From Provost Joe Urgo: Clarification about online courses and dates

Posted March 11, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

I want to clarify some aspects of the communication that was sent yesterday notifying the campus community of the cancellation of classes until March 30 to “…give the faculty and staff the needed time to be prepared and make sure students have the ability to access online offerings.”

While the immediate focus of the announcement had been on minimizing the risk of disease transmission through face-to-face classroom instruction, the decision is to cancel all classes – including online delivery – until March 30. This is being done for several reasons:

• Give all faculty enough time to ensure that instruction and interaction with students can be done remotely. While some faculty members are especially adept at online instruction, some others may not be. President Gary L. Miller and I hope that our colleagues will help each other achieve our goal of being ready for remote learning on March 30.
• Treat students equitably. Continuing teaching and learning just for online students for the next week and a half until spring break would not be fair to students who are in face-to-face learning environments.

I should note that this decision was discussed in-depth with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and was supported.
We have not set a date for in-person classes to resume. I also want to remind you that large-scale and non-essential events are canceled through April 20.

These are extraordinary times, presenting issues and challenges that have not been confronted in recent times. Your support and cooperation is appreciated.

Dr. Joe Urgo
Interim Executive Vice President and Provost