To the New York Tech Faculty, I cannot believe that only a little over four months has passed since the March emergency “shutdown.” So much has happened—from your supportive contributions to our students’ learning during the spring and summer, to the angry national debates over face masks—I sometimes have trouble keeping up. We also faced a short-lived but troubling regulation from ICE limiting the ability of our international students to take online courses while remaining in the country. Thankfully, input from the deans, faculty, and staff helped us to quickly craft responses, policies, and approaches to help our students. In the midst of all that, we were busy determining how best to deliver courses, as informed by the diverse and sometimes extreme preferences of students, faculty, and staff (‘yes’ to in-person, ‘no’ to in-person, ‘maybe’ to in-person) and the constraints of physical distancing in compliance with local, state, and federal regulations and recommendations. I’ve been reassured by colleagues across the country that while our questions are shared, each institution has its own unique features that will help inform their actions. Who would have thought? Bryan Alexander did in his 2020 book Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education. He starts his first chapter, “Objects in Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear,” by supporting the use of “scenarios as pedagogical objects” and asks that we imagine our lives in that scenario world. Right after that description, Alexander writes: “For example, imagine a future academy after a major pandemic has struck the world, perhaps along the lines of the early twentieth century’s Great Influenza. To envision the institution through such pressure, we would have to think through multiple disciplines and domains. We would have to consider, first, how such a thing would occur. This could involve delving into the history of disease, a look into graph theory for models of contagion, and a reflection on contemporary public health. We would then apply that learning to colleges and universities, a process that can ramify extensively depending on our awareness of the sector.” Of course, we had no learning curve, and no time to gather and apply multi-disciplinary knowledge to inform our mental considerations of such a scenario. All of Alexander’s questions have hit us head on. What next? More information on several aspects of our fall semester follows. Your commitment, adaptability, and flexibility are truly appreciated. We, along with our students, have experienced disruption and loss in all parts of our lives, but your work has important meaning. And for that, I sincerely thank you all. David Kessler recently wrote: “The pandemic is one season in our lives; it will end. It will be remembered as an extraordinarily difficult time. But the slow process of returning to a new normal—of naming our grief, helping one another reach acceptance, and finding meaning—will continue.” Fall 2020 A. Logistics and Operations for Academic Continuity Semester start and end dates remain the same. The first day of classes is Wednesday, September 9, and a new Student Academic Convocation will be held the day before. December 23 is the last day of the semester. In-person classes will end before Thanksgiving, November 26, and move to remote delivery for the rest of the semester. New York State Regents have declared that courses may be completed in 12 weeks (vs. traditional 15), but must meet all required contact hours. If you are interested in this option, please discuss with your department chair and notify the dean of your plans and details (e.g., revised syllabus, communications to students), as we will need to keep copies for our records. Courses will be offered in one of four modalities, three of which have been in usage for some time (in-person, online, blended), and one which began in response to the pandemic this spring and is called Hybrid Remote Instruction (HRI). HRI has been reviewed by AAUP leadership and is defined as follows: Due to social distancing restrictions imposed by COVID-19, some courses are being offered in a remote synchronous modality. These are courses where the majority of the contact hours are met through synchronous videoconferencing technology. In this mode, at the faculty’s discretion, there may be some in-person experience, for example for projects and exams. Courses may also be supplemented with some asynchronous online activity. Faculty and department chairs/program directors should be in communication, if this has not yet happened, in order to finalize course sections and their details. Please recall that courses requiring at least some in-person delivery (e.g., labs, freshmen courses) were to be designated as high priority, with their requests for space subject to room availability given the extremely limited seating capacity (at best 30%) required for physical distancing. Regrettably, space limitations have capped the number of available in-person sections, and at this time, little to no changes are expected. The following are the basic requirements for all New York Tech classes: Institutional thresholds for required content/contact hours and online activity must be maintained for all courses. Students must have a computer with a webcam and access to a reliable internet connection. All course sections will have, as a minimum, a full course syllabus, contact information and office hours for the faculty, and all deadlines and due dates posted on the institution’s LMS. All classes should strive to include additional resources and activities, as well as means for students in each class to connect with other students in a virtual environment. The following language for classroom behavior is highly recommended to be included in all syllabi: We all share responsibility for the health and safety of all in a classroom environment. Please maintain physical distancing, wear a face cover, and quarantine when ill. These are New York Tech directives that we all must follow until further notice. Specifically, in the classroom we must mitigate the risks of virus transfer by abiding by the following safety directives: Maintain six feet of physical distance at all times in most classroom environments and special settings such as labs. Wear a face covering (disposable or cloth) for the entirety