From: "Gross, Louis J" Date: Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 2:16 PM To: "FacultyInfo@Listserv.utk.edu" Cc: "Gross, Louis J" Subject: Faculty Senate Leadership note on Mask and COVID response matters From the Faculty Senate Leadership: As of this date, Chancellor Plowman has removed all masking requirements on campus as per her message of December 1 to campus. This arises because of actions of the State legislature and Governor, not because of any change in CDC guidance for institutions of higher education, which still encourages masking on campuses such as UTK without a vaccination mandate. The most recent change to remove the mask mandate (note that a mandate for masks has been in effect for the past week) arose because of legal challenges and an associated injunction. The Faculty Senate Leadership has discussed how faculty might deal with the change in mandate as it affects exams and the final meetings of the semester. First, we suggest that the highest priority for faculty should be to ensure that you act based on the health and safety of you, your family and the campus community you interact with. This means to continue to encourage vaccination (and boosters for those eligible) and to continue to encourage personal safety measures such as distancing and masking as per CDC Guidance. Second, regarding meeting with students and others, with no mask mandate at least temporarily the campus cannot require individuals on campus to wear masks. However, this doesn't mean that you must meet with individuals in your own office space if doing so with those not wearing masks makes you fear for your health and those you interact with at home. A completely reasonable response you might make in this case is simply to place a note outside your office stating that you request that all individuals who meet with you in your office wear a mask (and that you will do the same). If someone wishes to meet with you and does not wish to follow this request, inform them to email you and you will set up a virtual meeting with them. Alternatively, you might simply hold all meetings with individuals virtually. Third, regarding class meetings for example for study sessions or exams, you might email the students in your classes informing them that, with no mandate on campus you are aware that you cannot require all to wear masks in any class meetings. However, you are requesting that, as they have complied with mask requirements for most of the semester, which has contributed to the very low rates of infections on campus, they continue to do so in the few remaining class gatherings. This is indicative of the Volunteer spirit in doing what we can to protect the health of our fellow Volunteers. Some additional options we have suggested to the Provost for consideration as a means for faculty to respond to concerns about safety in exams are: (i) for in-class exams which do not take the full exam period, split the class so 1/2 take it during the first part and 1/2 during the second part of the scheduled time period; (ii) check with the Registrar to see if another larger space option is available if the assigned room is very full and we have requested that the campus utilize large spaces such as the Arena to be available during exam periods for classes scheduled in very full rooms; (iii) offer an exam simultaneously online and in person, to allow students the option to exercise their personal choice about safety. We have also heard that some instructors are offering students with sufficiently high grades entering the exam period the option to not take a final exam, depending upon what is stated in the course syllabus and any modifications made to it over the semester. We have also learned that some courses are offering students who do not wish to take a final exam due to health concerns the option of taking an incomplete, though this induces a variety of additional issues. Thanks for all you do to maintain our campus community in these challenging times. We encourage you to pass this note along to new faculty who may not be included on the FacultyInfo listserv. -- Louis J. Gross (he, him, his) Chancellor’s Professor and Alvin and Sally Beaman Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics Director Emeritus, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS.org) Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling University of Tennessee - Knoxville President, 2006-2007, 2021-2022, UTK Faculty Senate Past-President, 2003-2005, Society for Mathematical Biology http://lgross.utk.edu/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= To see the facultyinfo archives or Join/Leave this list: http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/facultyinfo.html