Face- to- face classes under scrutiny

As COVID- 19 cases at the 14 state universities near 500, union leaders need answers

With almost 500 COVID- 19 cases across Pennsylvania’s 14 stateowned universities and a student death, the faculty union president on Tuesday questioned why schools reopened for in- person classes and said she wished the decision was more about safety than campus finances.

Julie Martin’s comments regarding the State System of Higher Education came hours before another institution separate from the State System, Penn State University, reported its cases had doubled from last week to 433. Officials are weighing whether to move classes online at University Park but made no announcement Tuesday.

The University of Pittsburgh, meanwhile, says three dozen new student infections have been reported since Friday, bringing the total since Aug. 1 to 128.

The situation was further amplified by word late Tuesday that California University of Pennsylvania senior and football player Jamain Stephens, 20, a 2017 Central Catholic High School graduate known to many as “Juice,” died of COVID- 19 complications. His father, Jamain, was a second- round Steelers draft pick and played five seasons in the NFL. Mr. Stephens, raised in Stanton Heights, was in the business administration program and an honor roll student.

The State System and its chancellor, Daniel Greenstein, have maintained the decision about reopening should be left to individual universities because they know their regions best and because severity of the outbreak varies across Pennsylvania.

A number of system campuses planned to hold large shares of

classes in person this fall, but most later pivoted — some sooner than others — as cases spiked. Several, however, are continuing to offer a sizable portion of face- to- face classes.

During a noon- hour Facebook Live discussion with state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale on Tuesday, Ms. Martin, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, said campuses that initially chose face- to- face classes but later pivoted are now at a disadvantage as they abruptly prepare classes for online delivery.

“I think the health and safety of our students, of the staff and the faculty should have been paramount,” Ms. Martin said. “If we decided in March to send students home or in most cases not bring them back from spring break, when we had less than 100 cases of COVID, I don’t know, whatever we now have — about 140,000 cases — why that makes sense to bring students back to campus.’’

“We know conventional wisdom would suggest that [ students] are not going to socially distance and wear masks when they are socializing off campus and on weekends,” she said. “So, I think the outcome could have been predicted.”

Ms. Martin added: “I think the short answer is it wasn’t a wise decision, and I wish it would have been more longsighted than short- sighted, instead of just about the fall semester and potential financial impact on some of the universities.”

David Pidgeon, a spokesman for the roughly 96,000- student State System, responded later Tuesday.

“The concerns of the faculty, they’re ours, too,” his emailed statement read in part. “That’s why universities have tirelessly, creatively and vigorously worked to develop plans to continue delivering a quality public higher education while also taking extraordinary measures for the sake of everyone’s health and safety.”

Last week, in response to questions, Mr. Pidgeon said campus- level decisions “make sense for their individual communities, including when and how to determine if a shift in the delivery of academic programs is warranted.”

Cheyney is offering 70% face- to- face instruction. Kutztown’s classes are 40% remote and 60% hybrid or face- toface. Shippensburg is split about evenly between remote and hybrid or face- to- face, he said.

Ms. Martin made her comments shortly before the University of Pittsburgh on Tuesday provided its update, reporting an additional 36 positive cases, bringing the total of active cases to 78 and the cumulative total to 128 since Aug. 1. The university’s medical response office said the moving five- day average of cases had risen to 10 from 7.6.

The 78 currently infected students are in isolation, said a statement released Tuesday by Pitt spokesman Patrick McMahon. His school, like others, has expressed growing concern about off- campus gatherings where social- distancing guidelines and mask rules are not being followed.

On Friday, Penn State president Eric Barron said his university planned to re- evaluate whether to move classes online in light of a near tripling of cases from a week earlier to 215. The 433 cases now being reported are based on 13,169 tests universitywide, but more than 450 current- week results from the main University Park campus are still pending, so the exact positivity rate is unclear.

The doubling of cases appeared to be driven in significant part by pending results from earlier that have now arrived.

In response to follow- up questions from the Pittsburgh Post- Gazette, Ms. Martin, a professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, wrote in an email, “I do wish that the State System would have been more direct in the guidance provided to the 14 universities regarding the fall 2020 reopening and that there had been more uniformity.

“If the State System did not want to make the decision regarding remote delivery of classes for all 14, I would have hoped that, at the very least, they would have provided direction re: the compilation and dissemination of the number of COVID- 19 cases on each campus, as not all are reporting this data,” she added.

“Further, it would have been helpful if the State System had specified the point at which a campus should halt face- to- face classes,” she wrote. “For example, at Lock Haven, they went to remote classes ( for at least 2 weeks) once the positivity rate reached 5% on their campus. I am not aware of other universities that have these kinds of parameters in place. Hence, we are seeing cases rising across our campuses and no knowledge of how many cases are ‘ too many.’”

Ms. Martin said Bloomsburg University, which began classes Aug. 17, now reports 267 cases. She said Lock Haven University, which started a week later, has 57 cases, as does Kutztown.

Other campuses are reporting cases in varied numbers, among them Slippery Rock University, which as of this week has 42 cases since Aug. 20, including 31 new confirmed cases last week. It has switched largely to remote classes.

In July, responses to an APSCUF membership survey found 70% felt “very unsafe” about returning to in- person classes. About 40% of the faculty who responded reported having some type of pre- existing medical condition that puts them at additional risk if they get the virus, and more than half said they lived with someone who would be at risk.

The union represents about 5,000 State System faculty and coaches.

A national debate continues over the academic and psychological benefits of bringing students back for inperson classes versus the health risks. The virus has claimed 190,000 lives in the U. S.

The 14 State System universities are separate from the four state- related universities, which include Penn State, Temple and Lincoln universities, as well as the University of Pittsburgh. Those campuses also have reported increases in cases, collectively in the hundreds.

The state- owned universities also include California, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Mansfield, Millersville and Shippensburg.