College denies online teaching request for professor

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Edgewood College denied an online teaching request from a professor on the autism spectrum who struggles with wearing a mask, saying that granting such an accommodation would be an “undue burden” on the school.

The small Catholic college offered tenured English professor Susan Rustick, 68, an alternative — teach without a mask behind a plexiglass barrier — but Rustick’s doctor disapproved of the idea, citing safety concerns.

And so, on the day before classes began last month, emails show the college relieved Rustick of her teaching assignments and halted her pay the next day. The professor, who finished her 30th year at the college this spring, called Edgewood’s handling of her case “deeply painful.”

Edgewood’s insistence that Rustick hasn’t been terminated but rather that her appointment letter is “null and void” has muddied matters for the professor. She has spent the past several weeks scrambling to figure out whether she still has health insurance, whether she can apply for unemployment benefits and whether she may appeal the decision, which tenured professors have the right to do when fired.

Edgewood College spokesperson Ed Taylor declined to comment on Rustick’s case, citing the need to protect employees’ privacy. He noted some other faculty members were granted accommodations considered “acceptable” to both the professors and the college.

or Rustick personally, however, wearing a mask for more than half an hour is unbearable. She was diagnosed in 2017 with autism spectrum disorder, which causes sensory sensitivities that can make facial coverings feel claustrophobic and trigger hyperventilation.

Since the pandemic hit and masks became a mandatory part of daily life, Rustick tries to keep her grocery store runs short. Even so, sometimes she races out to rip off her mask.

“I feel like I am suffocating,” she said. “It’s not uncomfortable; it’s intolerable.”

Rustick was initially optimistic that Edgewood would help her find a workaround. She gathered documentation from her doctors, who explained that she was unable to adhere to mask guidelines.

An employee floated the possibility of Rustick leading the class remotely with the aid of a teaching assistant in the room. The idea was rejected.

“The TA option places undue financial burden on the College and is not a viable option,” Arhelia Dalla Costa Behm, the director of human resources, wrote in one email to Rustick.

In another, Behm explained that the college promised students they would have faculty teaching courses in person.

Edgewood offered to waive the mask requirement for Rustick and set up an 8-by-8-foot plexiglass barrier for the professor to lecture behind in a classroom with masked students and physical distancing.

But Rustick said her teaching style doesn’t keep her stationed to one spot. She groups students together and moves among them to facilitate discussion.

What’s more, Rustick had read news stories citing experts who say plastic barriers don’t prevent the spread of COVID-19 and can even create a false sense of security. She passed along a few of those links, but they did not sway her employer.

Ohio State University law professor Ruth Colker, an expert on disability law, said the key question in this case is whether Edgewood’s alternative accommodation is effective. In Colker’s opinion, based on the lack of science showing plexiglass barriers work in stopping the spread, she said she didn’t think it was.

A dozen UW-Madison instructors with a disability, medical condition or immunocompromised family member who asked to teach online this fall either had their requests denied or said they were told their requests would be denied, according to a university faculty advocacy group.

UW-Madison denies there’s any blanket rejection policy, saying each case is assessed based on individual circumstances.

This isn’t the first time Edgewood College dismissed Rustick. Last summer, she was among half a dozen professors laid off to “ensure the long-term financial viability” of the college in a move some on campus saw as violating professors’ contracts.

The American Association of University Professors, a national organization representing faculty members, pushed Edgewood to rehire the professors, warning that the principles of academic freedom and tenure may not be secure.

The college’s Board of Trustees reinstated Rustick and the others.

A faculty committee will decide in the next week or two whether she was, in fact, terminated. If it finds in Rustick’s favor, it may pave the way for the professor to appeal the college’s decision. Her fate ultimately rests with the college’s Board of Trustees.

The AAUP warned in a Thursday letter that dismissing a professor without due process violated national norms and standards. The group urged Edgewood to reverse its decision.