SUBJECT:

COVID-19 Academic Senate Update

Dear Colleagues:

We are appreciative of the faculty, staff and students who are all mobilized in minimizing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our community.

With advice from our experts in the School of Medicine and the Health System, our campus took early action. The infection is now in the exponential phase of transmission in the United States, and there has been a case reported in the local news of community transmission in San Diego county. By implementing social distancing measures early, UC San Diego will help limit the spread of the virus. Slowing the spread of the virus is critical to preserving the capacity of our medical system to treat us optimally if we require hospitalization from this disease.

Many decisions had to be made, and are still being made, very rapidly by UC San Diego leadership. We want to assure our colleagues that Senate Leadership (Chair, Vice-Chair, and chairs of the appropriate committees) have a seat at the table. The Senate supported the restriction on in-person campus final exams for winter quarter, and authorized the options for how to do this. The Senate did not authorize dropping the final exam and grading students on already completed work. Nor does the Senate support the idea of a blanket pass/no pass option for winter or spring quarters.

Academic Senate updates can be found here:
https://senate.ucsd.edu/COVID-19-Academic-Senate-Updates

As faculty we must stay well informed and we refer faculty to the CDC for accurate information regarding the infection and recommendations:
https://bit.ly/2QecPYp

Campus updates can be found here:
https://coronavirus.ucsd.edu

Please sign up for Triton alerts and read your emails daily as things are evolving very rapidly. We are all in this together on the front lines. We appreciate your support in these very difficult times.

Sincerely yours, Maripat Corr Chair Academic Senate, San Diego Division