紐時賞析／戴口罩師vs脫罩生 美國大學副教授：情感上的地獄景觀

The Masked Professor vs. the Unmasked Student

戴口罩師 VS. 脫罩生

Matthew Boedy, an associate professor of rhetoric and composition, sent out a raw emotional appeal to his students at the University of North Georgia just before classes began: The COVID-19 delta variant was rampaging through the state, filling up hospital beds. He would teach class in the equivalent of full body armor — vaccinated and masked.

修辭與寫作副教授波迪開學前向北喬治亞大學學生發出一份帶有強烈情感的呼籲：新冠病毒delta變異株正肆虐該州，醫院病床已滿。他將打完疫苗戴上口罩，形同全副武裝上課。

So he was stunned in late August when more than two-thirds of the first-year students in his writing class did not take the hint and showed up unmasked.

因此，8月下旬他的寫作課有超過三分之二大一學生不了解這一暗示，未戴口罩來上課，他相當驚訝。

It was impossible to tell who was vaccinated and who was not. “It isn’t a visual hellscape, like hospitals; it’s more of an emotional hellscape,” Boedy said.

要區分誰接種過疫苗誰沒接種，根本不可能。波迪說：「它不像醫院那樣屬於視覺上的地獄景觀，比較像是情感上的地獄景觀。」

North Georgia is not requiring its students to be vaccinated or masked this fall. And as in-person classes return at almost every university in the country, after almost 1 1/2 years of emergency pivoting to online learning, many professors are finding teaching a nerve-racking experience.

北喬治亞大學今年秋天並未要求學生接種疫苗或配戴口罩。在緊急轉為線上學習近一年半後，美國幾乎所有大學都恢復了面對面授課，許多教授如今發現教學是個讓人神經緊張的經驗。

The American College Health Association recommends vaccination requirements for all on-campus higher education students for the fall semester. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends face coverings, regardless of vaccine status, for indoor public spaces in areas where the rate of infection is high.

美國大學健康協會建議，秋季學期所有高等教育的在校生一律接種疫苗。美國疾病防治中心建議，無論疫苗接種情況如何，在感染率高的室內公共場所都要配戴口罩。

But this is not how it has worked out on more than a few campuses.

但在很多校園情況卻不是如此。

More than 1,000 colleges and universities have adopted vaccination requirements for at least some students and staff. In an indication of how political vaccination has become, the schools tend to be clustered in states that voted for President Joe Biden in the last election.

超過1000所學院與大學已對至少一部分學生及教職員工採行疫苗接種規定。這些學校往往集中於上次大選投票給拜登總統的州，顯示疫苗接種已變得相當政治化。

But at some campuses, particularly in Republican-led states with high rates of contagion — like the state systems in Georgia, Texas and Florida — vaccination is optional and mask wearing, while recommended, cannot be enforced.

但在一些校園裡，尤其是共和黨執政且傳染率偏高的州，如喬治亞州、德州與佛羅里達州，接種疫苗是選擇性的，雖建議配戴口罩但不得強制實施。

A smattering of faculty members have resigned in protest over optional mask policies. Most, like Boedy, are soldiering on. But the level of fear is so high that even at universities that do require vaccination and masks, like Cornell University and the University of Michigan, professors have signed petitions asking for the choice to return to online teaching.

一些教職員工已辭職抗議選擇性口罩政策，多數人像波迪一樣還在堅持。但恐懼程度高漲，即使在康乃爾大學與密西根大學等規定必須接種疫苗和配戴口罩的大學，教授們也簽署請願書，要求能選擇恢復線上授課。

“Morale is at an all-time low,” warns a petition at the University of Iowa.

愛荷華大學一份請願書警告說：「士氣空前低落。」

Universities are caught between the demands of their faculty for greater safety precautions, and the fear of losing students, and the revenue they bring, if schools return to another year of online education.

許多大學陷入兩難局面，教師要求更多安全防範措施，校方則擔心若再恢復一年的線上教學，恐失去學生及其帶來的收入。

文／Anemona Hartocollis 譯／陳韋廷