Iowa State leaders in administration have no comment on the ‘sickout’ on Sept. 15, an organized event to protest the way the university is handling COVID-19.

The sickout event is led by students and faculty members at Iowa State and University of Iowa. Word of the event has spread around campuses and a Google Form has been circulated for students and faculty to pledge to call in sick from attending or instructing classes.

The intended effect is to have classes move 100 percent online to “protect the health and safety of students, faculty, and staff, as well as every resident of the state of Iowa,” according to the pledge.

“As students and teachers, we know that in-person classes are not safe during this pandemic,” it read. “But instead of protecting us from illness, the administrators of our schools have resorted to finger-pointing, blaming students and local businesses for their own failures of leadership.”

It is unclear if students and faculty will be penalized by the university for calling in sick Tuesday.

The Iowa State Daily reached out for comment from university leaders — President Wendy Wintersteen via Angela Hunt; Rob Schweers, provost program director and Sharron Evans, dean of students — and were met with no response.

Hunt, media relations coordinator for Iowa State, emailed back with their collective statement.

“University leaders do not have any comment.”