Panhandle college faces fight over in-person instruction

By Dara Kam

News Service of Florida

As the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to climb, faculty members at a Northwest Florida college are challenging administrators’ decision to boost face-to-face instruction during the upcoming spring semester. 

A grievance filed by Pensacola State College union representatives is the latest effort by college and university faculty to secure safer work environments amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Pensacola State College is requiring instructors to teach at least two face-to-face classes “without exception,” according to a Nov. 20 email sent to union leaders by Erin Spicer, the school’s vice president of academic and student affairs.

Spicer said college administrators “do not intend to approve any faculty for remote work after this semester,” according to the email included in the grievance filed this week by the Pensacola State College Faculty Association-United Faculty of Florida.

The grievance alleges that the face-to-face instruction requirement violates the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the college, which operates six campuses in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. The agreement says “faculty members will not be required to work under hazardous or unsafe conditions which might endanger their health, safety or well-being.” 

But Pensacola State College President Edward Meadows told The News Service of Florida on last Thursday that the school is doing its best to keep everyone safe while offering the types of classes students are demanding.

About 40 percent of the college’s fall semester classes were face-to-face or a hybrid of online and in person, Meadows said.

Adhering to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, the college required social distancing and face masks and installed numerous hand-sanitizer stations throughout its campuses, the president said. 

“And all of those things resulted in, to our knowledge, no classroom infections of COVID,” he added.

But Meadows said the college needs to return to in-person instruction to provide classes that meet the demands of students in the region. Courses requiring hands-on instruction in areas such as construction, nursing, culinary arts and welding can’t be taught online, he said.

“We’ve had a huge increase in requests for more face-to-face classes,” Meadows said. “We are going to offer more face-to-face classes, but we will still maintain all of those safety protocols that we put in place for the fall.”

Students are turning to the college to acquire new skills or certification after widespread layoffs due to the pandemic. 

“But if we don’t offer the courses in a format that they can actually be successful in, it deters their chance to be reemployed or to seek the new career that they need. In today’s environment with COVID, a lot of our students have lost their jobs. Jobs no longer exist,” Meadows said.

But the grievance filed by the union pointed out that the decision to increase in-person instruction comes as the numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the region escalate.

The current COVID-19 positivity rate in Escambia County is nearly 10 percent, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard. The weekly positivity rate in Santa Rosa County was nearly 20 percent as of Nov. 29, according to the county’s most recent dashboard posting. 

As COVID-19 cases rise in the Panhandle counties, hospitalizations due to the highly contagious infection are increasing, according to the grievance.

Faculty at the college have requested to work remotely for a variety of reasons, including medical conditions, caregiving and parenting hardships and “just not wanting to be put in a risky situation with unknown consequences,” according to a press release issued last Thursday by the United Faculty of Florida.

The grievance accuses college administrators of failing to provide any official campus-wide communication addressing the impacts of increasing the number of face-to-face, or F2F, courses. 

“Limiting F2F contact is still one of the most effective ways of limiting the risk of infection. However, even if the college eventually issues updated safety guidelines, F2F instruction will create an increased and largely avoidable risk to faculty health,” the grievance said.

Remedies sought in the grievance include requiring courses that can be taught remotely to be offered virtually and allowing all office hours to be conducted online. 

But Meadows said the college has a “very diverse student population” that includes adult learners and people who are part-time students. Many of those students can’t access all of their classes online because they don’t have the technological skills or means to do so or because the courses they’re interested in can’t be taught virtually.

Meadows called the grievance “a little bit disappointing,” especially after administrators met frequently with union representatives while trying to plan for the spring semester.

“We’re here for the students. We’re also here for our employees to ensure their safety,” he said. “This is a situation where I think the vast majority of our faculty is willing to do what it takes to make sure their students’ needs are met.”

The union’s grievance also asks administrators to provide adequate personal protective equipment, ensure air circulation and filtration meets CDC guidelines, ensure reduced class sizes and social distancing and install plexiglass barriers in all areas where students have contact with instructors. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his close political ally President Donald Trump have pushed for schools and businesses to remain open amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

State health officials have logged about 1.1 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started in March. More than 19,500 Florida residents have died of COVID-19, and the numbers are rising.

Deborah McClintock, the union president at Pensacola State College, said the college’s stance poses severe medical threats or even death to instructors, if they are exposed to COVID-19. 

“It isn’t right to deliberately expose anyone to an increased risk of this life-threatening illness,” she said in a prepared statement. “From our perspective, our college president seems to be putting politicians in D.C. and Tallahassee before our own students and employees.” 

Faculty at the University of Florida, the University of Central Florida and Florida Atlantic University have also filed grievances. Union officials have worked out an agreement with St. Johns River State College administrators for spring semester COVID-19 precautions.