Provost's Update
Posted April 21, 2020
April 21, 2020
Dear Colleagues, I hope this message finds you safe and well. While SIUE's COVID-19 Core Planning team continues to meet at least every weekday at 8:30 a.m., I wanted to give a quick update on some of the questions I am receiving and issues I am working on with my Office, the Deans and others. I hope these messages will help answer some of your questions, but I will try to be brief.
What will the format be for summer courses and those that start in July?
I remain grateful for your patience and impressed by the flexibility of our faculty. As you know, we made the decision early that any course starting in May or early June would be online. Face-to-face instruction remains a priority, and we want to preserve opportunities for experiential, on-ground learning where we can. As such, we are monitoring public health information both locally and nationally, and will decide about on-ground courses in the 2nd five weeks of the summer session by Friday, May 15. I will keep you posted.
What will the format be for fall classes?
I have begun working with Elza Ibroscheva, Jessica Harris, Tom Jordan, and Eric Ruckh to consider options for Fall. I will be meeting with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee this Thursday to discuss this planning. I hope we can launch an Academic Planning Task Force for Fall that is inclusive of our faculty and the staff who support our academic efforts. We have been exploring creative and flexible options that might mitigate disruption for students and faculty. Our best, most creative and flexible options will involve input from our SIUE community. We will consider all options that serve quality, allow flexibility, and help address student and faculty needs (e.g. Lower caps for in-person courses with students separated by appropriate physical distancing; 5-week courses or other parts of term that might provide flexibility; More hybrid courses; etc.). I look forward to working with you to develop this plan.
