Answer:
I was among the thousands of students that my university asked not to return to the campus after spring break amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the spring semester has ended, I, like many students, have received a number of email updates from administrators regarding plans for the fall semester.
Those emails indicate that the university, like others I’ve heard or read about, would like to bring students back in person as much as possible and will turn to online classes only as a backup or last resort. But this approach is based on a faulty premise -- not all students want to return to campus under the circumstances they have proposed.
As much as everyone would love to return to campus life as it existed in January, that’s no longer an option. Bringing students back to campuses at any cost might achieve only a Pyrrhic victory for universities. Below I outline some questions about the proposed “hybrid” models of on-campus instruction.
Explanation:
If I am exposed to an infected student, I will presumably have to quarantine from the time I am exposed until I get sick, recover and ultimately test negative. That could take six weeks! Will all of my classes be recorded? If not, how will I ever catch up? Alternatively, if I am able to remotely view an in-person class, that still won’t be adequate: online-only classes permit remote interaction, but in-person classes can turn remote students into passive viewers.
