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Newsletter September 2021
President’s Message WELCOME BACK* TheAcienit normalidmix of excitement quatust ibustrumand ese-anxiety that arrives with each fall semester comes with qui dem vellesthis pro year: te queCOVID nis ni- is still here, and it is still dominating the campus a giant asterisk maxim illaborae in et resectat et experience for faculty, staff, and students. es as endus que esti ut omnienFor about a month at the beginning of the summer, like many of you, I was feeling very FINISH READING ON PG. 2 optimistic about the direction of the pandemic. After a long year-plus, things were looking up. Everybody in my immediate and extended family was fully vaccinated, and we were able to put the masks away and enjoy the summer. Early this summer, I was at an Adidas store buying some shirts for my teen son, and the store was giving away a set of branded masks with the purchase. I remember thinking that was nice, but we would probably never use them. That feeling of being post-COVID lasted for about a month. Then, as the vaccination rate stalled, the delta variant began spreading, and case numbers kept rising, we dug out those Adidas masks and started being more strategic about where we planned to go and what events we would attend. The level of breakthrough infections has also been worrisome. This is the anxiety-filled environment we occupy as faculty right now. Many of you have seen the powerful messages from our colleague, Steve Oross, about his struggles to be accommodated in spite of a life-threatening medical situation. He is not the only one, either. At APSCUF-KU, we are committed to supporting every faculty member in such a situation, but we have encountered many challenges. Through the Emergency Management Team, we argued all summer for a mask mandate, but it took the CDC's changing of the status of Berks county to make it happen. Frustrating. The reality is that COVID is not going away anytime soon, so we must work together to ensure that we have as safe of an environment as possible so we can do our work with students. Stay healthy.
President, APSCUF-KU.