timelines and reappointment review procedures.
None of which affect me personally. I’m likely going under a different bus.
I think that really depends on the school. My D’s school is 10% international and 50% OOS. Kids can’t regularly be sent home when they are sick. We are 1000 miles away. If my D gets covid we would definitely go to her if we could, but it’s not like we can fly her home. Even driving her home would be a challenge since she’d have to get out of the car to go to the bathroom if nothing else. Her school is going to have to have SOME plan for where to put these kids (and feed them) when they test positive to keep them away from everyone else.
Sylvan, I hope it all works out okay for you!
Of course hiring. Not all staff and professors will be able to work on-campus for health or professional reasons. There is always attrition, retirements, people going on long-planned sabbaticals for which they also got grants, people finding new jobs. A university is like a large corporation.
No. Even on the College Confidential site, there are parents who are deeply anti-intellectual with very little respect for academics and even less knowledge of how universities work. We’ve read some of their opinions on this thread.
I have no clue what lots of jobs entail. And only very limited understanding of academia.
Since this is school in the fall with corona thread, it all seems on topic to me, and potentially very useful, in thinking about planning.
But I bet you don’t tell people how to do those jobs.
Regarding testing, Dr. Fauci’s comments about colleges (posted upthread) said something about doing general, almost-random testing of a small sample size and then using that to model and watch for outbreaks amongst the student body.
I’m summarizing/wording this horribly, but that was interesting, and would provide one answer as to questions as to who/when/how often to test.
That was kind of one of the few concrete things he said in that interview! And he was clear that he wasn’t making any official recommendations.
I haven’t been participating in this thread lately but popping in to report that WashUStl sent out an update today. The details are not completely nailed down, but they will be staggering the start/end dates by school. Some classes will be in person, some online, some hybrid, and there will be options for students who prefer to do all online. They expect to announce more details no later than July 31, as the situation evolves. No mention yet of fall or Thanksgiving breaks.
D20 is in A&S. Classes were originally scheduled to start Aug 24. Glad I didn’t book flights yet!
Some colleges are looking into the idea of testing sewage daily for signs of coronavirus infections. If the virus is found in sewage, people on campus will then be tested.
I’d bet that would be a violation of HIPAA. About the only thing that they can do is to notify the whole school and perhaps even the whole class, but even that might be too much transparency for HIPAA.
@momzilla2D thats really interesting. I assume there is no overlap in classes taken between the schools?
And what to do with all of their grad students? Just have them hang around with zero professional input from their academic advisors (who would be teaching 100%)?