A Penn State professor published an opinion piece in The Atlantic magazine Thursday criticizing the university’s plans to not require COVID-19 vaccinations for the fall semester.

English professor Paul M. Kellermann’s writing focused mostly on the administration’s decision to not require vaccines. In the article, he noted his frustration with Penn State and its decision to not take the “next logical step.”

“The pandemic guidance that faculty, staff, and students have received from the administration has been arbitrary, capricious, and contradictory, at best. On August 3, the university president convened a ‘town hall‘ to present the fall plan and to inform us that he’s ‘looking forward to seeing our campuses bustling with activity.’ The plan encourages, implores, beseeches—but does not require—students, faculty, and staff to get vaccinated,” Kellermann wrote.

Kellermann isn’t alone with these thoughts. A group of Penn State faculty members will host a rally on Friday, August 13, to urge COVID-19 vaccine requirements for students and employees. Last year, Kellermann also published an op-ed in Esquire magazine condemning Penn State’s fall semester plans.

To date, more than 1,150 faculty members and more than 1,500 students, parents, and community members signed an open letter demanding Penn State take stronger action against COVID-19.

“All of us are asked to voluntarily share our vaccination status with the university. But none of us is obligated to get the shot—an administrative decision that puts our entire community at risk,” he wrote.

Penn State said on August 4 it will require face mask-wearing indoors for all individuals, regardless of their vaccination status, due to the rise of COVID-19 transmission. Kellermann says Penn State’s willingness to embrace masking should apply to vaccines, too.

“So where is the resistance to a university-wide vaccination mandate coming from? Penn State hasn’t been forthcoming with its reasoning. Speculation says that responsibility lies with the board of trustees,” Kellermann wrote. “Might someone be trying to placate conservatives in the state legislature? Does the board fear that our state representatives have no compunction about scoring political points at the expense of their constituents’ health and well-being?”

More than 700 campuses nationwide are requiring at least some students and/or employees to be vaccinated against the virus, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

In the Big Ten Rutgers, Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Maryland, Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan each have vaccination requirements, although some let unvaccinated people bypass vaccines if they test negative for the virus each week.

Kellermann closed the op-ed by acknowledging that, unlike the last school year, students in isolation and quarantine won’t be able to attend remote classes, since the university made plans for the majority of classes to meet in person.

“Long after alumni leave Happy Valley, they still proudly proclaim ‘We are,’ and even the most cynical professors take pride in the scholarship conducted at our university,” Kellermann wrote. “But we’ve grown dismayed with an administration that’s turned its back on the community it claims to nurture; an administration apparently unconcerned with the health and well-being of its students, faculty, and staff; an administration that seems to ignore the misgivings of its constituents. As faculty, we’re left to wonder whether the present tense remains appropriate in our unifying chant. How much longer can we honestly claim ‘We are‘?”

You can read Kellermann’s entire published letter here.