IOWA - Sickouts are planned today at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University in protest of in-person learning.
A document has been circulating on both campuses for students and faculty to pledge to call in sick from attending or instructing classes.The goal is to move all classes online.
It reads in part, “As students and teachers, we know that in-person classes are not safe during this pandemic. But instead of protecting us from illness, the administrators of our schools have resorted to finger-pointing, blaming students and local businesses for their own failures of leadership.”
Iowa had one of the country's highest concentration of new COVID-19 cases in late August when students were returning to campus at both schools.
The University of Iowa currently has more than 1,700 positive cases on campus, while Iowa State has reported a total of 915 in the past week.
Johnson and Story counties, which are home to the University of Iowa and Iowa State University had positivity rates of more than 20 percent at the time. Those numbers have since come down, and both counties are now under 15 percent.
It's not known if students or faculty will be penalized by the universities for calling in sick.
The Iowa State Daily newspaper reports it received an email from a media relations coordinator at the school stating the university had no comment on the sickout.