August 2020 - CW Emails and Messages from the Provost
Aug. 21 - Return to campus guidance and new process
Aug. 26 - Provost Message: Start of semester newsletter - Student services hours, Faculty development, IPEDS, Convocation, Return to Campus, Access Champion, Care Team Cash, Emergency Funds and CARES Act, Racial Justice Initiative
Read Dr. Miller's Start of Semester Newsletter (PDF) that covers all of the above here.
Aug. 21 - Return to campus guidance and new process
In preparation for the start of fall semester, we’ve updated our return-to-campus and office protocols to follow the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and Responsible RestartOhio Guidance for Institutions of Higher Education. These new measures, which go into effect Monday, Aug. 24, will help keep you and others safe and healthy. Here are the steps we are asking all students, employees and visitors to take:
- Perform a daily health assessment before coming to any campus or facility.
- Review and electronically sign the COVID-19 Statement of Personal Responsibility (once per semester).
• Student Statement of Personal Responsibility
• Employee Statement of Personal Responsibility
• Visitor Statement of Personal Responsibility (if bringing a visitor with you; visitors must acknowledge for each visit to campus or site) - Always wear a face covering while on a campus or at a Tri-C site. If you forget a face covering, disposable masks are available at the following locations:
• Advanced Technology Training Center — E. 30th entrance reception desk
• Brunswick University Center – Information desk
• Corporate College® East — See staff
• Eastern Campus Welcome Station — ESS building entrance
• Hospitality Management Center – See staff
• Manufacturing Technology Center — Metro Campus Welcome Center (MSS Enrollment Center)
• Metropolitan Campus Welcome Stations — MCC (near bookstore), MSS (Enrollment Center), TLC
• Transportation Innovation Center — See staff
• Western Campus Welcome Station — WSS (Enrollment Center)
• Westshore Campus Welcome Station — SHCS building entrance - All students and employees must carry and be prepared to present their College ID card/Stomp Card while on campus.
- Comply with all safety directives on posted signs and in email communications from the College.
- Maintain a distance of 6 feet or greater between yourself and others.
- Practice good personal hygiene, including frequent handwashing for at least 20 seconds.
- Plan travel to and around campus/site to account for possible delays related to safety protocols.
Please take a moment to watch this video, which further explains what you can expect when you come to a Tri-C campus or site.
The above information can also be found at tri-c.edu/pledge and in the revised Return-to-College Guidance.
We’ve taken numerous steps to protect our Tri-C community, and we’ll continue to update our processes and procedures as we move through the fall semester. Check your College email regularly and visit tri-c.edu/coronavirus for the most up-to-date information.
Please email risk.management@tri-c.edu with questions.
We’re all in this together — and if we work at this together, we can be together. Stay safe and healthy!
Aug. 14 - Provost Message: Convocation schedule and links, Technology purchases, Course outlines, TLCs and OLAT temporary assignments
It is hard to believe that summer is almost over and we’re talking fall! When we finished the spring semester, we all hoped the worse of the COVID-19 situation would be behind us. Instead, we still find ourselves in these unusual and stressful times, not sure what the future will hold. Regardless of being face-to-face or remote, we still serve students! I hope the familiarity and energy that comes with the start of our fall semester brings each of you a sense of excitement and Tri-C “family” that we can all use right now.
With that, I am looking forward to joining you all next Tuesday, August 18 for our annual fall Convocation. While we would all prefer to be able to meet in person, our Convocation committee has done an amazing job making this fall’s virtual Convocation a meaningful experience for our faculty. We will begin the program at 9 a.m. next Tuesday with Dr. Johnson opening Convocation, and there is a full day scheduled of meetings and presentations you can participate in. The day’s agenda is attached for you.
- You can watch Convocation live by clicking here: Watch the livestream here.
- You can watch a closed caption live broadcast by clicking here: Watch the BoxCast closed captioned presentation here.
To continue to support faculty through our primarily online learning environment this fall, the College and the AAUP agreed to increase the amount of faculty travel funds that could be used to reimburse technology purchases from $800 to $1200. If you previously submitted a request that was limited to $800 of reimbursement, you may now resubmit those purchases to be reimbursed up to an additional $400. To receive additional reimbursement for prior technology purchases, please work with your associate dean to fill out the faculty development Excel form and ADD a comment that this is for the remaining balance. You must scan your original receipt again in resubmitting. Associate deans are asked to confirm travel balances and confirm the original amount. If you have any questions with these reimbursements, please contact Karen Mrak in accounts payable.
As you finalize your syllabi for the fall semester, please be sure to include the COVID-19 syllabus statement found in the official course outline. Click here to access the outline for your specific course: https://forms.tri-c.edu/OfficialCourseOutlines/ This link will also provide other required syllabus language such as the academic rigor statement and non-attendance statements.
As a reminder, if you are teaching any course this fall with on-ground components, remember that the College plans to move to fully online instruction after Thanksgiving break to complete the semester. There will be a few exceptions made for on-site clinicals or health-career and science labs that cannot arrange to meet learning objectives prior to Thanksgiving. If you have questions, please discuss with your deans as appropriate.
This fall, there will be a limited number of computer stations in the TLCs that offer ProctorU access. These stations are to be used by students that do not have the appropriate technology at home, as they are not designed to handle the demands of wide scale academic testing. Students will need to make an appointment during campus service hours (Mondays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.). More information and the links to make appointments will be shared with faculty the week of August 24.
