Ashley Shew said she looked forward to being able to teach in front of students again at Virginia Tech. Over the past year that brought pandemic disruptions, she taught people from behind a computer screen. Professors said remote instruction required more work and planning if they wanted to teach effectively. So even though Shew wants to teach in person, she’d still like to have the flexibility to shift her classes online. She’s had two lung surgeries in the past five years, and she’s had recurrences of cancer that resulted in the loss of her leg. “I’d like to be able to monitor the case levels and gauge the safety of being in the classroom and make my own risk calculations,” said Shew, an assistant professor in the Department of Science, Technology and Society. Shew and others who are immunocompromised and have disabilities have been pushing Virginia Tech, where classes recently began, to give professors more freedom to offer classes online.
