ST. PAUL, Minn. – A survey of Minnesota State profs, including Winona State University, found 82% percent of faculty were feeling somewhat worse stress or much worse than before the pandemic. The Inter-Faculty Organization, the profs’ union which conducted the survey, said 600 profs responded. The union asked Chancellor Devinder Malhotra to work with campus presidents to find ways to ease professor workloads in ways that wouldn’t directly affect students Summarizing its conclusions, the IFO said: “Faculty have been under an extraordinary amount of stress. Classes were quickly moved online during the spring semester. The fall semester has been spent battling Zoom fatigue to conduct classes and/or teaching in the classroom, distanced and masked. Faculty have juggled their children’s distance learning, cleaning classrooms, facilitating their students’ well-being, and much more.” The union said stresses have become chronic: “There is a toll on well-being.”
