August 20, 2021
Michael D. Johnson, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Central Florida, Millican Hall, Orlando, FL 32816
Dear Dr. Johnson,
To the point, I am absolutely appalled that my colleagues and I in the College of Business are being required to teach five or more “RA” or REAL sections in a crowded classroom (with up to 200 students) without any social distancing or adequate ventilation measures (alas, the windows in our classrooms are shut closed).
In my case, three of my five sections are back to back to back, meaning that I will have to be in the same classroom for almost FIVE CONSECUTIVE HOURS every other week. The other two sections are also back to back, putting me in harm’s way for another THREE CONSECUTIVE HOURS.
This is absolutely wrong on so many levels.
Could we set up an outdoor classroom for these RA (REAL) classes, or in the alternative, re-schedule them to meet in a more spaced out fashion?
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Enrique
F. E. Guerra-Pujol, Associate Instructor of Law
prior probability 
Can you please post a follow-up if you hear back( if it is feasible to do so without jeopardizing your position)?
I am curious to see how/if provost responds.
That is precisely my intention!
I have a feeling the response will be telling. No doubt, it will be polished, manicured, and highly politically (neutral, vague, and circuitous ).
Regardless of the job, a boss is still a boss.
Agreed! And given the contagiousness of the new variant, even with the vaccines, I am flabbergasted that administators are still insisting on in-person classes in these large classes.
Especially at the college level, remote learning works. I took my first online college class back in 2008 and everything was fine.
There’s almost no point in having in-person lectures with applications such as Zoom and Microsoft teams. Also, with distance learning you can also incorporate pre-recorded content.
PS: I am especially hurt by this insane intransigence, especially after all the time and effort I spent in designing an engaging and entertaining online version of the class: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3640406
I remember reading this when you first published it. I never had professor go to such lengths to create an engaging curriculum!
It’s shame that you are not being allowed to utilize as an alternative to risky in-person lectures.
Thanks for reading my stuff! I wouldn’t mind teaching in person, but not for five hours straight (a 4:30 section, a 6:00 section, and a 7:30 section) in an over-crowded room with no ventilation and no social distancing!
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