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Universities and remote work post-COVID?

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

As things return to 'normal' how are departments and universities dealing with in-person requirements for service work?

I remember that during the beginning of all this, people were hailing a new era of flexibility in workplace norms as a kind of silver lining of the pandemic. How are departments navigating this? I've been a bit disappointed to find that my own university is doubling down on in-person requirements, even as life (with kids, especially) remains difficult. In my part of the country, schools and daycares have stringent sick policies, other inflexible rules about pick-up and drop-off, it is difficult to find care, and so on. Yet even though it would be easy to conduct remote work or have a hybrid meeting, it's been disallowed by my department and university except in very narrow circumstances.

So I'm wondering how other universities/departments are navigating in-person vs. remote work. I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable by asking for more family-friendly policies. I'm also not sure how to approach those at my university about this.

These are excellent questions, and I'm really curious to hear people's answers. My sense, at least in my neck of the woods, are that universities may be requiring more in-person work again now, but that they may be more flexible than pre-COVID. For example, especially in departments, there seems to me a greater willingness to hold meetings via Zoom now, and to allow people to attend in-person meetings remotely if need be–and I even know some universities that are continuing to permit online or hybrid teaching methods more than before. But, beyond this, and whether these things will continue moving forward, I'm really not sure. What is everyone else's experience so far?

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7 responses to “Universities and remote work post-COVID?”

  1. Threecents

    I hope for the sake of the students that universities will either insist on in-person teaching or else insist on extremely high quality online delivery. I’ve seen far too many faculty use COVID as an excuse to delivery crappy courses and to check out from campus life in a way that seems to me akin to professional malpractice. (E.g. no engagement beyond a discussion board, irregularly checked, uploading others’ YouTube videos rather than teaching, uploading readings and auto-graded assignments and basically walking away, and so on.) Is there bad behavior in person? Sure. Are the rates similar? Not even close.
    Beyond this bad behavior, university faculty should not forget that a substantial part of the reason students pay the amounts of money they do to attend is to purchase a networking and social experience, facilitated in-part by faculty. To me, tolerating too much online, remote work will result in a drop in enrollment.
    Is there a place for online learning in the modern academy? Sure. Is it plausible to think that universities would be much worse off in terms of their missions to have a policy that allowed faculty to avoid campus? It seems undeniable to me. Given the glut of talent on the job market, it’s hard for me to see the incentive for most departments to continue to make accommodations for the risk averse.

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  2. Threecents

    To be clear, I am also of the view that many meetings could be emails and that the need to meet in-person to conduct department business is not always urgent. I would hope that some of that kind of flexibility would carry over (it has where I am so far).

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  3. anon

    My department has eliminated basically all online teaching and replaced it with in person at this point. But they’re still doing some meetings online, and office hours are online at your discretion. There are some hints this will continue.
    It seems unambiguously good to have meetings online. This makes them more accessible for faculty with childcare responsibilities, like the OP, and does nothing to detract from the “in-person experience” for the undergrads.
    I don’t have the confidence that Threecents does, that “bad behavior” happens dramatically less frequently with in-person teaching. I don’t think this sort of thing can be figured out from the armchair.
    (And while it is pretty tractable to figure out how often this happens with online teaching – just go look at the course websites and/or watch the recordings – in-person teaching is harder to surveil and judge as thoroughly.)

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  4. four cents

    Well said Threecents. People in the profession are worked up when a philosophy program is being closed at one college, but too many behavior in a manner that shows no regard for students and their education.

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  5. Still drowning

    Original poster here. I absolutely agree about in-person teaching. It’s part of the job. Online learning is generally worse for students, and we all need to get back to teaching in person ASAP.
    I should have specified more clearly. I mean service work (I wrote it in the first line, but it’s easy to miss). For instance, at my department, we have hybrid department meetings, but one is only allowed to attend virtually if one is immunocompromised. Otherwise one must attend in-person or not at all. This is becoming the general culture. Now that we are back teaching in person, we are back doing all service in person with no flexibility.

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  6. Conrad

    @Still drowning, there was recently discussion about whether faculty meetings should resume in-person at my department, and one (childless) faculty member started on about how in-person meetings sustain departmental cohesion and culture. I was delighted by my colleagues’ firm and speedy pushback. We’ve since had all meetings online. Thus always with meetings.

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  7. Ava

    What’s the best way to list And communicate the meaning of academic job titles in the UK to an international audience? Officially, I’m a “lecturer in philosophy”. But my understanding is that to people outside the UK a ”lecturer” is more akin to an adjunct (nothing against it!). I have seen people on their websites/CVS write ‘permanent lecturer’ or ‘lecturer (assistant professor)’. Does anyone have opinions about the best practice here?

    Reply

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