Dear Colleagues,

As we start a new semester, we’re reaching out with a few reminders and resources to keep in mind regarding research programs and labs. In short, the regulations in place for the fall semester remain largely unchanged for the spring.

As the University has shared previously, please keep in mind that COVID vaccination does not change or eliminate any state, UConn, and/or UConn Health requirements. Requirements, such as mask usage and social distancing, will remain in place until we communicate otherwise.

Below is a list of current procedures and resources related to research activities, such as student research participation, safety plans, and travel.

• Safety plan: Each research program/lab must maintain a COVID Safety Plan that details how personnel density will be minimized, general and special requirements to disinfect/clean equipment and work areas, identification of activities that can continue to be done remotely, and requirements for any specialized PPE. Safety Plans do not need to be submitted for approval, but should be retained by the area with documentation that all personnel have been trained on and have signed off on the plan.

• COVID training: All on-campus personnel must complete relevant COVID trainings (Returning to Research and/or Returning to Campus) and documentation retained by the research program/lab.

• Travel: Travel remains heavily restricted, based on federal and state guidelines. Additionally, quarantine requirements must be followed, in keeping with state guidance. More information can be found in the Provost’s Office FAQs, as well as HR’s Travel Guidance and the State of Connecticut’s website. Some scenarios (such as fieldwork, K-12 education research, etc.) may pose unique challenges and will be addressed individually with school and college leadership, OVPR and the Provost’s Office.

• Undergraduate student research: Students may participate in research activities, following state, UConn and/or UConn Health requirements. More information is available from the Office of Undergraduate Research at their website.

• Scholarly publications: UConn Library is following modified protocol to access materials from their collections. Please be sure to reference their website for the latest information. 

• Vaccination: At this time, we are in the first sub-phase of Phase 1b, which includes only individuals who are aged 75 or older. As we progress through the sub-phases of 1b, UConn will continue to work with the state to define eligibility, and Human Resources will notify employees directly when they are eligible for the vaccine. More information is available at HR’s COVID-19 Employee Vaccination Information page. 

• COVID Testing and reporting:
  • Faculty and staff: Employee baseline testing for spring 2021 was conducted Jan. 4 through Jan. 22. Surveillance and potential exposure testing will continue through the semester. For more information on employee testing and reporting, visit hr.uconn.edu/employee-covid-testing and hr.uconn.edu/covid-19-hr-faqs.
  • Undergraduate and graduate students (including graduate student employees): Student Health and Wellness (SHaW) provides testing and medical information for students. Please visit studenthealth.uconn.edu/updates-events/coronavirus. 

• COVID-Focused Work Balance Task Force: The Office of the Provost has convened a task force to consider many of the challenges COVID poses for faculty and academic staff work-life balance for the spring semester. The group is currently gathering information on the range of impact; if you would like to share your thoughts, you may send them to Vice Provost Michael Bradford, michael.bradford@uconn.edu.
• Other resources: General resources from the state, UConn and UConn Health can be found at the following links:
  • Connecticut COVID-19 Response
  • UConn Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs
  • UConn Health Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information

We appreciate all your efforts to modify your research program to work within restricted guidelines. Your scholarship and discoveries are a critical component of fulfilling our mission as a top research university. If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free to share them with our offices.

Sincerely,
Radenka and Carl

Radenka Maric
Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear UConn Community:

I am pleased to share that our quarantine and testing strategy for starting the spring semester has been successful in maintaining a low rate of positive COVID-19 cases among our students, thanks in significant part to the many staff across Student Affairs.

As a result of our successful quarantine, I am also glad to confirm that classes with an in-person component can begin meeting in person, starting on Monday, Feb. 1.

• Instructors, please be sure to communicate with your students where your courses will be meeting and how frequently. This will vary depending on whether your class is fully in-person, hybrid, or split.
• All elements of the UConn Promise remain in effect, including wearing your mask in public, practicing social distancing, and frequent hand washing.

I know that the availability and timing of vaccines is a priority question for many in our community.  At this time, we are in the first sub-phase of Phase 1b, which includes only individuals who are aged 75 or older.

