NMU has joined other Michigan universities that have altered delivery of course content due to the coronavirus. President Erickson notified faculty on Wednesday, March 11 that classes and all campus-wide meetings were cancelled on March 12 and 13 with non-lab courses resuming as online versions on Monday, March 16 – April 3.
Members of the EC were not included in the meeting that prompted the suspension of face-to-face course content. However, President Erickson did respond to a memo drafted by NMU-AAUP President Wendy Farkas requesting input from the faculty on such decisions. President Erickson invited Dr. Farkas to meet with him yet this week.
As we consider rolling out a new method of course delivery, I spoke with Director of Technology Support Services Chris Lewis, about the feasibility of moving classes online. “Our bandwidth is capable of handling this and Zoom is hosted on Amazon Web Services which is scalable, so we should be o.k.,” said Lewis. The real issue, according to Lewis, will be getting the proper documentation to faculty so they can properly use the tools to deliver course content.
To provide some context and risk assessment for NMU faculty, I spoke with Associate Professor of Biology, Josh Sharp. Dr. Sharp, who teaches medical microbiology and virology at NMU and has conducted extensive research on pathogens. “Today’s news about cases in Michigan is a clear example of how fluid the situation is with this outbreak,” said Sharp. He also added that critical planning on how to best serve students and faculty that belong to high risk groups, such as those that are immunocompromised, 60 or older, or a primary-caregivers to those in high risk groups. Nevertheless, Dr. Sharp cautions against over reacting to the virus. “You hear about the 3 to 4% mortality rates, but I think it is important to remember this is an average mortality rate across all age groups. If you’re 10-29 years old, the mortality rate is two tenths of one percent. But if you’re 70-79, it’s about 8 percent and 14.8 percent for those 80 and up,” said Sharp.
Whether we totally shutdown or not, Dr. Sharp says everyone should practice frequent handwashing. “Handwashing is the number one thing that can help reduce risk of exposure. These viruses have an outer lipid envelope, so soap is really destructive to them.” Dr. Sharp recommends washing hands for twenty seconds and avoiding crowded areas as much as possible.
Even before the announcement from the adminstration, chemistry professor Brandon Canfield started moving some of his courses online as a test, but now he will likely need to keep them online. He is still meeting face-to-face with his students in his laboratory course, but this week he tried out the Zoom meeting module on EduCat. “I’m still coming in to work every day, but Zoom allows classes to meet simultaneously and remotely,” said Canfield. Canfield says he informed his department head that he would be trying this out, and he contacted AV to have them put a reminder sign on his classroom door. “I have not yet decided how we will proceed next week. In the meantime, I’m sitting in my office for my scheduled office hours, but I have informed students that they must find me online.” Canfield says he has provided both google hangouts and Zoom links to allow students to reach him, and he has already had a virtual office meeting with a student that went well. “This all seems like prudent action to take: testing out the system before such measures might be required, something which we ought to now expect as a likely possibility,” said Canfield.
Given the short notice, it may not be feasible for everyone to ramp up fully online courses. There is also Section 6.7 of the Master Agreement that states faculty members cannot be forced to teach online. The NMU-AAUP will continue to dialog with the membership and the administration to provide the best possible outcomes for our students.
While the slow response to the coronavirus in the United States was a point of concern for Dr. Sharp, he feels we are now moving in the right direction. “The infrastructure, just wasn’t there because it’s been poorly funded. When you don’t fund public health infrastructure, and something like this comes along, it really exposes you. South Korea responded with thousands and thousands of tests within a few days, and we’re now just getting to that point, weeks into it,” said Sharp.
To offer some historical context, the Spanish Flu caused Northern Normal School to close its doors in the fall of 1918. According to Ted Bays and Russ Magnaghi of the NMU Center for U.P. Studies, Northern Normal reopened January 6, and no students or faculty members died at that time. However, later that year, Samuel Magers, professor of biology [and namesake for Magers Hall], died from the virus. According to a recent article in the Marquette Mining Journal, there were 1,759 cases of the Spanish Flu reported in the city of Marquette in 1919, and 51 residents died. The population of Marquette at that time was around 10,000, so nearly 18 percent of the population had the virus, and 2.8 percent of those infected died. This means Marquette’s average mortality rate from the Spanish Flu in 1919 was slightly lower than the average mortality rate for global infections of COVID-19 today.
To access up-to-date information on the coronavirus and an interactive map from Johns Hopkins University, check out the following link. https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
The CDC has two websites that might be helpful as well. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html