Higher Education Quick Takes

Today on the Academic Minute, Jessica West, Ph.D. student in sociology at Duke University, examines how hearing loss in a partner can affect the health of one sex more than the other. Learn more about the Academic Minute here.

Virginia governor Ralph Northam announced Tuesday that the state will refinance some debt to save millions of dollars for higher education over the next couple of years.

“One side effect of the pandemic has potential to help our public colleges -- that’s the low interest rates we’re seeing right now,” Northam said during the announcement. “There’s a significant opportunity for our commonwealth and our public higher education institutions to save money by restructuring our debt.”

The debt-restructuring project will save more than $300 million over the next two calendar years and three fiscal years. Northam has already authorized the refinancing of one set of bonds. Refinancing another set will require state legislation, which is expected to pass during the next legislative session.

Northam made the announcement at George Mason University alongside Aubrey Lane, the Virginia secretary of finance, and Gregory Washington, president of George Mason.

Right now, the university has 31 active cases of COVID-19 on campus, the lowest of any public college in Virginia, according to Washington.

“You being here today is probably safer than any place you could be in the commonwealth, with the exception of your home,” Washington said to Northam during the announcement.

The University of Cincinnati is reportedly investigating an instructor who referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus,” a term that has been deemed xenophobic, unscientific and politicized, and which has been employed by President Trump. According to WKRC and screenshots of an email shared on social media, John Ucker, adjunct instructor of mechanical and materials engineering, responded to a student who had to miss an in-person lab due to a mandatory COVID-19 quarantine like this: “For students testing positive for the chinese virus [sic], I will give no grade.”

President Neville Pinto of Cincinnati later said on Twitter, “There is no place for bigotry in our community or any other. We are better than this. Every Bearcat deserves to feel welcomed, respected and supported. Greatness starts with inclusion. And inclusion starts with each of us.”

John Weidner, Ucker’s dean, referred the incident to the university's Office of Equal Opportunity and Access for review and confirmed that Ucker was on administrative leave. "These types of xenophobic comments and stigmatizations around location or ethnicity are more than troubling," Weidner wrote in an email to CNN. "We know we can better protect and care for all when we speak about COVID-19 with both accuracy and empathy -- something we should all strive for."

Ucker did not respond to a request for comment.

Jonathan Friedman, director of PEN America’s campus free speech program, said in a statement that the "use of the phrase reflects poor judgement and the university should speak out to affirm its commitment to rejecting racism, bigotry and hate." Yet, as a "matter of free speech and academic freedom, a disciplinary response to a single statement, in the absence of evidence of a broader pattern of biased or harassing conduct, risks constricting the space for open discussion on contentious issues."

Going forward, Cincinnati "can and should continue to speak out on this issue, raise awareness and unequivocally condemn what the professor said," Friedman added. "And they can and should pursue an effort at dialogue with the professor, in the hope that he can hear out just how deeply and negatively this phrase may affect students and the wider community. But efforts at dialogue and community support will be more sensible, effective and justifiable than a punitive response."

The American Association of University Professors will investigate the "crisis in academic governance that has occurred in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic," it said Monday. The resulting report, expected in early 2021, will focus on Canisius College, Illinois Wesleyan University, Keuka College, Marian University, Medaille College, National University and Wittenberg University. AAUP investigators will determine whether these colleges and universities have strayed from the association’s widely followed principles and standards of academic governance during the pandemic, not least of all when laying off tenured faculty members.

"Since March, the AAUP has received numerous complaints from faculty members detailing unilateral actions taken by their governing boards and administrations to dictate how courses are taught, to suspend key institutional regulations, to reduce and close departments and majors, to compel faculty members to teach in person, and to lay off long-serving faculty members," Gregory Scholtz, director of academic freedom, tenure and governance at the association, said in a statement. "In most cases, the stated basis for the actions was the need to deal with pandemic-related financial shortfalls."

The AAUP previously investigated faculty terminations at five New Orleans-area institutions following Hurricane Katrina. It eventually censured four of them for alleged violations of faculty rights.