Thursday, September 03, 2009

H1N1 & U

My university has A Plan for dealing with the H1N1 virus should it become a major problem in the student population this year. And that plan is that faculty should have plans to deal with the H1N1 virus should it become a major problem in the student population this year.

It's a little hard to plan for this. We can tell our students that if they get the flu, they should not come to class. But what else should we do? How much should we plan for massive absences?

For most of my classes (other than giga-classes), I have a system that I use when students miss class or an assignment, and I plan to keep using this system if at all possible. This system involves make-up assignments that require a bit more effort than the students would have to expend had they physically been in class, but not so much more that the assignments are unfair. The system tends to minimize "non-essential" absences without penalizing the genuinely ill, injured or grieving student. Student response to these make-up assignments has always been positive.

Supposedly we should also have a plan for what to do if we the teachers get sick as well. Here again I am thinking of adopting my usual plan of not dealing with such things unless and until I have to. It is hard to build some slack into a syllabus in anticipation of possibly falling ill, though I am sure I could find a short-term substitute or two to help out if necessary (and of course would be willing to do the same for ill colleagues).

I don't mean to dismiss the dangers of this flu by not having an awesome plan in place for my classes this year. I have never had the flu before but I don't suppose that means I would be immune to this one. One of my great-grandmothers died in the flu pandemic of 1918, when my grandmother was still quite young -- in fact, about the age of my daughter now. The loss of her mother was a deep sadness that my grandmother carried with her always.

Even so, I feel somewhat fatalistic about this academic year. I can wash my hands a lot and encourage ill students to stay home, but we professors have to mingle with the student masses and if they get sick, we are going to get sick. They may get sick in great numbers and we have to explore new options for how to conduct the course, but my classes are small enough this term that I think I can get away without major preparations and then deal with whatever happens as the need arises.

So that's my (non)plan for H1N1. I am glad that not everyone deals with crises this way.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are in your 40's and have never had the flu before?

You go girl!

Alex said...

I think that with a lot of course materials being posted online and even some homework being done online, schools today are already better-prepared to deal with students who have to miss class. Even if they're too sick to do the homework when it's due, at least they can do some studying when they start to feel better but are not yet well enough to go to class.

For tests, if a student misses a test for a plausible reason I usually just double-count the best test. Saves me the trouble of writing another test, and since I already give a bit of extra weight (albeit not double weight) to the best test (to allow for improvement in an objective way) it's close to how the other students are graded anyway (and hence it's more or less fair).

CrankyMathGuy said...

Funny. My university has the exact same plan.

Anonymous said...

"I have never had the flu before" --> really?!?

Anonymous said...

How very timely.

Our university just sent out a notice basically telling faculty to "be flexible" about student absences due to H1N1 (meaning... what?) but also telling students that "the Honor Code still applies" to the situation (meaning they might get in trouble if they claim to have H1N1 five times in one semester). It was unclear exactly how much faculty were supposed to bend over backwards to accomodate "sick" students, but ominous phrases such as "calls from parents" and "provide class notes" did appear in the email.

Anonymous said...

Hand washing is good, right? Well, I wash my hands of my university's plan. If it turns out to be a major pandemic, with people dropping like flies, I'm not going to worry about the details of make-up assignments, let me tell you.

Wannabe said...

I have a system that [...] involves make-up assignments that require a bit more effort than the students would have to expend had they physically been in class, but not so much more that the assignments are unfair.

Could you give a concrete example?
As prospective professor, I've been collecting advice, and this was a rough spot in my one summer of adjunct teaching.

Anonymous said...

meh, my father is a prof in New Zealand - they're just coming out of the winter flu season.

Slightly higher than normal absences, slightly more assignments in late and absences from tests but the sky didn't exactly fall in.

Unless this virus mutates, Southern Hemisphere experience suggests it's not worth worrying too much about...

Anonymous said...

We just got an official University Announcement along the same lines. I support thinking ahead, but from my view of H1N1 from the media, I don't see that it will cause much more than the usual problems. Most students will be ill 3-5 days, missing 1-2 classes. In my large class (100-200) 60% attendance would be a very good day, and I doubt I'd notice a flucuation Attendence is not part of the grade and one could get notes and use my powerpoint and office hours to catch up. In my smaller class (35 students), while participation is counted, virtually no one has a perfect record and we don't even start to count off for poor attendance until a student misses more than 20% of the classes. H1N1 along is unlikely to have that result. I agree with FSP--go ahead with the usual rules and adapt later if needed.

Mark P.

Shay said...

Hand-washing is good. Wiping down items that are shared in common such as telephone handsets and computer keyboards are good.

Flue shots are also good.

Ellen said...

Our university has a similar plan (i.e. you professors should have a plan and we can't require the students to give us a doctor's not or the like). One response that we have started podcasting our lectures through a service the university offers.

Also, the preliminary data on who is getting the swine flu suggests that those between 25 and 60 are at a lower risk. So hopefully most of us will make it through the winter unscathed!

Kevin said...

Requiring a doctor's note has not been a viable option for faculty at many universities for some time.

Here is one example:
http://healthcenter.ucsc.edu/forms/HC-796-No-Note-Policy.pdf

EliRabett said...

Some combination of podcasting, on line homework and camtasia studio with test postponed. If the flu runs wild for a month or so classes WILL be cancelled.

I speak as someone old enough to have family members who were orphaned by the Spanish flu

Ms.PhD said...

My doctor says anyone who did not get the 1976 flu vaccine should get vaccinated this fall (vaccine comes out in October). He said that older folks (he is retirement age himself) are lower-priority (except for healthcare workers, of course).

You are young enough that, unless you are sure you were vaccinated in 1976, you should probably get the shots.

As someone who has had 3 memorable flu experiences, I can honestly tell you it's not worth the risk. Even if you don't come close to a near-death experience, you will probably be out of work for a solid week.

Here's hoping the shots help this year. Last year they apparently didn't work very well, from what I've heard.

Anonymous said...

In my large-ish UG class, I grade attendance and homework, but am pretty easy about excusing an absence so long as a student contacts me to tell me why they missed. I foresee no problems there, even though my U has been all over the national media lately with its flu #s. My graduate course, which meets just 12 times (plus the midterm and an in-class poster presentation) will be a little tougher to handle. I'm taking the Scarlett O'Hara approach there - "i'll think about it tomorrow" :-).

Unbalanced Reaction said...

I'm dealing with the potential of H1N1 in a similar way: I'll deal with it if it becomes a problem. I actually got the "regular" flu the second week of class (go, me!), so I'm hoping that's my last bout with illness for the semester. So far, five of my 100 students are out with the flu (but not The Flu). I'm hoping everyone gets it out of the way early before any exams come up.

If I got really, really sick, I'm not sure what I would do. Since it's a new job, I have two new preps, one of which no one in the department could really cover. Hmm...maybe I *should* get some sort of plan together!

Helen Huntingdon said...

My university just sent out an email to all students telling them that they should not come to class if sick, but they are still responsible for all coursework responsibilities.

Yeah, that'll work.

Anonymous said...

We got a message that we are supposed to understanding about missed class, late assingments, etc. But of course there is no plan to be understanding of faculty or staff if they are sick or have sick children (or closed schools). It's all about the students, and there was not a word mentioned about flexibility for employees if they are sick. Then again that is typical of my university.