In this age of covid-19, we are confident many in our community share our concern about complying with the strong recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and other state and national public health experts. Unfortunately, there are indications that the Georgia Board of Regents and UGA Presient Morehead may not yet share that concern. We are informed that the Board of Regents has adopted a series of ill-advised practices and procedures that, incredibly, will make both the UGA community and everyone living in Athens not safer, but dramatically more susceptible to spreading this horrible contagion. Under proposed guidelines from the Board of Regents, among other measures, UGA has forbidden instructors from requiring students to wear masks on campus -- or even from encouraging them to do so! UGA has refused to require mask-wearing of all faculty and staff when on campus, despite the documented dangers of aerosol transmission and the proven effectiveness of mask-wearing to reduce transmission. UGA is also refusing to allow persons who live with medically fragile household members to teach remotely, refusing to allow pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum faculty to teach remotely, and refusing to let parents of school-aged children (who might find themselves suddenly responsible for childcare) to teach remotely.
We are hoping that members of the UGA and Athens communities who share our desire that UGA take the recommended actions to protect the health of the UGA and Athens communities will contact the Board of Regents and President Morehead. They can do so by signing the following letter to President Morehead and petition to the Board of Regents urging both to follow the recommended practices designed to keep us all safe.
The letter and petition can be found at:
Letter to President Morehead:
Petition to Board of Regents:
Karen and Bruce Menke
Athens