They Are That Stupid, part 4

I know the K-12 system has had problems reacting to the COVID - 19 outbreak. Think higher education is any better?

Last Sunday, I was told that the school was closed on Monday and Tuesday, but that I needed to report to work all day Monday and Tuesday in order to prepare top get my classes ready to go online and my labs to operate remotely. It didn't matter that my classes and labs had been operating remotely for some years. It didn't matter that the K-12 system was shut. It didn't matter that the governor had closed all the bars and restaurants and told people to stay home if they could. We needed to come in to be prepared to face the daunting task ahead of us. We were also told that if we wanted to remote in from home, we needed permission. Otherwise we were expected to maintain all office hours and to be on campus. The best part was when I was emailed that the faculty meeting on Friday was going on as planned. We would be given a SKYPE number for it, but we needed to come to campus, so we could SKYPE from our offices. Things were seriously amusing by this time. 

On Monday night I got permission to telecommute, so I spent Tuesday setting up cameras, prepping my workspace, and checking my bandwidth to be sure I was prepared for Wednesday. I might have experience in remote teaching, but I've never run anything more advanced than one on one tutoring from home before and I wanted to appear somewhat professional. Of course, if "leadership" had decided this before the weekend, I wouldn't have had to do a rush job at the last minute. But, I digress....

On Wednesday, I woke up ready to start my remote teaching from home to find that all classes had been moved to a totally online format, including the labs. An hours notice to change the class modality for all courses and labs was a challenge. It was even fun.

By Wednesday night, I was told that all labs were closed, the school was shut for the next week and a half, and no one would be allowed on campus. Of course, not all labs were closed. The remote and online ones are going on as planned, but "leadership" used the word all. It was up to the faculty to resolve any confusion, and our students are easily confused.

To make matters worse, we've also been told to make sure students know that the school's Facebook page does not contain official information and that only official announcements are to be followed. Who's posting the announcements on the school's Facebook page then, and why? Does leadership actually have no control as to what goes on their official Facebook page? WTF?

I might enjoy such confusion, but we have students who are dealing with child care (day cares have been ordered closed as well), and lack of essentials in the stores (there is plenty of food, but no toilet paper, and baby supplies are running low). They really need an answer to what is happening long term so that they don't have to choose between school and family.