ALT Leon county reports 4,051 new covid-19 cases in the last 7 days. This is a 287% increase from last week's 1,048, which was a 482% increase from only 180 cases the week before.

ALT December 29th, 2021 President McCullough, Provosts McRorie & Clark, & Florida State University Board of Trustees, We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones safe and healthy during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and we regret having to write such a letter amidst what should be a time of rest and relaxation with our families.

ALT First of all, Graduate Assistants United (GAU) wants to thank you for your decisive actions in March 2020, transitioning Florida State University to remote learning following Spring Break. While the transition of Florida’s State University System and the Florida College System to remote learning was a directive from Governor DeSantis, under your leadership, FSU was ahead of the curve in deciding to keep campus closed. Likewise, FSU has continued to implement precautions within the confines of our political reality, and has worked tirelessly with the GAU to build no less than three separate Memorandums of Understanding in response to this ongoing pandemic. These precautions undoubtedly saved the lives of many of FSU’s invaluable students, faculty, staff, and vulnerable community neighbors, as well as supported the careers of our Graduate Assistants throughout these tumultuous times.

ALT Unfortunately, in spite of all of our best efforts, the COVID-19 situation has continued to deteriorate. With the rise of the Omicron variant, Florida has seen an exponential increase in COVID-19 cases over the winter holiday. Although CDC guidance is that this variant results in less severe outcomes, especially for those who are vaccinated, this variant is also dramatically more infectious than previous strains. As such, we are deeply concerned about our vulnerable and unvaccinated population at FSU, especially as we are expected to return at full classroom capacity one week from today.

ALT Luckily, there is hope on the horizon. Many models expect infections from this variant to peak within a month. Given these facts, many other Universities have opted to start the first two weeks of the Spring 2022 semester with online classes, to allow students returning from across the country time to isolate and test themselves for COVID-19, and then quarantine as necessary. Already Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Yale, Northwestern, Stanford, Syracuse, and UCLA (including, in the UC system: San Diego, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Davis) have announced they are adopting this two-week virtual start policy (or some variation thereof) for the Spring. We at Graduate Assistants United strongly encourage FSU to do the same.