We note with concern that the UIUC campus administration appears to have consulted with faculty about Covid policy less than it did in the earlier stages of the pandemic. In the interest of shared governance, which is a key principle of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), and in the interest of the safety of all on campus and the furtherance of our students’ education and our campus’s academic research, we urge that in the future the administration resume a more robust pattern of consultation and shared governance, including consultation with the Senate, before deciding on Covid policies. Some of our members are especially concerned about such matters as the premature removal of the mask mandate, the shift to a vague recommendation for masks, the poor information about what kind of masks are appropriate, the evidence-free minimizing of the seriousness of people’s illnesses, and the gutting of the university’s testing program. We believe that many of these and other policy decisions may have come out differently if there were more extensive consultation with faculty and more reliance on faculty expertise, and that as a consequence there would be fewer illnesses across campus and across the community and less disruption to the university’s teaching and research.
The Policy Committee of the UIUC tenure-stream faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors
September 14, 2022