America The Jesuit Review: Please don’t give up on in-person teaching, Notre Dame

[jack63]

I really appreciated this article in America the Jesuit Review about keeping Notre Dame teaching in person. Thoughts? Comments?

Please don’t give up on in-person teaching, Notre Dame | America Magazine

Successes of science and abacuses of utility cannot tell us what we ought to do. Father John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, pressed this insight when he articulated his decision for the school to resume in-person classes this fall, doing so in an op-ed piece in The New York Times on May 26. Appealing to a tradition that spans from Aristotle to Thomas Aquinas to contemporary pastor Rick Warren, he argued that moral decisions must be driven first and foremost by our purposes: “For questions about moral value—how we ought to decide and act—science can inform our deliberations, but it cannot provide the answer.”

Should Notre Dame shut one down for the Gipper? No. The data do not deliver that case and still less do the university’s ends. Advocates of going online point to the spike and high rates of positive testing. But for the past six days, as of this writing, the [curve has flattened considerably](https://here.nd.edu/our-approach dashboard/) to an average of 26 cases per day and a low 6.3 percent rate of positive testing.

The positive cases by and large did not originate in classrooms, faculty offices, dining halls, dormitories, gyms or locker rooms. Of the 496 positive cases as of Aug. 26, only five are employees, 24 are graduate students, and the rest are undergraduates. Of course, we must continue to protect everyone whose age or condition places them at increased risk.

Proponents of retreating from in-person teaching likewise claim that the students are living in fear and cite a petition, now numbering about 1,000 signers, calling for students to be allowed to leave campus and study online for the rest of the semester. The petition, however, includes not only students, faculty and staff, but also alumni and even members of other universities, a pool whose size dwarfs the number of signers. Meanwhile, a rival petition that expresses gratitude and support for the university’s efforts now numbers about 3,100 signers, about 1,800 of whom are students.

 

[Cor_ad_Cor]

Given data that I’ve seen recently, I think Universities that can would be wise to limit in-person interactions.

 

[jack63]

What data is that and how is it similar or different than the data given in this Jesuit Review article?

Also, not all Universities have to behave the same. What is wrong with a University making its own decision to keep in class teaching if Covid can be managed?

 

[jack63]

Looks like Notre Dame is reopening in person classes. Good! They are being rational…a rare quality lately. Below is an article…

https://www.concordmonitor.com/Notr...as-school-struggles-to-contain-virus-35943612

From the article…

But unlike peer institutions like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State University – which plan to spend the rest of the semester online after outbreaks of their own – Notre Dame students will return to the classroom Wednesday. Daily positive cases have fallen substantially since their peak in mid August – Friday saw 17 positive cases, the lowest since Aug. 16. “With these encouraging numbers, we believe we can plan to return to in-person classes and return, in stages, to the level of activity we had before the pause,” Notre Dame president Rev. John Jenkins announced in an address to students Friday morning.