Residential Spread

Residential Spread

By The ResSpread CrewNewsNews Commentary
Download on the App Store

Residential Spread episodes

  • Discipline & Punish

    This week, we ask whether Foucault can help us understand why universities are so insistent on enforcing COVID-19 protocols through punitive measures--and why students seem so eager to internalize that logic. 

    "Northeastern University Dismisses 11 Students for Attending Hotel Party"

    "Additional Information Regarding Last Night's Quad Gathering"

    "URGENT: Message about the Start of Classes"

    "Lawn Games, Anyone?"

    "UGA Announces No Tailgating, but Allows for Gathering in Lots"


    Transcript

    51 min
  • "Student Led, Student Read"

    This week, we welcome guest Andy Cole, the editor-in-chief at The George-Anne, the student newspaper at Georgia Southern University. We talk about his career in journalism, student journalists' role in covering COVID-19, and how he responded when a school administrator accused him of having an "agenda."

    "Does the George-Anne have an Agenda?"

    Support Student Journalism at The George-Anne


    Episode Transcript

    32 min
  • In the Dawg House

    This week, we welcome guests Zainub Ali and Maggie Mitchell. Zainub and Maggie are undergraduates at the University of Georgia, and they spent the summer protesting UGA's punitive housing cancellation fee, which the school refused to adjust in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Zainub and Maggie discuss their kafkaesque efforts to combat those policies.

    Check out their instagram account, #WaivetheFeeUGA: https://www.instagram.com/waivethefeeuga/

    Episode Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GnJhzO-v6GqFSYMSitiVqzt4ZGXN7uF7pLyCuxnIs_Y/edit?usp=sharing

    26 min
  • Enhanced Disinfection Protocols

    This week, we welcome Krystin Gollihue, who is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Alabama, and who used to be one of our colleagues in the Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship at Georgia Tech. She is an expert in, among other things, how institutions communicate during crisis. She helps us understand why schools are so bad at communicating about COVID-19.

    1. "Why do Corporations Speak the Way they Do?"
    2. UGA's "Plan for a Phased Return to Normal Operations"
    3. "Changes to College's Fall Plans: Mapped"

      4. Transcript

      Theme song credit:

      Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod

      Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3473-canon-in-d-major

      License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

      31 min
    4. Liability Blues

      Before resuming in-person classes, many colleges forced, cajoled, or otherwise pressured students, faculty, and staff to sign behavioral pledges and liability waivers. Are these documents even legal? What, exactly, are they for? This week on Residential Spread, we discuss those questions and Boston University's absolutely baffling Instagram account, @fckitwontcutit.

      • "Op-Ed: Your college may ask you to sign a waiver for harm inflicted by COVID-19. Don’t do it"
      • "Boston University gives PhD Students a Choice: Come Back to Campus or Lose your Health Insurance and Salary"
      • @fckitwontcutit Instagram Account
      • "Legal Expert: Don't Sign COVID-19 Liability Waivers"
      • "Students at Penn State Forced to Sign COVID-19 Liability Waiver to Participate in Fall Semester"
      • "Georgia Legislature Passes Bill to Limit COVID-19 Liability Claims"


        • Transcript

        Theme song credit:

        Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod

        Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3473-canon-in-d-major

        License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

        26 min
      • Environmental Growth

        Last week, Georgia Tech Housing announced a plan to relocate residential students living with roommates into individual dorms and offered prorated refunds. Within 24 hours, it reversed course entirely, made the relocation optional, and cancelled requests for refunds.

        To provide context for this week, we bring you an interview with Alexandra Marlette, a former RA at Georgia Tech. She tells us that none of GT Housing's response to COVID-19 is surprising.

        • "To Combat COVID, Georgia Tech wants students to move into single rooms"
        • "Inaction and Turnover Plague Housing"
        • Twitter thread on Georgia Tech attempting to hire students to transport students to quarantine
        • "Maintaining the Campus Experience in the Time of Social Distancing"

          • Episode Transcript

          Theme song credit:

          Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod

          Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3473-canon-in-d-major

          License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

          26 min
        • Reasonable Accommodations

          This week, we welcome Jason Helms, associate professor of Rhetoric in the English Department at Texas Christian University. This summer, Jason "went viral" when he tweeted that TCU had refused his request to teach online to protect his 2-year-old daughter, who has a congenital heart defect. In part due to Jason's savvy navigation of media, TCU reversed course.  He reflects on the experience with us.

          • Jason's viral twitter thread


            • "Who gets to teach remotely?"


              • Jason's thread reflecting on the experience


                • Episode Transcript


                Theme song credit:

                Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod

                Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3473-canon-in-d-major

                License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                26 min
              • Clusterf***(s)

                Over the summer, both Notre Dame and UNC-Chapel Hill came forward with ambitious plans to return to on-campus instruction. Late last week, less than 10 days into the start of their respective fall semesters, both schools made major announcements: Notre Dame said they would pause in-person classes for two weeks, while UNC-Chapel Hill gave up and sent students home. Why were these schools so surprised by the absolutely predictable transmission of COVID-19 on their campuses? What are the broader consequences of this reversal? And can Rudy explain Notre Dame's reckless plans for in-person instruction? In this week's episode, we ask these questions and more. 

                • Message from University leaders on important changes for Fall 2020 Roadmap
                • Michigan State, Notre Dame back off of fall re-opening plans
                • Editorial Board of the Daily Tar Heel: "We all saw this coming"
                • Notre Dame HERE Campaign images

                  • Episode Transcript

                  37 min
                • Bored of Regents
                  Celebrate the first day of classes at Georgia Tech with the team at Residential Spread! 
                  In this episode, we explore Georgia's Board of Regents. We ask why a body with so little experience in education (and so many conflicts of interest) is making unilateral decisions about higher education in Georgia. Then, we consider past, present, and potential future efforts to challenge that authority.
                  Statement of Academic Faculty of Georgia Tech on the COVID-19 Crisis and Fall 2020 Semester
                  "State’s top professors: Public campuses need freedom to chart own course through pandemic"
                  Statement from USG Presidents (in support of Board of Regents)
                  "After decades of public service, legal woes mount for deposed Georgia Regent"
                  "SEC charges former Georgia regent Dean Alford with defrauding investors"
                  Fact check: Cade Joiner is in fact a resident of Brookhaven. Corey regrets his error.
                  For more details on the #CritU reading group: 
                  https://twitter.com/nonmodernist/status/1289963998050258944?s=20
                  Transcript
                  27 min
                • "Record Scratch/Freeze Frame"

                  In our first episode, we compare universities’ responses to COVID-19 in the spring, when case numbers were low but rising, and the fall, when they are high and steady. We also wistfully remember the days when an academic job market existed and friends could share snacks while preparing for campus visits.

                  Links

                  • AJC Covid Dashboard


                    • Open Letter RE: Online Teaching During Coronavirus


                      • “Colleges face Rising Revolt by Professors”


                        • Tweet from @CabreraAngel


                          • Tweet from @CabreraAngel


                            • @Aslavitt thread: “We can virtually eliminate the virus any time we decide to”


                              • “Georgia schools still free to choose their own start date”


                                • United Campus Workers of Georgia


                                  • Episode Transcript

                                  Theme song credit: 

                                  Canon in D Major by Kevin MacLeod 

                                  Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3473-canon-in-d-major 

                                  License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/


                                  24 min

                                About Residential Spread

                                From the publisher's feed

                                A podcast about college & coronavirus.