OLAT and ITS are excited to share that there will be two synchronous web meeting tools integrated into Blackboard courses for this fall: WebEx and Collaborate. Faculty may continue to use WebEx or other systems outside of Blackboard if they prefer. Please watch your email for specific information and links to FAQs, training, etc.
The necessity to shift our courses to primarily online teaching has put a strain on many administrative areas including OLAT, ITS and Academic Professional Development. In order to seamlessly provide these departments with the support they now need without increasing administrative FTE, we are pleased to announce the recent reassignment of two full-time faculty to temporary faculty liaison positions in OLAT and Academic Professional Development. These temporary assignments are for AY 20-21 only and will work with administration to support our faculty through work including designing and facilitating faculty forums, supporting faculty in the integration of Ally (our online accessibility software) and updating faculty and student academic continuity guides. Please join me in welcoming your colleagues to their AY 20-21 OLAT and Professional Development assignments:
- Nancy Doherty is an assistant professor of chemistry at the Western Campus and began teaching at Cuyahoga Community College in 2014. Nancy has served on the Committee on Distance Learning, the Faculty Learning Community on Adaptive Courseware (part of the College’s ACES grant), and the Ally Accessibility Implementation Committee. She has a strong interest in both pedagogy and the use of technology in education, has experimented with a variety of tools, and has shared her experiences with Tri-C colleagues at campus and College-wide presentations. She is part of the Faculty Learning Community on Inclusive Excellence/Ethnicity & Culture, and is a participant with this group in the Project for Education Research that Scales Engagement Project. Nancy holds degrees in chemistry from Dartmouth College and the California Institute of Technology, was a member of the chemistry faculties at the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of California Irvine, and is a longstanding member of the American Chemical Society. She serves on the Ohio Department of Higher Education Organic Chemistry TAG Review Panel.
- Stacey S. Souther, professor of psychology at Eastern Campus, has been teaching at Tri-C since 2004. After serving for several years on Faculty Senate, Stacey shifted her interests into Faculty Development. Stacey has served as the Eastern Campus Faculty Development Coordinator since 2016, during which she served on the committees for College-wide convocation, faculty colloquium, and campus day planning. Stacey has also presented extensively at the college and has attended 24 teaching and learning conferences, where she’s presented 18 faculty development sessions. In addition, Stacey has facilitated five Faculty Learning Communities about dynamic teaching, active learning, and using technology in the classroom. During the 2018-2019 academic year, Stacey worked extensively with the Lilly Conferences on College and University Teaching during her Professional Improvement Leave, presenting nine invited sessions across six conferences all over the country. Currently, Stacey serves as a regular reviewer for the Lilly Conferences, on the membership committee for the POD network, which aims to advance research and practice in educational and faculty development in higher education, as co-chair for the 2021 Ohio Association of Two-Year Colleges conference, and as the chair of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology SAGE Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award Selection Committee.
I look forward to seeing you all virtually at Convocation and getting the fall semester underway!
Aug. 7 - Provost Message: Academic calendar, ProctorU, Campus copy centers, Updated syllabus statement
I hope you are all enjoying some well-deserved time off as we officially end summer semester and look forward to fall. As you take this time to relax and recharge, I did want to provide a few announcements and updates:
- This year’s academic calendar can be found here: https://www.tri-c.edu/academic-calendar/documents/academic-calendar-2020.pdf. Please be reminded that for fall semester, courses that meet on-ground will move to online instruction following Thanksgiving break (Monday November 30) through the end of the term. Some exceptions may apply in health careers, nursing and other disciplines. Please check with your associate dean if needed.
- For faculty who use our online proctoring service ProctorU, we are pleased to announce that this fall semester there will be a few designated computer stations on each campus available to students to use when completing a proctored online exam. The stations are to be used by students who either do not have the appropriate technology at home or need a quiet space. At this time, we do not have the capacity to serve all academic testing needs on campus. Students desiring to use ProctorU on campus will need to make an appointment in advance. No walk-ins can be accommodated at this time. Appointments will be available on days the campuses are open for services (at this time, this is Mondays and Thursdays only). We look forward to sharing more specific appointment information in the next couple of weeks. Students and faculty may, of course, continue to use ProctorU remotely. A special thanks to our campus TLCs, OLAT and ITS for working through technical challenges to implement this service for fall.
- Our reprographic centers at Metro, East and West campuses will begin updated hours for fall on August 11:
- Tuesdays: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Wednesdays: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Thursdays: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- As a reminder, to address academic concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the spring semester and summer session, we changed our Pass/No Pass policy to allow students to request one or more final letter grades be converted to Pass (P) or No Pass (NP) after receiving the final grade. The deadline for spring courses has passed, but for summer courses students may request a change to Pass/No Pass through October 5. Summer will be the last semester this option is available for students. Students may opt for Pass/No Pass grades at time of registration beginning with fall term.
- As you know, we are asking that all faculty include an updated COVID-19 syllabus statement in your fall course syllabi. Part of the updated syllabus statement required students to “wear a mask or face covering at all times, including, but not limited to: upon entering and exiting any Tri-C facility, in class, and in all common areas.” As we have had more students visiting campuses this summer, it has been noted that while our students are wearing masks, a handful of them are not covering their nose and mouth. We will work on updating the syllabus template for spring, but in the meantime please feel free to amend any of your course syllabi to update the above language to “wear a mask or face covering over the nose and mouth”.
Enjoy your break between semesters, and I am very much looking forward to joining you all virtually for Convocation on Tuesday, Aug. 18!