COVID-infected Notre Dame President faces calls to resign - News Today

Fr. John I. Jenkins, the Notre Dame University president who pushed for a return to face-to-face instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic, now faces calls for his resignation after attending a White House event without a mask and then testing positive for the virus. After imposing tough social-distancing, mask-wearing, and travel rules as the campus reopened, Jenkins, 66, shook several hands and went mask-free even at the indoor portion of a September 24 reception at the White House for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor and President Trump's Supreme Court nominee.Both students and faculty at the Catholic university in South Bend, Ind., are upset at their president's apparent hypocrisy. 'I do recognize that having a professor and alumna nominated to the highest court in the United States is a really big honor, but there's completely a double standard,' Notre Dame student Ashton Weber, 20, told the New York Times.'Students have been dismissed for this type of thing,' said Weber, an economics major. More than 200 students signed a petition calling for Jenkins's resignation, which was co-written by Weber. The Notre Dame student senate voted it down on October 1. A September 30 editorial from the student newspaper, The Observer, was titled simply, 'Frankly, This Is Embarrassing.' And the university's faculty senate held a contentious call Tuesday, during which it narrowly decided 21-to-20 to postpone a proposed vote of no confidence in Jenkins. Faculty were particularly upset that Jenkins did not adhere to the travel restrictions he imposed on students and instructors, with many complaining that research trips and visits to relatives were impossible. 'I have not seen my aging parents in over a year,' said one faculty member, according to the New York Times. In his May editorial in the New York Times, Jenkins framed the decision to return to face-to-face instruction as a 'moral' one. 'As soon as students arrive in August, we will conduct orientations to welcome them back in the Covid-19 era,' Jenkins wrote. 'We will also institute extensive protocols for testing; contact tracing and quarantining; and preventive measures, such as hand-washing, physical distancing and, in certain settings, the wearing of masks. This is how we can restore in-person classes safely.' Share this article Share Notre Dame saw a spike in COVID-19 cases soon after students returned for the fall semester, which started August 10, earlier than usual so classes would end before Thanksgiving. As of Wednesday, 798 students and employees had tested positive. Over half those cases originated in August, which prompted a two-week halt to in-person instruction. After seven student-