RECAST | Plans for Fall Quarter Instruction

From: McAvity, David <mcavityd@evergreen.edu>
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2020 11:17 AM
To: All Faculty <allfaculty@evergreen.edu>
Cc: All Staff <allstaff@evergreen.edu>
Subject: Plans for Fall Quarter Instruction

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing with an update on our planning for fall quarter instruction. As you are no doubt aware the number of COVID-19 cases in Thurston County, Pierce County, and Washington State have increased significantly over the last few months. Safe in-person instruction requires responsive health verification, testing, and tracing to contain outbreaks. Evergreen and our local counties do not have the capacity to keep up with such steps in a timely way given current caseloads. Senior Leadership has determined available staffing resources can only support a very limited on campus presence. Thus, we will significantly limit in-person instruction in the interest of keeping the Evergreen community safe. 

We will focus most of our energies on ensuring that we can deliver a robust and supportive remote learning experience for our students. Thank you to those of you who have been participating in #EvergreenEverywhere workshops this summer to that end.

Students will receive notification about this decision today. The catalog will be updated to reflect the new status of instruction by August 14. Use the “fall 2020 (online)” quick filter on the academic catalog to find online only programs, or the “fall 2020 (hybrid)” to find those few offerings that may still have in-person activities.

What does this mean for faculty?
If you have a course or program that was approved for hybrid instruction, you will need to shift to remote-only learning. There will be very few exceptions.

For support shifting your course to remote instruction, please reach out to the Learning and Teaching Commons at learningandteaching@evergreen.edu. 

Here are the types of on campus in-person learning activities we can support. The curriculum team will contact you directly if your offering will still be considered for hybrid by tomorrow.

1. The Practice of Organic Farming program – fall is harvesting season and food is an essential resource.
2. Limited solo or 1:1 undergraduate research, capstone, ILC, and Internship work for which in-person learning is essential.
3. Some highly experiential outdoor on-campus small group activities. 
4. No more than 3 science lab programs/courses as part of a continuing pilot*.

ALL in-person learning activities on campus require approved safety plans. Samples are available at the COVID-19 Health and Safety Planning Website.

Tents and Outdoor Classrooms 
Some faculty requested tented areas for outside instruction. Area managers and the instructional support health and safety team considered this request carefully, acknowledging instruction is easier to conduct safely outside. This analysis determined we do not have the ability to support, furnish, power, clean, and heat these areas. Thus, we will not be able to set these up. 

Thank you to all of you for your creative thinking and planning over the summer. I regret that we are not ready to return to something more normal sooner. That time will come.
 
Best regards,
 
David
Interim Provost & Vice President for Student and Academic Life

* Science Labs
These are the criteria we will use to select which in-person science labs we can support.

• The activities can be designed for small groups (8 or fewer in one section).
• The activities do not require extended periods inside.
• The activities cannot be effectively taught in a remote mode and are essential to the learning outcomes.
• Programs or courses for advanced students who may not have the opportunity to get this experience again next year will be prioritized over others.
• We have the equipment and staff resources to support the planned activities safely.
• Faculty have backup plans in case a class section needs to quarantine.

The curriculum team will in touch with courses and programs we are considering in the next few days.