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Will the large university lecture halls be empty again soon?
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Do you remember the outcry after the Prime Minister's Conference at the beginning of March, this one of many, when not a word was lost about the universities in the 13-page decision paper and the five-stage opening plan?
If you study, teach or work at a university yourself, then for sure.
If not, then maybe not.
But that doesn't matter either, because: The outcry did nothing.
Students still play no role in the pandemic planning of politics.
The federal and state governments met again on Thursday.
And again there is no mention of the universities in the resolution.
First of all, of course, you can think of that as a good thing.
Does it mean: The classroom teaching that is being offered at many universities this winter semester can remain for the time being.
The German Rectors' Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz - HRK) is therefore also satisfied: There is still scope for flexible regulations, which is correct and sensible.
Predictability?
Nothing!
But it also means: What will apply when, where and why in the coming weeks and months is unclear.
In other words: the almost three million students in Germany don't know exactly how things will go on for them.
Because, according to the MPK resolution, the federal states should "make consistent use of the further possibilities of the Infection Protection Act".
And these "further possibilities" also include conditions for the continuation of university operations.
In addition, the law is to be evaluated again in three weeks, on December 9, and, if necessary, improved.
Will it just stay with the requirements?
Who knows.
All of this may be flexible, but it is not reliable.
And so students have to be prepared for the fact that their situation will constantly change in the coming weeks and months.
It is already starting in Bavaria: A shutdown for high incidence areas was announced there on Friday.
While schools and daycare centers remain open, the universities have to go back to online teaching - but only temporarily until December 15, according to the new Infection Protection Act.
Students waited for a perspective for three semesters.
Even now they deserve a perspective - even if it is a closure perspective
Elsewhere, too, many students do not wonder whether the restrictions will come back, but when and how. And the MPK decision on Thursday is also to blame for this. Because it does speak of pupils and of "that further stresses for children and young people are to be avoided". That the students, who are just a little older, were and are exposed to enormous stress, that they too suffered from the permanent shutdown, that they too wish it didn't come back - not a word. And that although the shutdown for students was often really permanent. When schoolchildren wanted to go back to the classroom, workers to go back to the office, and partying to go to the clubs, they were often still at home in front of the screen.
For three semesters, students have been waiting for a perspective, for politics to think of them and for them to be allowed back to the universities.
Even now they deserve a perspective - even if it is a closure perspective.
The uncertainty wears down
But what is happening at the moment causes one thing above all for students: uncertainty.
And this uncertainty wears down.
How should you concentrate on your studies if you don't know whether you will give the presentation next week on site, hybrid or online?
Whether you can discuss the text in the next seminar or whether nobody says anything again in the Zoom meeting?
Whether you really meet the friends you have just made again or are you just sitting at home alone?
Can you hope or do you have to be prepared for the next shutdown?
The situation is difficult everywhere, there is great uncertainty, and so is frustration.
But: There is a plan for employees - essentially the same as in previous waves.
Work from home should be used where there are no operational reasons.
And students at least know that their situation is being perceived.
That may be of little consolation, but still.
It would be possible to give students a perspective as well.
Or, as a student from North Rhine-Westphalia put it: "Of course, a pandemic situation cannot be planned, but how about a nationwide incidence plan at universities, according to which the measures are based?" So students could at least prepare for what happens - also to the fact that they may have to learn from home again.
Incidentally, such a plan would also help to organize classroom teaching in a more uniform manner.
Because it works a little differently at every university.