of class, and stay home when sick. In the classroom, any student who does not follow these provisions will be asked at once to follow the safety directives. If the student does not comply, they will be asked to leave the class for that day. If a student persists in ignoring safety directives, I will refer the matter to the Office of the Dean of Students for review and possible disciplinary actions as described in the Student Handbook. Per discussion with the AAUP leadership, we support and most highly recommend recording of your class sessions. Please recall that this was highly prioritized by both undergraduate and graduate students in the May survey, along with maintaining virtual office hours, making high-quality videos and other instructional materials available remotely, having frequent contact with faculty regarding progression in the course, virtual discussions, and more. These were detailed in my June 5 communication. As we have seen, health and safety conditions can change in a week, a few days, or even a few hours. Therefore, I hope that you will exert the most flexibility and adaptability possible in meeting students’ academic course needs while maintaining high-quality instruction. Students should not be penalized in any way if they switch from in-person to remote instruction. I know many of you have already developed more than one model of instruction to prepare for such conditions. B. Faculty Development, Support, and Training Resources Additional resources and support, including personnel, have been secured or are in-progress to meet faculty needs in enhancing their remote and technology-based teaching. Technology-Based Learning Systems (TBLS) may continue to offer workshops and support for various activities such as the “I Wish I Could” workshops. Call 631.533.0113 for more information. The Center for Teaching and Learning is providing additional support as well, including new trainings and workshops through the Online Learning Consortium and Quality Matters. (See examples below.) You will receive both regular updates and a form for help with your needs. Visit the Center for Teaching and Learning for a complete list of topics and information about how to register. Beginning the week of July 27, the Center for Teaching and Learning will be offering a new workshop every Wednesday, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. and again at 3 - 4 p.m. (both times are EDT). Topics will include: Class Discussions: Online and on Zoom Effective Feedback Beyond Tests and Quizzes: Better Assessments Open Educational Resources Faculty can also self-enroll in a new course from the CTL called Fostering Engagement Online. More specialized workshops about teaching online are available from Online Learning Consortium, Quality Matters, and Academic Impressions. Contact CTL, or visit nyit.edu/ctl to learn more. While the number of written commentaries on online and remote learning seems overwhelming, some of my personal short favorites include: Making Online Learning Active Five Ways to Connect With Online C. Technology Enhancements Pennie Turgeon, our CIO and VP for IT, started her career as an Academic Technologist working with faculty. She has been actively working on many, many things to get important IT resources to us and to students for a successful fall semester and beyond. I have borrowed the following from her recent presentation to deans, department chairs and program heads, and know this list of her team’s current activities will be helpful to you: Installing robust outdoor wireless in select high-use outdoor areas including the academic quad, the medical school circle, the Healing Path area, and other new outdoor seating areas. Adding mobile hotspots that will be made available to students through the libraries in LI and NYC. Updating AV in all classrooms so that each room will have videoconference capabilities to support Zoom. Other in-classroom teaching enhancements are also being installed. Investigating campus-wide lecture-capture options. Creating mobile AV carts to accommodate teaching spaces that currently have no AV support. Working with academic software vendors to procure home-use licensing rights to software titles that were traditionally available only on campus (e.g., SPSS). Procuring additional web cameras, document cameras, and laptops to support faculty and their remote teaching needs. Currently working on getting Canvas up-and-running for the fall semester – the implementation committee will be sending out bi-weekly updates starting this week. Implementing a multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution to enable more secure access to New York Tech electronic resources. Exploring features in our new O365 environment for future use. As a reminder…Academic Computing Staff are available for faculty and student support with Bb, Canvas, Zoom, or any other technical issues via Zoom at 516.686.2222, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. D. Concerns About In-Person Work President Foley’s July 23 email included an update about the Reopening Plan for the Long Island campus, which made reference to options regarding on-site work. A subsequent plan for the New York City campus will soon follow, with slight variations given the unique regulations and different spatial issues of that campus. In short, accommodations can be considered and made for medical and non-medical reasons (e.g., family care). If you have particular needs regarding medical issues, you may choose to discuss the matter briefly with your supervisor, but should contact Human Resources for details. For non-medical issues, you should begin discussions with your supervisor. Request forms for both options will be made available later this week. We need to support your health and safety as well as those of all around us. Much more is happening—from chair and program head committees on several topics, development of onboarding and other materials for new (and all) adjunct faculty, refinement of an Online Learning Success “course” for students—and planned for fall (e.g., an institute-wide committee on campus experience led by Suzanne Musho). Additional information will be forthcoming. With sincere gratitude and regard, Junius Gonzales, M.D., M.B.A. Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Copyright © 2020 New York Institute of Technology