May 12, 2020
This message is distributed to SBCHR-L, All-Instructors, and EVC-Department-Managers. (Click here to view description of distribution groups.)
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To: Academic Affairs Departments
From: David Marshall, Executive Vice Chancellor
Re: Fall 2020 Options for Instruction and Related Updates
Department Chairs have received a memo, “Fall 2020 Options for Instruction,” from Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean Stopple, Dean Genetti, and Associate Dean Adler-Kassner. I am writing to provide some additional context and background for this memo, which requests each department to indicate its preferred formats for the courses in its Fall 2020 curriculum, given the ongoing uncertainties and contingencies associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chancellor convenes his COVID-19 Response Working Group daily, coordinating our responses to the current situation and our planning for the Fall and beyond. Governor Newsom has issued parameters and guidelines to determine when and how the State could manage a return to work and public life, including adequate testing, social distancing, and other public health measures. Among his indicators for modifying the stay-at-home order is “the ability for businesses, schools, and child care facilities to support physical distancing.” We are analyzing what this would mean for the resumption of instruction in the Fall, understanding that the campus, like the State and the country, will not be ready for a simple return to “business as usual” by the beginning of Fall Quarter. The Chancellor is leading an effort, working closely with our faculty experts and administrative colleagues, to ensure that the campus will have the capacity for robust testing and contact tracing, housing and classroom conditions that allow for social distancing, rigorous safety protocols that include face coverings, and increased cleaning of facilities. These are considered to be preconditions for a careful, managed, and safe return to any on-campus activities in the Fall.
To support that larger effort of the Chancellor’s COVID-19 Response Working Group, the Chair of the Academic Senate and I have convened a small Administration-Senate working group to discuss various scenarios and options for Fall Quarter instruction. The deans have been consulting with department chairs on contingency planning. Our ultimate goal is to resume instruction on campus as soon as it is safe and practical to do so, and to facilitate courses in which in-person teaching is critically important to students’ learning, such as laboratory and studio courses. Yet we must plan for a variety of scenarios, recognizing that many key facts and planning parameters are either unknown or outside of our control. We reluctantly accepted the need to deliver instruction remotely this summer. Since many new international students will not be able to obtain visas in time to be in residence in the Fall, we informed all incoming freshmen students that we will provide remote instruction for them if they cannot be on campus.
Based on preliminary consultations and discussions, I asked the deans to consult with departments to consider the options for delivering their Fall Quarter curricula, understanding that remote instruction will be necessary for many courses. Given the need for social distancing, we can assume that even if we can safely bring students back to campus in September, and even if we can safely offer some in-person classroom instruction, we will need to offer remote instruction for courses for which we do not have large enough classrooms to ensure social distancing and a lower number and density of students in attendance. There may be instructors and students who cannot safely return to the classroom; others may still have child care responsibilities that complicate their schedules. We also need to prepare (in a worst-case scenario) for a return to fully remote instruction if directed by public health officials. Departments are now being asked to consider (in the context of what we now know and what we can expect for Fall 2020) the best formats and pedagogical practices for their Fall courses. They are asked to identify those large courses that must be delivered remotely, those classes that ideally would be delivered in person, and those classes for which a hybrid approach is viable and appropriate.
We have begun the conversations that will inform our decisions about how we will deliver our courses, and we have developed a framework for our choices. If remote instruction is required, whether fully remote or in a blend of in-person and remote classes, we want it to be as effective as possible. CITRAL, Instructional Development, and Collaborate will continue to support departments and instructors as they design and implement courses that incorporate interactive and experiential teaching and learning. Instructors teaching Summer courses will receive resources and instructional consultation. We are planning course redesign workshops focused on creating well-designed, effective courses that provide an engaging experience for instructors and students. It will be important to be flexible, innovative, and creative, and to learn from our experiences this quarter.
Resuming Academic Affairs activities on campus will depend on many efforts, coordinated by the Chancellor’s COVID-19 Working Group, and a consensus in the campus community on the best options available. The Library is developing scenarios that would allow it to provide access for faculty and graduate student researchers, and eventually for a limited number of undergraduates in coordination with the resumption of instruction in the Fall. We will develop plans to gradually bring back staff to academic offices with rigorous safety protocols, if necessary in shifts or in reconfigured office spaces, when State and county stay-at-home orders are modified. Plans are underway for research facilities, housing and dining halls, and classrooms. The resumption of academic work and instruction on campus will depend on all of these efforts combined.
It is difficult to design curricular plans when there are uncertainties about funding as well as enrollments and instructional formats. The financial impacts of the pandemic on international, national, state, and local economies will be felt on the University of California budget. We have decided to proceed cautiously with the current faculty recruitment cycle rather than freezing searches. We want departments to know that we will not cancel searches if they are unsuccessful or inconclusive, although there might be delays in scheduling or rescheduling some searches. It is more important than ever to have a high bar and expect excellence in every appointment; we do not want departments to compromise on quality because of concerns about future resources.
In their FTE plans, deans have been asked to prioritize the recruitments that they want to conduct in the 2020-21 academic year, including newly requested, previously authorized, and carry-forward searches. Although faculty recruitment will be reduced next year, I want to protect the advances we have made in renewing our faculty over the past six years and catching up with enrollment growth. We are still significantly below the level of faculty planned in the Long Range Development Plan to correspond to an enrollment of 25,000 students. There are a significant number of faculty age 65 or older, so we should continue to anticipate retirements. We must maintain the strength, stature, and teaching power of our departments but it will be more important than ever to have prudent and strategic faculty recruitment plans.
I continue to be grateful for the inspiring collaborations of our faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, and staff who have reinvented the Spring Quarter curriculum in a remote environment, bridging students and faculty from six continents, as well as throughout California and the United States. Our colleagues in Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs have made extraordinary efforts to engage and support students. As challenging as this has been, these efforts have allowed our students to continue their education and stay connected to the campus. With proper care, planning, and precautions, the Fall Quarter can provide a bridge to a fuller resumption of instruction and the academic activities of our campus community. Thank you.