Faculty Message Regarding Fall 2021 Course Scheduling

Dear Faculty Colleagues,

With the COVID-19 vaccine developments and the beginning of their national and local rollout, we are seeing glimmers of light and optimism for opportunities of more in-person instruction for Fall 2021. I am excited for this possibility!

I am writing today to outline how we will approach Fall 2021 course scheduling. Our fall semester begins in about 7 months. Although we cannot predict exactly how the virus will affect our lives in 7 months’ time, we have reason to hope that the vaccine will be readily available and that all adults (including our students) who want to be vaccinated will have been vaccinated by the start of classes in August. This means that we will have more opportunity for in-person engagement.

And while we hope to increase our in-person course offerings in Fall 2021, we know that we will need to continue to rely on remote instruction to meet our space capacity needs as we maintain physical distancing on our campuses and in our classrooms. In addition to physical distancing, we will continue to require face coverings and observe all the Flashes Safe Eight practices in the classroom setting. We know these practices have proven effective; we have had zero cases of COVID-19 transmission traced back to classrooms for either students or instructors on all our campuses.

Please know that if vaccines are not widely available and/or if the disease is still spreading at high rates, we will pivot to more remote instruction again. But, in building our Fall 2021 schedule, we hope to lead with the most optimistic approach of more in-person options.

Under these circumstances—vaccines administered and Flashes Safe Eight practices in place—our goal for Fall 2021 is to increase our in-person instructional delivery. Specifically, our overall university goal is to develop a course schedule in which our academic programs deliver approximately 50% of their undergraduate and graduate sections through an in-person format. Understandably, some programs may not be able to reach as far as 50%, while some programs may be able to exceed it. However, our hope is that we can reach 50% university-wide teaching and learning in-person.

To reach this goal, we believe it will be important to do the following:

• Move all academic courses with an enrollment of more than 50 students to remote delivery, unless the instructor of record requests to teach more students in a section using a hybrid model (e.g., half of students attend in-person one day, other half of students attend in-person another day or similar class divisions so that at no time are more than 50 students attending in person).
• To the greatest extent possible, expect students to attend the course as designated . For example, if the course is scheduled to be delivered in-person, the expectation is that the student will attend in-person or find an alternative course that meets the program requirement or a section that is offered remotely or online. Of course, students who need accommodations will work with the Office of Student Accessibility Services to find an appropriate approach. The goal with this consideration is to eliminate the need for instructors who choose to deliver instruction in-person to have to simultaneously deliver remote instruction. If a student must quarantine or becomes ill, the student should work with the instructor to make accommodations as would happen in typical times.
• Maximize the full instructional day and all useable instructional spaces. Knowing that we will have small sections of in-person classes in order to maintain physical distancing, we will have to schedule more classes in the evening and use spaces outside preferred buildings and pavilions. Such flexibility will be important to meeting our goal for Fall 2021. To make this easier, we will work with instructors who choose to teach in-person to make sure the technology they need is in those spaces and that instructors have the ability to park at the buildings in which they are teaching.

Soon, your academic unit administrator (campus dean, department chair, school director) will be reaching out to you to begin planning for Fall 2021, if they have not already. As we have done throughout the pandemic, we are committed to meeting instructors’ requests to teach in the manner that best meets their needs. We will continue to ensure flexibility, reasonableness, and equity in accommodating instructors’ needs. While we hope and expect that more instructors will choose to teach in person, no instructor who desires to teach remotely will be forced to teach in person and no person who desires to teach in person will be forced to teach in a classroom that cannot safely accommodate all enrolled students.

We are eager to plan for a Fall 2021 semester that will have more opportunities for in-person instruction than we have had the past few semesters. Our students have missed being in the same physical space with you and their classmates! The Academic Continuity Committee has created a survey that may help your academic unit administrator develop the Fall 2021 schedule and your input will be beneficial. You may access the link here:

https://kent.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4OOt5ikdANDs2Bo

Thank you for considering how we can plan together our Fall 2021 semester. I hope that as we plan to open more opportunities for in-person instruction, we are taking the important first steps that signal we are getting closer to the end of the pandemic. Thank you for all you do each day to create amazing learning opportunities for students!

My best,

Melody Tankersley, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President and Provost