Important New Academic Policies in Response to COVID-19
(Corrected)
March 21, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
With the arrival of Spring I suspect that many of you, like me, are finding it a challenge to reconcile the hope and potential associated with Spring, with the deeply unsettling world of a pandemic health crisis that we now live in. Working with our campus wide standing committees and Deans we have adopted the following changes in Brandeis policies to help ameliorate at least a few of the challenges that you are facing. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your Dean or me if you have any questions about the following modifications to our academic policies, and teaching accommodations.
1. Modification of Pass/Fail Options for Spring 2020 Undergraduate Courses
The Committee on Academic Standards and Policies recommended, and I concur, that Undergraduates be allowed to cover Spring 2020 grades that are C- or higher with a “P”. There will be no cap on the number of Spring 2020 courses that can be covered with a “P”, and the use of a “P” for Spring 2020 courses will not count toward the overall cap of 4 that undergraduates are allowed in their career.
All other restrictions on the use of “P” grades will still apply:
- Only one course graded with a “P” may be used to fulfill a general university requirement, regardless of whether the student chooses this option in Spring 2020 or in another semester.
- A “P” grade may not be used towards University Writing Seminars, digital literacy, writing-intensive and oral communication requirements. No more than one course (and never the final one) in a language sequence may be taken pass/fail if the language is being offered in satisfaction of the world languages and cultures requirement.
- Courses taken pass/fail will not satisfy major or minor requirements.
Once grades are posted for Spring 2020 courses, undergraduates may email passfail@brandeis.edu to request covering the grade with a “P” (if the grade is a C- or better). Graduating seniors must make the request by Monday, May 18, 2020. All other undergraduates must make the request by October 15, 2020.
2. End of term Evaluations Suspension
The Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Assessment recommended, and I concur, that we will not conduct end-of-term teaching evaluations in any of our schools apart from the Rabb School Graduate Professional Programs. The Center for Teaching and Learning will share examples of a confidential end-of-term evaluation form that you may edit and use at your own discretion for formative purposes. Each individual instructor will be the only one who can access their own results.
3. Extension of the Tenure Clock
The Committee on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities has approved a proposal from the Academic Deans and me to extend the tenure decision for up to two semesters for those currently on the tenure track. This would apply to all those who are currently scheduled to come up for tenure in the academic year of 2020-21, and beyond. There will also be an adjustment of the current four-semester limit for tenure clock extensions for FMLA leave for any current tenure track faculty member. Current tenure track faculty will now have an upper limit of up to six semesters. Faculty are not required to delay their tenure clock, but now have this option to request an extension. Please contact your Deans for further details and answers to your questions on this.
4. Additional Change to the Academic Calendar
The April Passover Break has been further amended so that there will be no university exercises including scheduled instruction time, assignments, or exams from Noon April 8 – April 10 as well as from April 15-16.
5. Extension of 2019-2020 Provost Research and Teaching Innovation Awards
I know that some of you have not been able to do all that you planned with funds from the 2019-2020 Provost Innovation Awards for teaching or research. Therefore I am extending the period of time over which your funds may be spent to December 31, 2020.
6. Support More Equitable Access to All Our Students with Online Courses
We are challenged to provide safe and fair access for all members of our Brandeis teaching/learning community across the globe. Our students no longer have the privilege of sharing the same on-campus access to secure, reliable, widely accessible, high-speed internet service. As a result we face the challenge of fairness when some of us have better access than others. I ask that you take this into account in your courses and remind students that there are emergency funds and other resources to help them with equipment and Wi-Fi. ITS shared with me where students were logging in from over the past week for LATTE and Zoom. We had students connecting to Brandeis courses from 34 countries with the top ten for Zoom including the US, Indonesia, China, Canada, Vietnam, UK, Israel, India, Netherlands and France. So please take this into account if you are doing synchronous teaching and/or evaluation and make accommodations for these time differences and accessibility.
As a result of moving our courses online, accommodations for students now require innovative adjustments. Please contact Student Accessibility Support staff to arrange the necessary changes. Connecting to online tools and spaces outside the Brandeis password-protected environment incurs risks including identity theft. Please do not share identifiable student information, (eg. names, ID numbers, work samples, grades) outside the password-protected Brandeis online environment. The Brandeis Virtual Private Network (VPN) may help students and faculty who are having difficulty accessing Brandeis materials and communications online.
As many of you have already experienced, Zoom disruptions and delays are frequent due to increased global demand. To address these challenges, please concentrate most teaching/learning activity inside LATTE. To preserve LATTE’s capacity to sustain all of us, please avoid uploading and requiring students to upload large files when possible by posting URLs in LATTE instead. For further details please contact facultysupport@brandeis.edu.
As of March 20 we moved to a "weekend access protocol" for all Brandeis building access. This means only those with keys or swipe card access can enter buildings on campus, with the exception of the Student Campus Center and the Sherman dining hall/Hassenfeld conference center. Those faculty who are using classrooms to record their lectures and cannot access their building will need to contact Mark Hewitt who will work with Campus Safety to arrange access.
Unfortunately all of us need to prepare and plan for further possible restrictions to access the university. We do not know at the moment of any specific plans by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to issue a shelter or stay in place order. However, there have been significant restrictions on access to work put in place by other states, including nearby New York. Therefore, faculty who are currently using classrooms to record lectures should be prepared to record their courses from home when necessary. Those who have been working from their on-campus offices, labs, or studios should prepare for how you might be able to work from home for an extended period of time.
I am so grateful for the many ways all of you have stepped up to the challenge of pivoting your teaching and significantly adjusting your research in these past weeks. I also understand the personal challenges many of you face including caring for loved ones at home while still working, and managing the burden of being physically cutoff from loved ones living more afar. In addition, we have all seen so many people who have literally had their livelihoods snatched out from underneath them, especially those in “high touch” sectors. Just one of the many examples of this includes some of our part time colleagues in the performing arts who can no longer perform. I have no easy answers other than to urge you to think of innovative ways to reach out and provide mutual support to this massive displacement.
With deep appreciation,
Lisa
Lisa M. Lynch, Provost
P.S. On a lighter note, I know that some of you have enjoyed watching the YouTube video of Michael Bruening, an associate professor of history and political science at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and his cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” I think he captures many of the challenges of moving rapidly to online teaching. His reference to “CANVAS” would be “LATTE” for us.