Dear Colleagues,
We hope that the end of the Winter Quarter went smoothly for you, and that you have been able to spend quality time with loved ones, enjoying the additional daylight and warmer temperatures.
It is with great enthusiasm that we write to reinforce that UC San Diego will return to mostly in-person instruction for the spring quarter. Approximately 95 percent of undergraduate courses and about 98 percent of graduate courses are planned for in-person learning for the upcoming quarter. We know how many of you and your students are encouraged by this sign that we are approaching a new educational equilibrium.
We understand the frustration that you and your colleagues have experienced over the last two years, and especially at the start of the Winter 2022 quarter when the Omicron variant forced us to unexpectedly move the beginning of instruction fully remote after being mostly in person for the fall term. With that in mind, we are encouraging our campus community to exercise prudence during spring break and abide by the return-to-campus/on-campus safety guidelines so the start of the spring quarter can go smoothly.
It is worth noting that individual students may occasionally face a variety of COVID-related challenges with in-person learning. As experienced faculty, you are already familiar with the kind of case-by-case flexibility that can be deployed to assist a student with a short-term acute need. At the same time, in-person instruction remains one of the safest activities on campus and in-person learning provides invaluable opportunities to our students in the classrooms, studios, labs, and other educational and co-curricular settings. This is why we are optimistic about returning to predominantly in-person instruction once more.
A few reminders:
- Students greatly appreciate podcasting of lectures, when it is feasible and aligned with the learning objectives of the course. This remains at the instructor’s discretion. For anyone unfamiliar with lecture podcasting, departmental technology liaisons and ETS can provide assistance.
- Instructors of record are strongly encouraged to distribute a syllabus for every course or provide some other overview of the course structure and the expectations around participation, assignments, and grading. Even though the official syllabus policy does not take effect until Fall 2022, we encourage everyone to adopt this as a best practice in Spring 2022.
- Instructors are reminded that up to 49 percent of a course may be delivered remotely without requiring the R-course designation as outlined in the Senate Policy on Distance Education Courses.
- If instructors have caregiving or health concerns in light of recent COVID-19 developments, they should have already worked with their department chair to submit an exception request following the process laid out online: https://aps.ucsd.edu/faculty-resources/covid-19/index.html#Spring-2022-Course-Modality-Cha
- As before, we recognize that there will likely be some instructors who may not merit a standard workplace adjustment, but are still encountering challenging personal situations. Both the Administration and the Academic Senate encourage instructors to continue to communicate with chairs and deans about COVID-19-related stressors that are not directly covered by these guidelines, and encourage everyone to continue to support instructors beyond the specific procedures outlined above.
- We encourage you to continue to make full use of the Resilient Teaching and the Remote Instruction resources on the Teaching and Learning Commons’ website, as these practices provide flexibility in cases of student illness or other challenges.
As always, we will continue to be guided by science and our experts as we navigate this next phase of the pandemic and will be in communication with you should circumstances change. Thank you so very much for your flexibility and commitment to learning.
