A professor at a suburban Chicago university quit his job after he said not enough was being done to keep students and staff safe amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday Dr. Gary Wilson said he resigned from his teaching position at Dominican University in River Forest after a student in his advanced anatomy lab class tested positive for the coronavirus.
“I told them I’m resigning because this is an unsafe workplace,” Wilson said. “All you need is one person to infect everyone. Look at the White House.”
Wilson said he advised school administrators his cadaver-based lab class should move online for a few weeks and asked for all 60 students in his class to be quarantined for 14 days.
“I sent emails to the dean. There was some push back,” Wilson said. “What bothered me was, even though I am doing it online, for the lecture portion, they had to go back in which defeats the purpose.”
School officials have confirmed one of Wilson’s students tested positive for the virus and said contact tracing was initiated adding that three individuals are now quarantining.
The school also says Wilson’s class will be meeting online for now.
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“After hearing yesterday about some concerns about whether protocols are being followed, we took action for them to be meeting only online for the immediate future,” said Jill Albin-Hill, Dominican University’s Vice President for Operations and Technology.
The university’s campus reopened on Aug. 21 and has reported 31 total positive coronavirus cases.
