LET GO for Wanting to Teach Remotely during COVID

Hello,

My name is Mike and I am the Vice President of AFT 3190, the faculty union at Southwestern Oregon Community College (SOCC). When COVID started, our entire college switched to online teaching. This was in March 2020. Flash forward to September 2021 and we had been successfully teaching remotely for over a year and a half. However, the administration at SOCC decided that all faculty must return to in-person teaching for Fall of 2021, with no exceptions. There are currently no vaccine mandates at our college, so it is possible that many students in the classroom will not be vaccinated. Pete Mantey, professor of Speech and Communications, is 66 years old and decided that teaching in a classroom at his age and with potentially unvaccinated students was a danger to his health. He asked the college if he could continue to teach remotely until infection rates in our county had significantly decreased. The college refused this request and gave Pete an ultimatum: teach in-person, on campus or face the prospect of being fired. Pete refused to put his health and safety at risk when a perfectly reasonable alternative was available: teaching remotely, which the college had been doing successfully for over a year and a half. The college made good on their threat and forced Pete to resign at the end of this year.

We are trying to raise money to help Pete and his family make ends meet until medicare and his retirement payments start next year. We are hoping to raise $25000 to help Pete with this unexpected financial hardship.

Thank you for your time and support!

Mike