SCAD students start online petitions, demand hybrid learning options and COVID transparency

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Credit: Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News

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Editor's Note: The story has been updated with additional information about SCADNow.

With COVID-19 cases increasing in Chatham County due to the omicron variant, several Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)  students, who started winter quarter last week, have started two separate petitions: one requesting hybrid learning and another asking for COVID-19 transparency from the university.

The student-driven petitions list their demands and express concerns they would like the university to address as the 10-week quarter progresses.

SCAD senior game design major Allison Duryea initiated her petition on Jan.2., advocating for a hybrid learning option.

Duryea said she started the petition because of the increase of COVID-19 cases in Chatham County and at the school. She also cited cancelled flights and students still at home sick with COVID-19.

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"We basically want people that are sick and can't get tested, or people who think they're sick or have been exposed to be able to stay home and not be punished and fail their classes, because at SCAD, when if you miss five classes, you actually fail your course entirely," she said.

According to the university's attendance policy, students are allowed up to five absences before a student fails a class.

As of Monday, Duryea confirmed more than 5,000 current SCAD students, parents, alumni and community members have signed the petition.

"So initially, I made the petition because literally, everyone I knew was kind of in chaos that was going to my school," she said. "People couldn't get here because of flights, or people were stuck, literally trapped for days on the highway, or were sick."

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Duryea said she also knows students who have professors that would require them to take an absence, instead of understanding the circumstances under which they were missing class.

She said her goal is getting the information out and inform the school that students are unhappy with the decision of only providing in-person learning.  She hopes the school will consider travel-related delays and waive absences.

Duryea said the petition is not calling for fully remote courses because she knows that a lot of students can't take their classes online. She said a hybrid option would be for students who have gotten sick and for those who have tested positive for COVID-19. Duryea said the option will allow students to participate in class without receiving an absence.

She thought starting a petition would be a good way for her and other students to have their voices heard. "I don't know, I've seen petitions happen before at SCAD, and I figured I might as well just see what would happen with it."

Currently, the only accommodations SCAD provides for students are if they test positive for COVID-19 or if a student fails the daily health check, Duryea said. She said getting a COVID-19 test is difficult right now because many COVID-19 testing sites are fully booked.

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Duryea said she understands that SCAD is giving refunds to students who miss the beginning of the quarter due to COVID infections or travel delays.  "They do say right now that you get a refund, but I personally don't believe that our college career should be prolonged just because they're not handling a pandemic correctly enough," she said.

The school provides online courses through SCADNow, which has been awarded for online learning platforms and offers 27 complete degree programs including graphic design, business of beauty and fragrance, animation, photography, and illustration. Online courses, Duryea said, are limited once students get into their major.

Duryea said the school's COVID-19 polices were vague because it lists contact tracing as the only way to track the virus at the university.

"If they just had something, some kind of actual statement for what is going to happen for people who do have COVID, then I think things would be a lot less confusing and we'd be a lot happier," she said. "My solution to that would be going hybrid."

Second Petition

In addition to the petition that was started by Duryea, another petition was started by an anonymous group of students who are part of SCAD Demand Action. Members from the group declined to provide their identities. The petition said that students and staff would like the university to have more transparency in relation to COVID-19.

According to a Facebook post by the group, "During the COVID-19 pandemic, SCAD has not been transparent with the student body. This lack of transparency has resulted in a lack of student feedback in the decision-making process. SCAD has also failed to take many necessary steps to protect the student body, faculty and the community at large. For these reasons, we the students of SCAD make the following demands."

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Among the group's demands: a vaccine-mandate for students and faculty, unless a medical exemption is necessary; free and accessible COVID-19 testing at residence and academic halls; testing requirements every other week; and no penalties for missing class due to quarantine or positive tests.

The petition also requests, like Duryea's, that hybrid learning be made available and students shouldn't be penalized for missing class due to sickness or being in quarantine.  Other requests include making COVID-19 free and accessible at residence halls and academic halls, students should take a COVID-19 test every two weeks, improve in academic areas, more transparency with the school, placing a moratorium on the purchase of all property during the pandemic and more.

As of Jan. 14, the SCAD Demand Action petition had reached 751 signatures.

COVID by the numbers at SCAD

On Jan. 13, the Coastal Health District reported 937 new COVID-19 cases in a single day in Chatham County,  On the same day, more than 25,811 new cases were recorded across the state.

According to the university's COVID-19 online dashboard, 45 on-campus students, 56 off-campus students and 18 employees working throughout the Savannah campus have tested positive since Jan. 13 — a total of 119 people, or .95%, among a student population of 11,000 students and 1,400 faculty and staff members in Chatham County, according to SCAD.

SCAD COVID-19 polices 

In a letter from SCAD's COVID-19 Leadership Taskforce, dated Jan. 5, the university states that the start of the spring quarter is the first time since March 20, 2020 that the university has offered in-person classes without virtual options. The letter states SCAD students overwhelmingly expressed their desire to return to fully in-person classes, if they can be done safely and responsibly,

The decision was made, according to the letter, to hold in-person learning because of SCAD'S success with contact tracing, vaccination tracking systems, free weekly COVID-19 testing, and required face coverings.

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SCAD declined to comment on the student-led petitions, but did provide the letter that all students received on Jan. 5, in which school officials reiterated their commitment to in-person learning and the safety protocols established last quarter.

These protocols address some of the students' expressed concerns, including class attendance, offering online learning through SCADnow, offering a free retake of a failed class, and increasing COVID-19 testing from three to four days a week.

Campus-wide expectations include daily health checks, social distancing, hand washing and face masks.

In a statement from SCAD, the school said it had maintained a open line of communication with students who have concerns or suggestions to improve their learning experience.

The school said more information about it's COVID-19 polices are listed on its website at https://www.scad.edu/coronavirus/campus-communications

What's Next

After speaking with the dean of students, who is at the university's Atlanta campus, Duryea is hopeful that the Savannah campus will consider local students' concerns with its COVID-19 polices.

"Now that they have already reached out to me, now it's just to continue getting signatures from the petition, sharing people's testimonies and problems with the system," she said.

Bianca Moorman is the education reporter. Reach her at BMoorman@gannett.com or 912-239-7706. Find her on Twitter @biancarmoorman. 

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: SCAD students start online petitions, demand hybrid learning options and COVID transparency