• As we progress through the sub-phases of 1b, UConn will continue to work with the state to define eligibility, and Human Resources will notify employees directly when they are eligible for the vaccine.
• For the majority of students, vaccination details are not available, but the University will share information as we receive it from the Department of Public Health.
• UConn’s vaccination program is a component of the State of Connecticut’s overall program, rather than an independent and autonomous vaccination program. Employees can stay up to date on the state’s plan via the Department of Public Health’s website.

Our ability to maintain a relatively high level of in-person campus presence and activities has been truly a community effort. I am grateful to each student, staff, and faculty member of our community who has played your part in maintaining a safe and healthy environment. I look forward to seeing more of you on our campuses in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Questions? Email at carl.lejuez@uconn.edu or join me in my online office hours, https://provost.uconn.edu/.

Dear Faculty,

The Office of Alumni Relations is pleased to recognize outstanding faculty at the University of Connecticut through the Alumni Relations Faculty Excellence Awards. Each year, faculty are recognized for their excellence in both teaching and research. The award not only carries with it professional recognition but also includes a $500 contribution to their faculty IDC account. Individuals who are nominated for this award must have a distinguished record of sustained teaching excellence and must have worked at UConn for at least 10 years. I am writing to ask for nominations for this year’s Alumni Relations Faculty Excellence Awards in the following categories:

• Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
• Faculty Excellence in Graduate Teaching
• Faculty Excellence in Research and Creativity (Sciences)
• Faculty Excellence in Research and Creativity (Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences)

The Faculty Excellence Awards Committee will convene this spring to select this year’s awardees. Awards will be presented in the fall of 2021. Please send your nominations materials in a single PDF by 5 p.m. Friday, March 5, 2021 to Amanda Pitts at amanda.pitts@uconn.edu. Click here for more information on required nomination materials.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,
Scott M. Roberts

President & CEO
UConn Foundation

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share leadership updates regarding the Neag School of Education and the Office of the Provost.

Over the past six months, a committee was charged with conducting a five-year review of Gladis Kersaint’s service as dean. I am grateful to the committee for its extremely thoughtful service to the School and to UConn.

Under Gladis’ leadership, the Neag School has made significant strides in many areas, including maintaining its rank as a top 20 public graduate school of education for five consecutive years; raising more than $10 million in gifts to support student scholarships and programs; diversifying the School’s faculty, staff, and students; implementing an inaugural faculty development program; expanding global education opportunities for Neag School students; advancing public engagement efforts with the Alliance School Districts, the 33 highest-need, most diverse school districts in Connecticut; increasing faculty public media engagements; and enhancing Neag School operational practices.

At the end of the review, I felt confident in reappointing Gladis as dean. She has provided strong leadership for the Neag School and would continue to do so going forward. However, her strengths as dean also overlap with needs in the Provost’s Office, which led us to consider possibilities for a new leadership role. I am pleased to share that as of March 1, Gladis will join our office as vice provost for strategic initiatives.

This transition will require multiple partners, particularly among the Neag School community. In the coming days I will seek guidance about an interim dean appointment. I will make this appointment at least two weeks before Gladis’ departure to ensure some overlap with her successor. This appointment will be followed by a full national search for a new dean. I will be in touch further with Neag School constituents early this spring to determine ideal timing and approach.

When we conducted vice provost searches last fall, we filled just one of the two open positions, given the budgetary uncertainty in the context of the pandemic. It was crucial at that time to prioritize fiscal responsibility; at the same time, it was clear to everyone in our office that we would need to consider an additional position in the future. Our current Provost’s Office team has been able to address the needs of our community, but with little bandwidth left to advance strategic initiatives.

Now that we have some budgetary relief in the form of state and federal support, we are in a position to bring in an accomplished leader like Gladis to help us make progress on strategic priorities. In this new role, she will have a broad and collaborative portfolio, with initial focus on leadership development programming, curriculum and accreditation, and support structures for academic deans and department heads in managing their myriad daily responsibilities.

I am grateful to Gladis for her leadership over the past five years and I am eager to begin working with her in this new capacity. The Neag School is well-positioned to attract top-caliber candidates to lead the School in its next phase of continued excellence. I look forward to engaging with the Neag School community about next steps in identifying new leadership, and welcome your comments any time to carl.lejuez@uconn.edu.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

Earlier this week we shared news on the federal guidelines that require authenticating student identity in distance education classes. We recognize the strain that many faculty are facing in relation to workload during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the challenge that many of the strategies to meet these requirements bring. In close collaboration with AAUP, we have identified that we are able to loosen the guidelines from two required methods to one required method with a request for your use of additional methods as you are able.

The single required method can be achieved simply by having students log in to class materials (syllabus, links to online discussions, any other materials) through HuskyCT. We continue to encourage a second method of authentication, as this also supports academic integrity in online education. Examples of these options are provided here: https://kb.ecampus.uconn.edu/2020/12/02/authentication-of-students/. Whatever you decide, your approach to student authentication should be clearly stated in the syllabus for all faculty teaching classes listed as online (WW) and distance learning (DL).

Thanks for your patience as we work to understand and adjust to these guidelines in the context of the pandemic. We hope this adjustment will be helpful as we approach the start of the semester.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear colleagues,

I hope that the break between semesters provided you the opportunity to rest and recharge. We have challenges ahead of us as we continue to face significant public health impacts of the pandemic and as we process the insurrection that occurred at our nation’s Capitol last week with the potential for future violence leading into the inauguration next week.

Our University community can play an important role in our understanding of both, as we saw in the fall semester with COVID-related projects such as the Pandemic Journaling Project and our research-based wastewater and pooled sampling approaches. We are just beginning to unpack the attack in the Capitol and I encourage you to participate in upcoming events to discuss what happened (see below for event details) and to be prepared for how you will participate in our academic community surrounding these events. Just as we have recently undertaken direct efforts to develop more robust educational efforts in the areas of anti-racism and climate change, so too do we seek to intervene in meaningful, constructive ways in these additional challenges.

As one note of good news, I am pleased to share that the average Student Evaluation of Teaching score for instructors in the past semester was 4.3 compared to 4.2 for the fall one year ago. This is a true indication of the hard work all of you have put in this past semester.

With the spring semester starting in just a few more days, I wanted to reach out with some additional reminders. We have also recently updated our FAQs with more information on the spring semester. Please click here to view our FAQs.

Course modality – first two weeks

• All courses must be delivered remotely during the first two weeks of the spring semester (Jan. 19-31). This is to allow the residential student quarantine to occur simultaneously with the start of classes, as well as to complete baseline testing for off-campus students who will have in-person components to their schedules.*Please note that this item does not apply to UConn Law and Health programs for which there are different academic calendars and approaches to course modality.

Student move-in

• Residence halls are again limited to about 50% capacity, as they were in the fall. Students in residential assignments must test for COVID-19 before arrival, and will be tested again upon arrival to campus. Move-in will take place on Jan. 16 and 17. More information is available at https://reopen.uconn.edu/living-on-campus/.

UConn Promise

• All students, faculty, and staff are expected to continue to uphold the UConn Promise, which includes wearing a mask in public, maintaining a distance of at least six feet from others wherever possible, and regular hand washing. More details are available at https://reopen.uconn.edu/uconn-promise/.

Final assessments and final exam opt-out

• Modality: With the last two weeks of the semester occurring fully remotely, all final assessments must be delivered remotely, regardless of the modality assigned to a course. Finals are scheduled for May 3 to 8. Instructors have the option to opt-out of a final exam and structure their final assessment in the form of final papers, final individual/group projects or presentations, portfolio reviews, or other forms of cumulative assessment. If you plan to opt out of a final exam, please make sure to notify the registrar by using the form at https://registrar.uconn.edu/final-exam-opt-out/.
• Reading Days: These are scheduled for April 29 through May 2 in the spring semester. On Reading Days, instructors may not hold regularly scheduled or make-up classes, nor have assignments due or exams scheduled for these days. Fully optional activities including office hours, study sessions, and/or other accommodations may be scheduled during these days.*Finals and Reading Day dates vary for UConn Law and Health programs.

Quarantine accommodations

• If a student has been placed in medical quarantine, their instructors will receive an email from the Dean of Students office seeking assistance for the student to continue their studies for in-person courses remotely. Faculty and other instructors were incredibly supportive of students in quarantine last semester and we appreciate your efforts to ensure that students are able to keep up while in quarantine this semester. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning has created a set of FAQs to support instructors working with quarantined students in their class: https://ecampus.uconn.edu/dean-letter-faq/.

Syllabi reminders

• Posting and sharing: Instructors are encouraged to share their syllabi with their students as soon as possible by posting them on HuskyCT and/or directly emailing them to students through HuskyCT. Instructors may also reference the syllabi resources from CETL at https://cetl.uconn.edu/syllabus-design/.
• Authentication requirement: UConn is required to verify the identity of students who participate in online courses and to establish that students who register in an online course are the same students who participate in and complete the course activities and assessments and receive academic credit. Syllabi should include information for students on the methods instructors will use in courses for authentication. Please see this resource guide for more detail: https://kb.ecampus.uconn.edu/2020/12/02/authentication-of-students/.
  • Please see updated guidance sent by the Provost’s Office on Jan. 15, 2021: https://provost.uconn.edu/2021/01/15/updated-guidelines-authentication-of-students/.
• Assessment/exam proctoring: Instructors using Lockdown Browser with Respondus monitor are advised to indicate this in your syllabus. This will allow students an opportunity to test the technology and identify any potential complications that may arise during the exam, e.g. technology, accommodations, or objections to accepting the Lockdown Browser’s terms of use agreement. More detail on this at https://provost.uconn.edu/2021/01/05/syllabus-resources-for-spring-2021/.
• Pronouns: Instructors are encouraged to include their pronouns in syllabi and can also add them to their WebEx profile. ITS has provided guidance on updating your WebEx profile and display name, available at https://confluence.uconn.edu/ikb/communication-and-collaboration/webex-video-conferencing/using-your-webex-account/customizing-your-webex-profile.

COVID testing, reporting and vaccination

• Testing
  • Faculty and staff: Employee baseline testing for spring 2021 is taking place from Jan. 4 through Jan. 22. Human Resources has shared testing dates, times, and locations with employees on the On-Campus Registry. Information about testing is available on the HR website: https://hr.uconn.edu/employee-covid-testing/.

• • Undergraduate and graduate students (including graduate student employees): Student Health and Wellness (SHaW) provides testing and medical information for students. Please visit https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/updates-events/coronavirus/.
• Reporting
  • Faculty and staff employees: Guidance for reports of positive COVID-19 diagnoses for employees and managers is provided through HR at https://hr.uconn.edu/covid-19-hr-faqs/.
    • Graduate student employees should follow the above guidance, as well.

• • Undergraduate and graduate students: Please refer to SHaW’s FAQs:  https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/updates-events/coronavirus/. Students who test through SHaW will have their results automatically updated with the University. Students who test outside of the University can upload their results to the SHaW Patient Portal.
• Vaccination
  • HR is coordinating vaccine administration for UConn employees. All employees are encouraged to participate in the Town Hall this Friday, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. More information on the Town Hall, as well as current details on vaccination timing, are at https://hr.uconn.edu/employee-covid-vaccine/.

• • Guidance is not yet available for student vaccination, although graduate assistants with on-campus duties will be included in upcoming phases.

Space reservation

• Students may reserve campus spaces at Storrs and the regional campuses for studying purposes. More information on accessing campus facilities and services is at https://reopen.uconn.edu/campus-services/.

Technology support

• Students: Please visit the Keep Learning website for resources, https://onlinestudent.uconn.edu/keeplearning/.
• Faculty and staff: Please visit the Remote Work website for resources, https://remotework.uconn.edu/.

GA duties assignment

• GAs should have a list of duties, signed by GAs themselves as well as the employer, along with their offer/contract before they start their duties.

Political discussions

• With the insurrection at the Capitol last week and the approach of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, we start the semester in the thick of politically heated topics that are challenging for many of our community including our students. We encourage our instructors to engage on these topics in their classes to the degree they are comfortable doing so.
• Relatedly, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Human Resources, and the Provost’s Office are partnering to host a community conversation on the siege at the U.S. Capitol. We will host a session Thursday, Jan. 14 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. and Friday, Jan. 22 from 12 to 1:30 p.m. Please visit https://diversity.uconn.edu/response-to-current-events/ for more details. Employees need not charge personal time to attend the event. These are among many events being hosted across UConn, including an upcoming panel hosted by our academic deans. Details for these community conversations and others as they develop can be found at https://diversity.uconn.edu/response-to-current-events/.

