Schiffman is among a handful of Georgia professors who have sought to move their classes online this semester, going against orders not to do so. Some of those professors have resigned recently or been fired.

In August, a professor at Georgia State University’s (GSU) Perimeter College was fired for refusing to teach her classes without masks and offering to move the classes online, according to news reports. Another GSU professor filed a complaint earlier this month after school officials denied his request to teach online, despite providing a doctor’s note that said he has a heart condition putting his health at risk if he were to contract COVID-19, according to news reports.

Schiffman worries he may be heading down the same road as those professors – though he remains dead-set on keeping one of his larger classes online, even if it costs him his job.

“For the greater good of my students, I’m keeping that class online,” Schiffman said in a recent interview. “Period.”

Officials at Schiffman’s college did not respond to State Affairs’ requests for an interview or comment on his situation and the discipline policy.

The University System of Georgia oversees the state’s 26 public colleges and universities. (Credit: University System of Georgia)

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Schiffman is now tangling with a discipline policy drawn up early last month that outlines initial written warnings for unapproved online classes, followed by harsher penalties such as suspension, unpaid leave or termination for continued disobedience. He received a warning letter shortly after his Sept. 22 meeting with the dean, marking the first step in the discipline policy that was drafted by several top school officials and sent to all 26 colleges by USG Vice Chancellor Tristan Denley, according to emails that State Affairs obtained in an open-records request.

The policy took shape at a time when case counts were still steep due to COVID-19’s highly infectious Delta variant, state data shows. When top school officials held a virtual meeting with Denley on Sept. 2 to discuss the policy, according to emails, Georgia was averaging around 6,700 new cases per day. One official at Kennesaw State – which had the third-highest enrollment of all schools in spring 2021 with about 38,500 students – said in a Sept. 2 email to Denley that the school’s COVID-19 cases “continue to rise exponentially” and “several faculty are sick or quarantined.” 

Hedeen, who has criticized the discipline policy, said the university system has brought a heavy-handed approach to dealing with faculty concerns over masks and online classes that threatens to crush rank-and-file morale and scare off good professor candidates from seeking future posts at Georgia colleges.

“This is going to be a bizarre game of chicken,” Hedeen said in a recent interview. “It’s basically politics at the state level and personal safety at the local level.”

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Part III: Getting Back to Normal