We’d like to congratulate DIVCO on starting a conversation about what sort of university we want after COVID-19, about “the values we share about the importance of in-person participation in the academic life of the campus, and how those should guide our thinking about a return to normalcy on the campus after COVID-19.” These are noble principles and we should defend them, but they can be easily subverted.
Through the efforts of administrators, staff, students, lecturers and Senate faculty, we have managed to create a largely “remote” university. There will be all sort of temptations to continue remote education. Some students actually prefer remote education because they have a disability that is better served by remote instruction. Others prefer it because they can live outside of the Bay area, saving on rent and reducing the exorbitant costs of in-person attendance. More generally, students have gotten used to having access to recordings of lectures. If we continue to record lectures after Covid, attendance in classes may diminish, and the vitality of real-time classroom conversation may diminish as well. Administrators might relish the opportunity to increase enrollments through remote instruction, and introduce online education for certain mass courses. That is already happening with our “Semester in the Cloud” – a vehicle for making the temporary norm of remote instruction more permanent. Some faculty may also prefer to teach from their homes wherever they may be, and perhaps zoom in to faculty meetings. Here, then, lies the slippery slope to degraded education. If you start allowing some to go remote, then the temptation is for more to go remote.
If COVID has taught us anything, surely it has taught us to understand how the dynamic interactions of campus life enrich every aspect of education, from in-person classes to faculty collegiality. The shared resources of the campus, from libraries and recreation facilities to a variety of support services, help to offset the disabling effects of social inequality, effects sometimes magnified by remote learning. If we are going to uphold the twin values of educational accessibility and excellence, then we are going to have to be very vigilant. The Academic Senate is already setting up a committee, chaired by the Senate Vice-Chair, Ron Cohen, “exploring online teaching into the future”. What is its mission? Who will be on this committee?
On another note: We have written in the past about UC’s problematic relationship with the Catholic-run Dignity Health System. A letter is being sent to President Drake, calling on him to stop UC collaborations with hospitals that restrict care to women and LGBTQ+ people. You can sign the letter here.
Michael Burawoy and Celeste Langan for the Board of the Berkeley Faculty Association.
