Letter to President and Provost, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 7.14.20

Dear Dr. Hanna and Dr. Rogers-Adkinson

I’m writing to you to express more than mere concern over the potential for significant spread of the Covid-19 virus on the BU campus come August 17th. Both at the local, regional, national, and even global level, the message is crystal clear: not remotely enough has been done to control the spread of this virus, and the pretense that we’re containing the pandemic is no substitute for the hard work we have, in fact, not done to achieve that objective. As I watch the numbers of identified infections and deaths tick upwards day by day, one by one, in Columbia County I’m reminded of that old saw about the frog in the hot water — except we’re the frog without excuse watching people we know (or don’t) get sick, some die, some live, but with life-long damage from a virus about which we still know too little. We’d apparently prefer to be killed off by our hubris than humbled, but alive and whole — trying to remedy our ignorance.

I can only imagine that the majority of my colleagues think as I do — that opening the campus to any but the absolutely necessary come mid-August is reckless. Note, I don’t say “feel.” While the hard evidence certainly generates plenty of anxiety over the health of BU faculty, staff, and students — all of whom have families of their own — decision-making must be driven by facts, and the facts are abundantly clear: we’re now witnessing a resurgence of Covid-19 all over the United States. We are seeing ICUs reach capacity, and we have New York to show us that the body count will follow. That we have lulled ourselves into complacency because we want to go to beaches and restaurants — fairs and Monster Truck Shows — will have no effect whatever on the trajectory of this virus. At no point has the state or Columbia County met CDC downward trend guidelines. The danger of this is plainly compounded by the fact that testing here is lax (to say the least), late, and contact tracing is virtually nonexistent. Moreover, so far as I can see, BU administration has no real plan in place to do meaningful contact tracing.

Consider the timeline: the Monster Truck Jamboree brought to the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds folks from all over the Eastern U.S. Although attendees were lightly admonished to wear masks and socially distance, they didn’t. The photographs tell the story. But did we even need to see these? No — we didn’t. We knew there’d be no mask-wearing. We know refusal to wear a mask has become a signal of political allegiance to President Trump. We know that events like this have the very real potential of becoming super-spreaders. And, of course, I could just as well be talking about the Bloomsburg Fair. While many other states have had the wisdom to cancel all large gatherings — especially those that draw crowds from out of state — Pennsylvania persists in its willful blindness. One timeline affects the first mini-mester; one affects the other. Both bode ill.

I hear a good deal about how determining what to do is “complicated.” It’s not. At least, it wasn’t for California whose decision-makers determined that the value of its students’ and teachers’ lives was paramount. I get it that there are very real and pressing issues about revenue and retention. But I also know that these issues will only magnify, potentially exponentially, if the pandemic is not brought to heel. And I know that any parent who has half an eye on the current debate about school-openings in this country is thinking long and hard about whether to send their child into a classroom that will be a petri dish. I say “will” for two reasons: (1) Covid-19 can be spread asymptomatically, and this is even more likely with younger people because they are less likely to get sick; (2) because we will not be able to control or police the behavior of our students — regardless their age — sufficiently to keep our classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms, eateries, safe. BU can plaster signage on every door, window, bench, and utility poll informing students of what they must do. BU can make students sign a pledge. But unless BU is willing to hire a police force to compel mask-wearing, hand-sanitizing, and social distancing — an effort that would have its own deleterious effect on the quality of campus life — the idea that we’re going to keep Covid-19 off campus is daft; as the numbers tick ever upwards, such magical thinking becomes immoral. It’s like thinking underage freshman aren’t drinking at Greek Parties.

Here are just a few wholly realistic scenarios:

1. Student emails her/his professors at 1AM on a Tuesday morning to inform them that they’re Covid-positive. The student was in class Monday. He/She has five classes; three on campus. One is, say, mine — an upper division seminar currently enrolled at 13 assigned to a classroom that under CDC Guidelines cannot accommodate more than 4. Moving to larger classrooms is no panacea. We walk to them using stairs and through hallways.
2. Student takes off mask as soon as he/she leaves their classroom in a hallway where social distancing is zero and coughs right behind her/his professor and other students.
3. Professor/student comes out of bathroom stall into a bathroom full of unmasked students.
4. Student in class wears mask until he/she has to sneeze — onto the young man or woman in front of them.
5. Student comes to class sick because it’s an exam day — doesn’t inform professor (and the fact is that not all CV-19 cases present with a low-grade fever).
6. Student goes to big pool party weekend before class; several positive at party. No one knows — yet.
7. Student comes into class without a mask; puts one on — but has already spread the virus.
8. False alarm fire in building; we all run into hallway. Some masks fall off.
9. Student with heretofore undiagnosed heart condition is infected by another student in hallway; heart-condition student dies.
10. Students go in groups to Bloomsburg Fair. None wear masks. No social distancing. Several become infected. They’re asymptomatic super-spreaders.
11. Asymptomatic infected student runs unwashed hands up and down stair railing two minutes before class as other students hasten behind him/her sweeping up the virus on their hands as they go.
12. Students go to sorority/fraternity parties. No masks. Copious quantities of alcohol. I was at BU when five students died in a fire at one of these parties. Students who’ll disconnect smoke detectors aren’t going to party-down in masks.
13. Student contracts coronavirus on BU campus, heads home for grandma’s birthday — infects her, and kills her.

It is self-deception to believe we can prevent any of these and a hundred other scenarios — some of them scarier — from occurring. Professors and staff persons are also not police officers. Having policies is one thing; enforcing them is another — very different — thing as we have learned throughout the country. If a professor, staff person, or student becomes exposed to the virus, this triggers fourteen days of quarantine. That’s over 1/3 of the 6 week term, and that is merely inconvenience. What we are talking about here are people’s health and people’s lives. 138, 273 Americans are dead due to Covid-19 as of this writing, 3,480,089 known infected. By the end of this sentence both of those numbers will be higher.

What faculty, staff, and students are being led to believe about whether the campus can be kept safe — or even just safe enough (whatever that means) is false. Worse: as we watch the numbers rise all over the country, such claims transmogrify from wishful thinking into lies. I implore you: do the right thing. Do the courageous thing. Put all but essential in-person courses online for at least the Fall 2020 term.

With great respect,

Wendy Lynne Lee, Professor, Philosophy