As the Spring semester began, the Murray State Chapter of the United Campus Workers of Kentucky became a loud voice advocating for worker needs following the December tornadoes along with a spike in COVID-19 case numbers.

The local Chapter has drafted two petitions, one concerning the lack of communication between campus workers and the administration and the other about the lack of COVID-19 precautions.

The “Keep all Racers Safe” petition outlines 10 steps the Chapter believes the University should put in place to ensure safer on-campus conditions as we enter our fifth COVID-19 impacted semester.

The Chapter’s requests are similar to those implemented by other Kentucky universities. For example, the University of Kentucky requires mandatory testing for those who are unvaccinated.

There has yet to be an upfront response from the administration, and it almost seems as though they don’t want to validate the Chapter’s voice.

At the Student Government Association’s Feb. 2 meeting, the senators unanimously passed a resolution thanking President Bob Jackson and the administration for their response during the tornadoes and for keeping campus activities in-person. 

Nowhere in the resolution is the Chapter or their petitions mentioned. The resolution just acts like a pat on the back and invalidates the genuine concerns of campus workers.

We at The News do not find that the resolution serves a major purpose, but instead only dismisses the feelings and requests of the Chapter.

Ignoring the voices of campus workers can have harmful effects on the University as a whole. If employees do not feel as though they are being heard in their work environment, then they may seek employment where their voices are considered.

Losing staff would not only have a negative effect on enrollment and the opportunities Murray State can offer, but on its reputation as well.

These actions can have a negative effect on the current and prospective faculty and staff, because a bad reputation will not be attractive to educators wanting to further their careers.

The administration should at least look into the requests of the Chapter and have a line of communication with them, so that they don’t feel as though their voices are unheard.

Their requests are reasonable and would serve to lower COVID-19 rates as they rise because of the Omicron variant.

In the fourth week of the Fall 2021 semester, the campus case rate was 78.  Compared to this, the fourth week of the Spring 2022 semester sees a significant increase with a case rate of 162.

This jump in case rates is enough reason to see that maybe we need to have guidelines set in place allowing professors to temporarily move their classes online.

Classes should be flexible for a variety of reasons, such as a major increase in case rates, ensuring students who test positive do not miss coursework or even classtime; after four semesters we know how to manage our digital tools for hybrid classes.

Overall flexibility can increase productivity.

Lastly, the Chapter’s requests are not impossible, because we have had semesters in the past that were mostly online such as Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The technology is available to allow teaching flexibility, so it is hard to understand why we can’t take advantage of it. 

We at The News want to see communication between the administration and the Chapter before the situation becomes detrimental to Murray State’s academic quality.