It has now become more prevalent than ever that President Julio Frenk is a cancer that is slowing killing the University of Miami. While he has recently drawn severe criticism for his handling of the athletic department, this petition centers on his COVID-19 policies. More specifically, his recent decision to move the University of Miami to virtual learning is without a doubt legitimate grounds to terminate his employment.

As both the president of a major research institution, and the former Dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health, any rational person would expect Frenk to be heavily focused on balancing the needs of his 10,000+ students with the science of public health. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Frenk has chosen to utterly ignore both, instead choosing to focus only on money and politics. 

In August 2020, Frenk drew national attention for choosing to reopen the University of Miami for in person learning, despite the fact that COVID-19 vaccines did not yet exist. Much to the media’s chagrin, the University of Miami completed the 2020-2021 academic year without any disruptions to in-person learning.

Throughout 2021, Frenk repeatedly balked on his promises to repeal COVID-19 restrictions, despite the university meeting his thresholds to do so. While the scientific basis for these decisions may be debatable, what was absolutely inexcusable was his tactic of collecting tuition immediately before releasing bad news on multiple occasions. This demonstrates loud and clear that the Frenk administration’s first priority has been money all along. Keep in mind that a year of tuition at the University of Miami is well over $50,000.

The University of Miami has now spent three consecutive semesters in person, requires faculty to be vaccinated, and has a student vaccination rate of over 85%. On top of this, Frenk has spent these three semesters bragging about the fact that the university has yet to detect a single case of COVID-19 transmitted inside the classroom. This is largely in part to students and faculty making the responsible decisions to get vaccinated and wear masks in class. Clearly, the data demonstrates that, with proper masking and vaccination, in-person learning is undoubtedly safe. Furthermore, anyone who ever has been in a college classroom is surely aware that faculty members can easily maintain 6 feet of distance from students at all times. UM students, on the other hand, are almost all in an extremely low risk group, and, once again, have yet to ever contract COVID-19 in class. 

President Frenk has now chosen to move the university online, ignoring the words of his advisors, the data collected by his own administration, and worst of all, the needs of his students. The University of Miami has provided ample data proving that it is capable of conducting safe, in-person learning across all three of its campuses. It has also been shown in countless peer-reviewed studies that in-person learning is unequivocally more effective than virtual learning. Julio Frenk does not care. He has succumbed to the political pressure being placed on him by his colleagues from other, less scientifically-inclined administrations around the country. This is all coming at the expense of his students and their families, for Frenk has offered no prorates on tuition, nor any word on what will happen after January 31st (the date he has indicated in-person learning might resume). Students are still being expected to pay full tuition on January 10th, with many worrying that upon collecting their money, Frenk will once again break his promise.

Not only has Frenk demonstrated that he no longer cares about science or his students’ education, he has also chosen to ignore basic logic. Students will still be returning to Miami in mid-January, but will now have extra time on their hands given that they do not need to come to campus. While this is certainly not the case for every University of Miami student, many students will use this extra time to gather with their friends, largely indoors and maskless; additionally, businesses in Miami-Dade County are largely open at full capacity with mask and vaccine requirements few and far between. It would be not only inaccurate, but downright idiotic to assume that UM students will avoid the bars, nightclubs, and other businesses that they already frequent. If anything, this will only further increase the University of Miami’s role in community transmission throughout Miami-Dade County (which is already experiencing a substantial spike in cases).

When examined with even an ounce of critical thinking, it is clear that Julio Frenk’s recent decision will do several things: it will decrease the quality and economic value of his students’ education; it will almost certainly lead to more students contracting COVID-19 than otherwise would; and it may even lead to more citizens of Miami-Dade Country contracting COVID-19 than otherwise would. It should also be noted that the citizens of Miami-Dade Country are, on average, in higher risk groups than University of Miami students. There is one thing that Frenk’s policy definitely won’t do though: protect his students. I just pray that Frenk is not intentionally allowing students to become infected all at once and banking on herd immunity. I wish I could honestly say that I believe that such is not the case. 

Now, regardless of where you stand on COVID-19, I implore you to consider signing this petition. No university student should be paying a small fortune and working as hard as we do, only to be taken advantage of for our families’ money.