The Georgia Tech chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) strongly supports the opinions and suggested actions contained in the letter from the Georgia Southern University AAUP chapter to the editor of The George-Anne dated 2 September 2020.  We highlight and stress the following points that all units of the USG should follow:

• Provide Covid-19 testing, case reporting, and contract tracing readily for all members of the USG community, as well as strongly encourage regular testing.  All of these have been accomplished at Georgia Tech.
• Recognize that students are in danger living in dense housing conditions, such as dormitories and Greek housing, and take all possible steps to provide students with single rooms, if they choose to live on campus.  This reduction in densification is occurring at Georgia Tech.  In addition, students should be allowed to terminate housing and food contracts for the spring semester without penalty, if they choose to move off campus.
• Continue to pursue social distancing in housing, classes, food service and other situations where students, faculty and staff interact.
• Recognize that faculty are the ultimate arbitrators of classroom pedagogy, and should be consulted directly and deferred to on the issues of the selection of on-line, in-person and hybrid learning for spring 2021 teaching modes.  Distance learning should be the default mode for spring 2021 classes in the USG.

— GT Chapter of the AAUP