Flexibility for class modality

In the Sunday 21 June 2020 issue of the Arizona Daily Sun, Northern Arizona University Professor Robert Schehr and Regents' Professor Raymond Michalowski expressed their opinion, supported by 170 NAU citizens, that current plans to hold in-person classes at NAU in fall 2020 are inadequate to insure the safety of students, staff and faculty from COVID-19 infection.

These scholars argued that while the administration's opening plans may retain NAU's reputation as an ideal face-to-face institution, and might reduce student risk, they do not diminish risk to the health and lives of NAU faculty. In particular, faculty cannot opt out of in-person lectures unless they can prove a relevant health disability. Schehr and Michalowski emphasized that faculty have the right to reject the administration's demand that they and their families risk illness and death. They also emphasized that faculty have the right to resist the requirement that all faculty deliver in-person courses as specifically described by NAUFlex.

We agree with these points and add the following considerations. Under the current NAUFlex model, all educators (faculty and graduate assistants) wishing to reduce their health and safety risk must prove a relevant disability. We assert that this requirement is unnecessarily intrusive for faculty and students alike. Faculty and graduate assistants are warned that opting out of the NAUFlex model creates an excess of online courses and drives students away from NAU. Tuition for entirely online classes costs less than tuition for in-person classes, and NAU administrators further caution that decreased revenue will cause financial catastrophe, triggering still more layoffs and collapsing entire academic programs.

We find this argument disingenuous. NAU has already protected itself against this loss of revenue. The NAUFlex page explicitly states, "Tuition and fees are based on your academic program by campus. If some or all instruction for all or part of the academic year is delivered remotely, tuition and fees remain the same and will not be refunded." We concur that if a student enrolls in a regular NAU course, but opts out of in-person classes for health and safety reasons, they still consume the same material that in-person students are assigned. To its credit, the NAUFlex platform does allow a wide range of student activities for courses delivered online that do not require educators to teach in-person. Allowing students, as well as educators, to opt out of in-person delivery allows everyone to control their own level of risk.

 As the rate of new COVID-19 infections in Arizona explodes and other state universities reconsider in-person delivery, we wonder whether in-person classes will even be possible by August 12th. If spreading infection forces NAU courses to be delivered entirely online, the NAUFlex agreement appears to keep tuition at the regular NAU rate. We agree that it should.

Lastly, there is an elephant in the room when considering NAU's financial difficulties. Responsibility for the monetary crisis state universities now face lies squarely at the feet of Governor Doug Ducey and the AZ state legislature. In 2008, GOP leaders began slashing support for higher education, forcing institutions to rely almost entirely on tuition and fees to remain open. Governor Ducey placed these savings into a "rainy day" fund which as far as anyone knows, exceeds 1 billion dollars yet remains within the state treasury.

We echo the concern of Schehr, Michalowski and colleagues. Mandating in-person classes this fall places all Northern Arizona University citizens into unnecessary danger. We implore NAU administrators to reconsider their decree of entirely in-person classes and their strict interpretation of the NAUFlex platform for NAU educators. We assert that:

1. Students and faculty must have the right to decide their class modality (in-person or online) – this allows everyone to choose their own acceptable level of COVID-19 risk; because online classes pose the smallest risk, with surging COVID infections, we urge that all classes be delivered online.
2. Consistent with NAUFlex, the standard in-person tuition rate must be applied to all NAU classes, regardless of whether a student attends class in-person or online – this removes confusion for students and mitigates financial risk for NAU.
3. Governor Ducey must return "rainy day" funds to AZ higher education – this frees university administrators to protect, rather than to endanger, the health of university citizens.

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