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Ok, listen up folks. Today faculty and grad instructors @Columbia received an email trying to shame them into teaching in person. As a friend who sent it to me summed it up, "stop being so selfish and come die in the classroom". What follows is a commentary on the whole email. /1
Read: “[financial] circumstances have changed—we may not be able to pay ourselves huge salaries if enough of you don’t want to risk your lives! But think of the students! Look at your business and econ colleagues—always doing better!” Of course, divide & shame everyone else!
![Read: “[financial] circumstances have changed—we may not be able to pay ourselves huge salaries if enough of you don’t want to risk your lives! But think of the students! Look at your business and econ colleagues—always doing better!” Of course, divide & shame everyone else!](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ed-PEBbXsAURtxg.jpg "Read: “[financial] circumstances have changed—we may not be able to pay ourselves huge salaries if enough of you don’t want to risk your lives! But think of the students! Look at your business and econ colleagues—always doing better!” Of course, divide & shame everyone else!")
“Too many of you think you will die, but really you won’t! It is the latter [student tuition!] that we ask you to place before your lives! The students are keen, so you *should* be too!”
![“Too many of you think you will die, but really you won’t! It is the latter [student tuition!] that we ask you to place before your lives! The students are keen, so you *should* be too!”](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ed-PEggXgAIQU58.jpg "“Too many of you think you will die, but really you won’t! It is the latter [student tuition!] that we ask you to place before your lives! The students are keen, so you *should* be too!”")
“We are telling you, you already feel more confident about going back on campus, even though you don’t! The campus will be hermetically sealed!” *Sorry, I just had to LOL at the thought that a campus could be safer than a grocery store you visit once a week for maybe 30 minutes!*
“We need international students to give us their money! Think of all the students who will be disappointed! [really, you’re using that as your argument?!]”. Why not just be UP FRONT: you need the international
which you milk year in year out!
![“We need international students to give us their money! Think of all the students who will be disappointed! [really, you’re using that as your argument?!]”. Why not just be UP FRONT: you need the internationalwhich you milk year in year out!](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ed-PFIBXYAAkglc.jpg "“We need international students to give us their money! Think of all the students who will be disappointed! [really, you’re using that as your argument?!]”. Why not just be UP FRONT: you need the internationalwhich you milk year in year out!")
which you milk year in year out!
The campus is empty, of course there are no cases currently, esp. in one of the states with the lowest cases. “Here, we hope you’ll change your mind and come die in the classroom!”
“We are giving you 3 days to make a life or death decision! We’ll think about how to make sure there are enough classrooms in our chronically crowded campus once we know that you have all committed to dying there!” Signed, your delightful Dean.
End of the full letter. Sorry if my commentary seems abrasive or sarcastic, but shame on Columbia for trying to shame faculty and grad students into risking their own lives, after giving them the choice to stay as safe as possible!
Paging the few journalists I know, @colpaertpieter and @davidmackau — maybe you can do something with this.
Everyone else, Columbia alums especially, we need to write to the Dean and Provost condemning these tactics!
You may not be able to comment publicly, but I'd love to know what @Nakhthor @hashtagoras think of this incredibly manipulative piece...
Postscript: the Dean (Prof. Amy Hungerford) who put their name to this missive, notes in their Faculty profile that "Prof. Hungerford’s undergraduate teaching is known worldwide through her popular, and free, online course, “The American Novel Since 1945.”" So....ummm
Another great point made by @BathtubPrez: The comment "the campus aims to be safer than its surroundings.” implicitly continues the university's racial discrimination against its majority Black and Latinx neighbors in Harlem, Washington Heights and Manhattan Valley.
Finally (?), as one adjunct friend at Columbia adds, this email was sent to adjuncts who **do not receive health insurance from the university**, and yet are being pressured to risk their lives for a very measly salary and no job security!
