Dear colleagues,
With the spring semester and commencement behind us, I want to recognize all that you have accomplished under difficult and unprecedented circumstances. You have risen to every challenge that this pandemic presented, and thanks to the dedication, hard work, and creativity of you, our faculty, we have continued to deliver on our commitment to our students.
As we communicated earlier, our campus transitioned to offering more than 300,000 credit hours remotely in 10 days—because of you. That number is impressive, but it doesn’t convey the countless individual things you have done for the students in your classes, tailored to their specific needs in many cases.
Now, as we look to having an on-campus experience this fall and we have a little more time to prepare, we need to change the conversation from online and in-person classes. We need to ask the question “How do we use technology to help us enhance the learning experience given the constraints we face as a residential university in a COVID-19 world?”
Just as you support your students in this endeavor, we should support you. The Office of the Provost is putting together a suite of faculty resources as you prepare for the fall. Guidance from the Re-Imagining Fall Task Force and subcommittees will likely highlight additional resource needs and opportunities for how we all manage the semester.
We are all working through new challenges with many unknowns still ahead. Your leadership in your classrooms, departments, and colleges, and your input and questions in service to our campus are important. Stay tuned for more information about resources to help you, and we will continue to engage with you as we all move forward together.
David Manderscheid
Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor