Dear Colleagues,
We write with a short follow-up to President Byerly’s announcement that the College will continue to engage in remote teaching and learning for the remainder of the spring semester. While this announcement adds clarity, it also leads to a cascade of follow-up questions. We are engaged with several colleagues across campus in developing a longer, written announcement with FAQs that will go out on Friday.
In the meantime, we would like to mention that there are several questions that are actively being discussed, which we hope will be settled in the near future. They include: ways to reduce aspects of faculty workload that are unrelated to the delivery of classes remotely; ways to address the impact of the current circumstances on pre-tenure faculty members; ways to provide access to classrooms, labs, offices, and buildings while maximizing everyone’s health and safety; addressing student concerns about grades for this semester; addressing faculty concerns about remote assessment; questions about student evaluations; ways to continue scholarship during the remote work period; and future-oriented issues like advising and the pre-registration process.
We all feel the measure of sadness that comes with today’s announcement, especially for our graduating seniors. We take this as a sign of the importance of the work we engage in. That work will continue under difficult circumstances, and we will continue to support this work in every way we can.
John Meier, Provost
Jamila Bookwala, Dean of the Faculty
Michael Olin, Dean of Advising
Tracie Addy, Associate Dean for Faculty Support and Director of CITLS
Markus Dubischar, Associate Dean of the Curriculum
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