Supporting Student Learning
Dear Students,
As we hope you know, today we will be hosting an online forum to update you on the status of your classes and to listen to your concerns. These concerns will range from grades for your classes, to staying engaged with your professors, to making decisions on how you can engage in our community for the next few weeks. While these are shared concerns, each student is uniquely impacted. Your opinions and passions are unique to you — and we are committed to finding the best path forward for you, while also recognizing the needs of your classmates, our faculty, and our staff.
It is a big task, so before the forum, we want to share key information with you regarding the end of the semester.
As a university, we are focused on keeping you moving toward completing coursework, grades, credits, a path back to the classroom, and graduation for those who’ve petitioned for December degree conferral. We ask that you push forward over the next two weeks, making choices based on the resources available including following syllabi from your courses and communicating with your faculty about your progress. As you make your decisions, it is important that both students and faculty remain fully informed of the implications of various choices at this time. We will update you on possible paths, and help you recognize these implications. Most importantly, we need to eventually show that you continued to learn and grow during these unique times and met course requirements.
You have asked about the Common Experience course on Canvas. This was created as an alternative and one way to demonstrate your continuous learning. The Common Experience introduces the viewer to art and stories about migration and moving through, away, and over conflict in our nation’s history. We ask you to continue to move forward during this time of uncertainty.
You will hear the word “compliance” in many emails, which is the way we make sure everyone is making progress toward a grade and not an “incomplete” or a “non-grade.” While it sounds technical, it is necessary for continued financial aid and international visas. For now, please know that we will have multiple options and systems in place to award grades. Our international students and graduating students require a special degree of care and attention that we will address in the coming week.
We know some students, families, and your Student Senate are asking for “remedies” to make up for the lack of in-person classes. While we are all adapting to these conditions, we are deeply focused on addressing your concerns. This could take many forms, and of course, your ideas and involvement are critical to rebuilding our community’s experience.
There will be more developments, more emails, and more ways for you to express your hopes and share feedback. For now, we are most concerned about your resiliency through the immediate challenge so please utilize the wellness resources that are often shared, as your health and wellbeing are paramount.
We will talk with students at 1pm and then families at 2pm. We hope to see you at the forums.