UMD Staff Voice Concern Over COVID-19 Guidelines

DULUTH, Minn.– With the fall semester just around the corner for colleges around the Northland, some instructors at the University of Minnesota-Duluth are voicing their concerns with some of the safety protocols on campus.

Department heads at UMD have been working all summer to prepare for this semester, and some faculty from around campus are asking for more insight before classes begin, including from the school’s largest college.

“Our primary concern is that the students have a good education and we keep people as safe as possible,” said Andrea Schokker, the Head of Civil, Mechanical, and Industrial Engineering at UMD.

Swenson College of Science and Engineering sent a letter to University Chancellor Lendley Black earlier this week asking for changes and more clarity from the university with COVID-19 policies.

Schokker is one of the writers of the letter, she says if these are not addressed in some way before classes begin on August 31, they will move their classes to an online only setting.

“We’re just asking for some communication back and forth so that we feel comfortable but we do expect to, I wouldn’t say they all be met but we do expect them all to be addressed.”

While there are already some classes fully online or a hybrid, in-person classes are focused on lab-based classes that benefit most from in person learning.

Some items mentioned in the letter include more details on testing on campus, a COVID-19 testing site at UMD, and information on what thresholds would take the campus back to an online-only setting.

Schokker says they want everyone to be on the same page and to teach in-person. But they won’t do that until these issues are addressed.

“That is one thing that we are willing to stand up for is if we don’t feel it’s reasonable to move forward if we don’t have some of those answers that we might have more classes go online. And we’d rather not do that.”

Schokker says Chancellor Black has reached out to the group and the two sides are in good faith talks to come to a solution. They will have a chance to meet again formally at a department head meeting on August 28.

In a statement about the letter, Chancellor Black Says UMD is following guidelines set by the Minnesota Department of Health and the CDC. Both do not recommend campus-wide testing.