JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Masks are “expected” in all buildings at the University of North Florida "effective immediately," according to a Tuesday email to students and faculty. The email said the expectation was adopted “in light of new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The statement stopped short of mandating face masks, which Gov. Ron DeSantis has prohibited and for which he promised to penalize disobedient school districts.
It does move the school a step closer to being in line with CDC safety recommendations. But the faculty union says it does not go far enough. Union leadership says UNF's COVID policies – based the state Board of Governors' reopening plan – are hopelessly outdated given the current pandemic surge in Northeast Florida.
“It’s an outdated document that it was drafted before the Delta variant, and before a series of CDC updates specifically for institutions of higher education with mixed vaccination populations like UNF,” said United Faculty of Florida President Nicholas de Villiers. “It aptly describes our students. Duval is 50% vaccinated. CDC guidelines say that there should be masking on campuses where there's a mixed vaccination population.”
That CDC recommendations matter because the union reached an earlier Memorandum of Understanding with the Board of Trustees that they would use CDC guidelines in adopting COVID safety precautions.
De Villiers explained the school changed course after the Board of Governors issued its plan in June calling for a return to in-person learning, without mandates for masks or social distancing.
“Our community right now is in crisis mode with regard to this pandemic, and it sort of feels like people just have their head in the sand right now, in terms of our upper administration," he said.
Calls to administrators and campus media contacts were not returned Tuesday.
Union Vice President Elizabeth R. Brown says teachers have been told by department chairs they cannot enforce any safety measures of their own – for instance, requiring students to wear masks to meetings during in-person office hours.
“We are being told that we cannot refuse to meet with anybody; that if someone comes to our office for office hours, we need to meet with them,” Brown said.
Their only alternative is to adopt virtual office hours for all students. They do not have the option of teaching classes online, however – or really, modifying their schedule much at all.
“This year, it's been unusual in that there's been very little if any wiggle room afforded to faculty,” Brown said.
Faculty members are planning a protest ahead of the Board of Trustees meeting Thursday, and five union members have signed up to address the board directly.
Brown stated they aren’t asking for radical steps.
“We're trying to work within the lines,” said says.
“We’re just trying to keep our students safe,” de Villiers added. “It's really strange for people to feel like they're not empowered like our leadership is not empowered to make decisions that are best for you and us.”
“We sort of want to say: Where is the leadership right now?" he continued. "Is this a decision that's made in the Governor's Office and therefore all decisions on our campus, including [collective] bargaining is just up to the governor? Or do we actually have a local Board of Trustees who's concerned about UNF’s community?”
After the school issued its new “expectations,” de Villiers wrote in an email:
"It’s progress but still falls short of current CDC guidelines for institutions of higher Ed with mixed vaccination populations, and doesn’t address our request for flexibility, for faculty to be in control of how they teach, including remote options in the interest of health and safety. They also still haven’t scheduled a return to the bargaining table to discuss this, hence the need to get the Board of Trustees’ attention.”
The rally begins at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in front of the Student Union.
The Board of Trustees meeting is from 10 a.m. to noon in the Student Union (West)/Building 58, in Ballrooms A&B/ room 3703, and is open to the public.
There is a petition on Change.org urging the university's board of trustees to do more work to keep students safe.