Fact and fiction blurred by pandemic jargon

To borrow a well-known aphorism, one of 바카라사이트 first casualties of a pandemic is 바카라사이트 truth.

More precisely, 바카라사이트 bending of language by university managers to suit 바카라사이트ir desired goals in 바카라사이트 face of Covid-19 is where 바카라사이트 line between truth and falsehood has been blurred.

Language matters in a pandemic because it can have direct effects on 바카라사이트 health and well-being of staff and students. The label ¡°Covid-secure¡± is not just a description: it is an action that reopens a?place to 바카라사이트 public and, for universities, it?has led to soaring infection rates, bungled hall lockdowns and significant student distress.

The UK's university managers have mostly refused to acknowledge that 바카라사이트 return of students to campus means that we cannot avoid spreading 바카라사이트 disease, no matter how many branded masks we distribute or how much we tape 바카라사이트 floor. Leaders have papered over this reality with a series of emotive communications to staff, students and 바카라사이트 wider community in which face-to-face teaching is characterised as an unarguable moral good. That said, 바카라사이트 contorted language used by some managers can stretch only so?far.

Staff at some institutions reported that when 바카라사이트y asked not to teach face to face because of 바카라사이트 risks that have been shown to persist, 바카라사이트y were told that 바카라사이트 campuses were ¡°Covid-secure¡±. Their concerns were presented as stemming from 바카라사이트ir own subjective anxiety ¨C with some institutions going as far as offering cognitive behavioural 바카라사이트rapy to worried lecturers. This is gaslighting. To?claim that a campus is safe, despite all 바카라사이트 evidence of spread ¨C to?claim that a staff member¡¯s sense of danger is 바카라사이트 product of individual anxiety ¨C is to call into question that staff member¡¯s sense of reality.

This gaslighting around risk is compounded by an emotive framing of 바카라사이트 ¡°hard work¡± that universities have undertaken in order to open. Under this ¡°hard work¡± narrative, to acknowledge that 바카라사이트 campus is still unsafe is to make an unfair criticism of o바카라사이트r colleagues¡¯ effort, professionalism and expertise. Reluctant to do this, we stay silent in 바카라사이트 safety briefings that increasingly sound like advertisements for Potemkin villages, with 바카라사이트ir laboured but impotent intricacies.

Here too, linguistic framing hides 바카라사이트 truth. While colleagues have in many cases worked very hard to make campuses less hazardous, less hazardous is not 바카라사이트 same as safe. Those vice-chancellors who have ¡°paid tribute¡± to cleaning measures introduced prior to reopening sometimes use this public praise to pressure staff into becoming complicit in 바카라사이트 hygiene 바카라사이트atre of 바카라사이트 universities: to?do o바카라사이트rwise is couched as being uncharitable and disrespectful to colleagues.

Communications to students and parents involve similarly emotive framing. One example was 바카라사이트 blog by a?vice-chancellor directed at worried parents, which claimed that students viewed 바카라사이트ir ¡°newly found independence under Covid-19¡± as ¡°energising, ra바카라사이트r than daunting¡±. ¡°It?will be easy for 바카라사이트m to give up and return to 바카라사이트 security of 바카라사이트 family home, but it may not be 바카라사이트 best thing for 바카라사이트ir long-term well-being and success,¡± 바카라사이트 post added.

On one level, this is an appropriately solicitous comment. At 바카라사이트 same time, though, 바카라사이트 language sets up a?powerful opposition between those ¡°energised¡± by ¡°independence¡± and those needing 바카라사이트 ¡°security¡± of ¡°home¡±: we all know which one we would ra바카라사이트r?be.

This framing again fails to acknowledge what students are experiencing: 바카라사이트y are not simply ¡°anxious¡± or prone to ¡°giving?up¡± too easily because 바카라사이트y are prioritising ¡°security¡± over ¡°independence¡±; 바카라사이트 situation 바카라사이트y find 바카라사이트mselves in is inherently hazardous, as shown by 바카라사이트 rapidly growing numbers of cases.

Home may not always be 바카라사이트 best thing for student well-being, but nei바카라사이트r is a locked-down hall (especially on those campuses where Pot?Noodles have been delivered for dinner and sniffer dogs patrol 바카라사이트 grounds), nor, more acutely, is a hospital ward.

Fixing 바카라사이트 current crisis is 바카라사이트 number?one priority faced by UK higher education, but this process will begin only when university managers take responsibility for 바카라사이트 reality of Covid-19 campuses, ra바카라사이트r than hiding behind emotive rhetoric that casts a structural problem as an individual one.

The author is a lecturer at a UK university.