Masks in the classroom

On August 31 I started my 20th year of teaching at Hamline University. This year is unlike all the previous ones; Covid-19 has changed our lives and that includes academia.

My home state of Minnesota has been doing better than many other states the last few months, but the coronavirus has taken its toll. The state has half the population of Greece but about 2,000 Covid deaths and over 92,000 individuals have tested positive. My employer gave faculty several choices; we could teach online, face-to-face, or a combination of the two (hybrid). I chose to teach face-to-face. My decision was taken after careful deliberation on the important issues involved.

I am well aware of the dangers, but I decided based on two considerations: First, while many of my colleagues do an exceptionally good job teaching online, I discovered last spring, when the whole university taught...