Friday, September 25, 2009

Journal of the plague year

Is mine the only campus plastered with flyers--rephotocopied so many times that their graphics have disappeared and their smaller-font text is unreadable--urging us to COVER YOUR COUGH, WASH YOUR HANDS, and STAY HOME if we feel sick?

There are four different ones in the ladies' room nearest my classroom.

12 comments:

meg said...

We don't have posters, but every flat surface is supposed to have a bottle of hand sanitizer on it, and we have been told to scold students who cough or sneeze into their hands instead of their sleeves or décolletages.

Sisyphus said...

We have flyers everywhere that tell us to sneeze into our sleeves. That's gonna be tough for all the tank-top wearers here in this hot weather.

Fretful Porpentine said...

We don't have anything, not even working soap dispensers in some of the bathrooms, because the administration's standard approach to anything vaguely unpleasant is to stick their heads in the sand and deny it. Ergo, no swine flu here.

phd me said...

Here, flyers, flyers everywhere and not a student cares. They're going to get sick whatever they cough into - that's just the way of campus life. BTW, love your post title!

Doctor Cleveland said...

Not many visible efforts here.

We don't have the budget for Purell bottles right now.

dhawhee said...

yep, only the flyers here are in color and very slick. health campaigns must have a huge budget. and yes, they are posted everywhere.

Flavia said...

Meg:

What if they cough or sneeze into someone else's décolletage? (That's a public health campaign that could really take off.)

I haven't seen Purell dispensers this fall, but at graduation in May there were jumbo dispensers on either side of the stage; each student had to pause & pump before collecting diploma and shaking hands with the Prez.

Historiann said...

There suddenly are bottles of hand sanitizer everywhere in my department--I don't know if they're gratis of the department, or of the 2 admins who run the office and whose pens, pencils, and staplers are always being grabbed and used by the faculty and students.

Stay healthy, everyone!

Anonymous said...

Flyers: check.

Hand sanitizer: check.

General air of hysteria: check.

Are your flyers the ones that warn that people might be REQUIRED to wear surgical masks? I always wonder about that -- who's gonna do the requiring and where are they gonna get all the necessary masks?

Renaissance Girl said...

No flyers here. But Purell dispensers in every restroom near the exit. And a very strong suggestion by the university that faculty should not maintain any kind of attendance policy this term.

Flavia said...

RG: Yep. We've been told the same thing about attendance--basically, we can't require or enforce attendance policies, on the grounds that it's better for someone who might have the flu to stay home than to infect others. . . and if there is indeed an outbreak, the health center will have more important things to do than verify/document individual cases.

Anonymous said...

We have otherwise-clear plastic stickers on our bathroom mirrors with bright red text in the center warning STOP THE FLU: Wash your hands. And I just came from a restroom visit in which a very paranoid and germaphobic woman carried a paper towel to the door, used the towel to open the door, and then dropped the towel on the floor as she exited.