Dear Colleagues,
This has been yet another unprecedented week. First and foremost, we hope you and your family are safe. Second, we want to provide you with information on how to make up lost instruction from this week’s winter weather event, and to let you know that classes will resume on Monday and that midterms – previously or newly scheduled – for Feb. 22 and 23 cannot cover material that was planned to be delivered this week or weekend.
Fortunately, we had a sprinkle day scheduled for Wednesday, so most regular courses lost only two class meetings. In addition, with the adjustments that had been made to the spring calendar eliminating some holidays and increasing class meeting times, the current semester was scheduled to have slightly more contact time than a normal spring semester. As a result, instructors are encouraged to make up one missed class by posting asynchronous material. Synchronous instruction is not allowed when attempting to make up missed classes this week so that we can provide students with maximum flexibility. If necessary, instructors of in-person only courses (courses previously exempted from dual delivery) may instead schedule one additional meeting during the semester. That meeting cannot be scheduled this weekend due to continued challenges that some of our students have with power, water and travel.
Instructors of in-person courses are encouraged to be as flexible as possible with their students when scheduling such a meeting, including the use of weekends. If a make-up meeting is scheduled in conflict with another class or an athletic competition, students cannot be expected to attend the make-up class, and any assignments made during such a class will have to be allowed to be turned in at a later date. In addition, make-up class meetings cannot be scheduled on a sprinkle day.
Make up for lost instruction might be handled differently in the Jones Graduate School of Business. Therefore, instructors in that school should be on the lookout for additional guidance from Dean Peter Rodriguez.
We understand this poses challenges to faculty and students, and we appreciate everyone’s understanding and flexibility as we try to recover from the disruption of this week. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about these guidelines.
Kind regards,
Reginald DesRoches, Provost
Christopher Johns-Krull, Faculty Senate Speaker