By: Nyah Adams / News Director

The St. Cloud State University Faculty Association is calling on President Robbyn Wacker to make changes to the university’s COVID-19 policies. The union had a recent town hall meeting and they’ve forwarded their resolution, which passed unanimously, to the president and Minnesota State’s leadership.

Currently, the administration says professors who are teaching in-person at the start of the semester are required to keep teaching in-person regardless of any changes due to COVID-19. This means if a professor cannot teach class due to COVID-19 impacting them or their family, they are not allowed teach class through Zoom or on the school’s digital learning platform.

The St. Cloud State faculty union says they are looking for Wacker to approve that faculty may switch to temporary remote learning for the next two weeks without fear of retaliation from the administration for violating the policy.

Faculty Association President Jen Tuder made the comment in a media release that SCSU has shifted to remote learning because of wind chills four times in the last week. They feel it should now shift to remote learning for the next two weeks in response to the high transmission rates in the community.

This comes after CentraCare is calling for the community to help slow the spread of highly contagious Omicron variant which includes the help of St. Cloud State University.

The Minnesota Department of Health says in Stearns County just over 58% of the population is fully vaccinated, 62% have at least one dose and the St. Cloud hospital is at 125% above their critical care capacities and facing health care worker shortages at the same time.