I am a communications director at a
large public university. Th e university,
like most in the nation, intends to bring
all students, faculty and staff together
for the fall semester. Because bringing
together 40,000-plus people from all
around the country is the opposite of good
public-health policy during a pandemic,
I believe that the institution is placing
fi nancial concerns ahead of students’
and employees’ health and safety. My
job involves communicating to our
community that it will all be OK, but
I have very serious doubts about that.
Is it unethical to continue in my job?
Name Withheld
How and whether universities can safely
resume residential life and in- person edu-
cation is a complicated matter, with no
one-size-fi ts-all answer. At Vassar, where
the college president is a public- health
scholar, students were required to be
cleared by a corona virus test shortly before
they arrived on campus and are to be test-
ed at intervals thereafter. The college has
invested in fi ltration systems for ventila-
tion and an app to support contact trac-
ing; it has established strict limits on room
capacity and building density, along with
the usual protocols about face masks, hand
hygiene and social distancing. But it’s also
a small, somewhat isolated college on a
thousand acres — a bubble of sorts.
At Yale, a much larger institution that’s
layered into a broader urban community,
students are to be tested twice a week,
with results available within 24 to 36 hours.
Although a negative test result doesn’t
guarantee that you’re not infected — false
negatives aren’t uncommon — they’re a
pretty reliable indicator that you’re not
infectious, or weren’t when you took the
test. (Speedy results are critical.) Students
face being excluded from campus if they
violate the behavioral rules. Even so, the
bulk of classes will be conducted remote-
ly. Similar protocols are being implement-
ed at Colby College, Brandeis, the Univer-
sity of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and
many other places.
Will less stringent measures suffi ce? The
experiences of the University of North16 9.13.20 Illustration by Tomi Um
Illustration by Louise Zergaeng PomeroyThe Ethicist By Kwame Anthony Appiah
To submit a query:
Send an email to
ethicist@nytimes
.com; or send mail
to The Ethicist, The
New York Times
Magazine, 620
Eighth Avenue, New
York, N.Y. 10018.
(Include a daytime
phone number.)Amy writes: My
boyfriend claims
that he could eat
breakfast burritos
every day and never
get sick of them. I
think any food would
become tiresome if
eaten daily. I have
offered to make him
one every day for
a month to see. He
says it’s not about
liking the burrito but
about being able to
eat one every day.
Doesn’t that mean
he’d be sick of them?
————
First of all, now
I want to eat a
breakfast burrito
every day for a
month. It sounds
great. But by that
point, I suspect
that your semantic
disagreement re:
‘‘sick of’’ will be
literally settled by
nausea. Still, he’ll
probably eat them
all out of pride —
and thus, that is his
punishment. You
write from London,
so I don’t know what
‘‘breakfast burrito’’
means to you. For all
I know, you could be
talking about some
sort of egg-and-
black-pudding bap
dipped in chile sauce.
You know what?
I’d still eat one. But
only one.Bonus Advice
From Judge
John HodgmanCarolina at Chapel Hill, the Universi-
ty of Notre Dame and the University of
Iowa — to mention just some universities
where Covid-19 clusters have recently
emerged — illustrate the dangers. U.N.C.
has shifted from in- person instruction to
remote learning and is further reducing
residential density. Notre Dame at least
temporarily suspended in- person classes.
And it won’t do to simply put the blame
on student misbehavior; institutions must
anticipate the possibility of such lapses,
taking measures to discourage them and,
failing that, to contain their consequences.
All back- to- campus plans should have
been informed by experts in public health
and facilities management and prepared in
consultation with the various stakehold-
ers — not just the students and faculty of
a university but also the staff members (or
their union representatives) and the sur-
rounding community. What about your
own university’s plans?
Let me be clear: You must not misrep-
resent the situation on your campus, and
I’m assuming you haven’t been asked to do
so. (If you have, there should be whistle-
blower channels you can turn to.) I also
assume that the administration has con-
sulted with a range of experts to develop
a set of policies for managing the risks.
You’re concerned that, for fi nancial rea-
sons, the administration isn’t following
what experts would consider the wisest
course of action. Why not ask, for the pur-
poses of doing your job, to speak to the rel-
evant experts, and so ensure the accuracy
of what you say?My partner and I live in separate homes
about two hours from each other. My
partner is a faculty member in one state,
and I am a counselor in a bordering
state. Each of us will start working again
at our respective campuses next month.
We typically visit each other two or three
times a month. However, my partner will
most likely be exposed to more students
than I will. I wonder if it’s ethical for
us to see each other while we’re working
at our campuses. We are supposed to
be tested for the corona virus before
we return to campus and submit daily
health checks online. I’m not confi dent
in these measures. Yet I can’t bear the
thought of not seeing my partner for a
semester, as happened in the spring when
my partner decided to quarantine for
months with family in another state to