The Southern Illinois University-Carbondale (SIUC) administration’s COVID policy is putting the entire community at risk. 

In the midst of uncontrolled community spread of the delta variant in southern Illinois — daily new infections (7-day average) for Jackson County on August 19 were at 43 — SIUC has failed to protect its students, faculty, staff, and the broader community. As of this writing, the Jackson County positivity rate was over ten percent. The delta variant is, according to the CDC, far more communicable than the common cold or earlier variants of COVID-19. It is also spreading rapidly among traditionally college-aged persons. Reports indicate that hospital capacity in southern Illinois is approaching exhaustion. 

And while serious breakthrough infections among vaccinated persons are rare, they are becoming less rare over time in the context of uncontrolled community spread. Even non-life-threatening infections can lead to everything from missed courses to serious long-COVID health complications.

Moreover, many people who work and study at SIUC  have children too young to be vaccinated. According to the Seattle Times (August 19, 2021) more than 17,000 children in the US have been hospitalized with COVID-19. More than 400 children have died. If we catch COVID-19 at work or school we risk bringing it home to our children. Many people who work and study at SIUC ALSO have elderly loved ones who may be vaccinated but who are, as elderly or immunocompromised persons, more susceptible to COVID-19.

Instead of taking responsibility for protecting SIUC, and the broader southern Illinois community, the SIUC administration has repeatedly failed us. 

SIUC failed to follow the lead of other Illinois universities (public and private) in implementing a vaccine or testing mandate. The administration has greatly diminished online options for students and teachers — including immune compromised students and faculty. They have placed students and faculty in overcrowded rooms where social distancing is not possible. 

Although the university has not published infection rates among students, faculty, and staff, anecdotal evidence is already spreading that a number of students are in isolation and that many more have been exposed to COVID-19 and the delta variant. To make matters worse, the administration has also held a number of non-socially distant events that are not academically necessary. When questions are raised by faculty and students to top administration officials, they are often disregarded.

Out of concern for Carbondale’s students, faculty, and residents, we — the students, faculty, staff, and friends of SIUC — demand the SIUC administration:

• Implement an immediate vaccine mandate and provide daily free vaccine clinics on campus.
• Immediately add distance learning/working options for immune compromised students, faculty, and staff, and any other students or employees who want it. This should be done in a way that does not create an undue burden for instructors; for example, instead of requiring an instructor to teach one section of a class both online and in-person, allow students who were not given an option for distance learning the chance to switch classes, etc.
• Move all in-person classes to rooms that will allow for at least six-foot social distancing.
• Notify all students, faculty, and staff when they have been exposed to COVID 19 and implement contact tracing of campus infections.
• Publicly report, on a regular basis, the number of infections tied to the SIUC campus community.

The SIUC administration has abrogated its responsibility to its teachers, workers and students, as well as its mandate as an institution of higher learning to implement the best public health and science-based practices. 

The above demands, if implemented, will begin to mitigate that failure, and protect teachers, workers, students, and the community from further harm.