Weekly Repopulation Update 5/4
Sent: May 4, 2021
From: Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dear colleagues,
As we continue to prepare for repopulation, we are entering a stage where we are generating
as many questions as we have answers. The vaccination requirement, for example, raises
lots of questions of how we will track vaccinations and then enforce compliance. While
the 91ÁÔÆæ senior leadership team awaits formal word from the Chancellor’s Office, we
continue to look at how we can best meet both the testing and vaccination needs of
our campus and community. There have already been conversations in the Academic Senate
and Academic Senate Executive Committee about some of these issues, as well as engagement
with Associated Students, through their Academic Affairs team about potential implementation
issues. More to come but please know that nothing will be formalized before there
is an FDA approved vaccine on the market (so far all three vaccines remain active
under an emergency authorization).
We have also tried to respond to many concerns about campus safety in the fall. As
I mentioned last week, we made adjustments to the course schedule to accommodate more
airflow between classes. I have received some concerned feedback about these changes
from the campus chairs. In their requests to me, they ask for a number of things,
including a more inclusive dialogue about campus changes, greater flexibility on some
key deadlines, and investments in technologies that could help us better utilize our
campus classroom spaces. As I mentioned to them, and will note here, we are already
making a direct investment in technologies that help us automate our room and course
schedule process. In conversation with the deans, we have also adjusted the hiring
request timeline to provide some ease at the department and college level. I am looking
into other timelines that we might adjust to ease stress over the last few weeks of
the semester. In addition, we plan to host a Chair Retreat to discuss the role of
the chair and how to support that role better. I will share more details once they
are finalized.
The chairs, as well as the deans and vice provosts, have also expressed the need to
support our staff during this challenging time. We have an amazing community of staff
members who have taken on a lot of change over the last year. We are not going to
make any other major changes to the fall schedule and we will bring folks together
to discuss Spring ‘22 scheduling as well to determine if we need to continue to shift
things around or not. In addition, we are looking at other strategies to support our
campus staff - this conversation has been pushed up to the Cabinet level.
As always, I want to thank everyone for their hard work. I have had the pleasure of
reviewing retention, tenure and promotion files recently. We have some amazing faculty
colleagues on this campus! The work with students is incredible, the scholarship is
challenging disciplinary thinking, and the service stretches well beyond the campus
in direct support of communities both near and far. If you haven’t had a chance to
watch the from our Celebration of Research, please do when you get a chance. It was an incredible
event.
Stay safe,
Vin