I am grateful to be in this work with each of you as we strive to provide a supportive and challenging environment that prepares our students to be engaged and productive citizens. Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

 While the fall semester is still eight months away, we must begin our initial planning for instruction now. There are many decisions and developments that will occur between now and August. Thus, our planning should provide a flexible starting point that will allow us to adapt as conditions change with safety as the primary driver of our decisions.

The first important step in our fall semester planning is the initiation of class schedule proofs ahead of the start of registration in the coming weeks. For now, the starting point for fall 2021 proofs is based on the teaching schedule from fall 2019. This approach allows us to consider the possibility of a more fully in-person experience in fall 2021, and allows for maximum flexibility to reduce density based on emerging public health data over the coming months. We strongly considered all options as a starting point in close collaboration with our Academic Planning Group, but the reality is that the logistics of moving from largely virtual to something more in person is simply less feasible than starting largely in person and shifting to virtual as appropriate.

We have shown a commitment to prioritizing safety throughout the past year and that same commitment will be in place as we determine any reduction in density and specifically in-person learning and working for the fall. Moreover, decisions about density will depend on numerous factors that include state guidelines; availability of vaccinations; and the findings from a working group I will be charging soon on the Future of Learning at UConn that will set a path for what learning can and should look like for our students in a post-pandemic environment.

We are seeing signs of progress with the first phase of vaccinations underway and are taking every step available to provide vaccination for those who will be in person in the fall. However, if you are not offered the full course of a vaccine in time for it to provide maximal protection by the start of the fall, you will be given the opportunity to conduct your classes and other work duties virtually ¹. We will also be mindful of infection rates, with a reduction of in-person presence tied to those rates. Additionally, we will consider health and other relevant exceptions that would necessitate someone continuing to teach and work remotely, such as the presence of an immunocompromised member of your household. Finally, in instances where a course delivered online better meets unit needs amid a more in-person semester, we will continue to support autonomy for department heads, instructors and deans to make those decisions that are in the best interests of the University and our continued commitment to our proud educational mission at UConn.

Following this message, the registrar will be in touch with more detailed instructions for departments to begin the process of preparing proofs. I will continue to work closely with deans for each school and college and the Senate Executive Committee and UConn AAUP to review this approach as we move forward in planning for the fall semester. Human Resources is also a key partner in our preparations as they lead employee vaccination coordination. I encourage you to engage in their Town Hall this Friday, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. More information is at https://hr.uconn.edu/employee-covid-vaccine/.

It is our hope that this approach for fall 2021, combined with the values we have led with to protect safety this year, will provide the confidence our community needs to begin planning now.

Please reach out to me directly at carl.lejuez@uconn.edu and consider attending my office hours (https://provost.uconn.edu/) if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

 

¹ At this time we are not able to require employees to be vaccinated and thus we are focused on whether a vaccine is offered as the key decider in someone not being asked to teach/work in person. At this time, those choosing not to be vaccinated will not be prohibited from working in person. All individuals, vaccinated or not, are required to continue to wear a mask and observe all other state guidelines until further notice.

Dear Colleagues,

In the fall semester, Dean Langley and I convened a committee to assess the future of journal subscriptions at UConn. As journal costs continue to rise, library budgets at institutions of higher education often remain flat or shrink. This has put pressure on libraries to make increasingly difficult choices to limit and /or eliminate staffing, programming, and support services to maintain journal subscriptions.

Without swift intervention, this will begin to have even greater detrimental effects on library services. UConn is among institutions considering how best to adapt our model of journal content access in ways that have less impact to the Library’s overall budget and acknowledge the paramount importance of journal access in the University’s mission of fostering excellence in research and instruction at all levels.

Based on our discussions as a committee, we are rolling out a pilot to test an alternate model of delivery that would be phased in over several years where journal subscriptions would not be renewed, and instead we would be able to provide articles on an a la carte basis at the same speed and convenience currently available. The change occurs primarily behind the scenes in how the Library pays for and delivers journal materials. Any decisions about journal subscriptions will in no way negatively impact other resources/services you have come to rely on including access to databases and other search tools to help you find the articles and other materials needed for your work.

Moreover, the approach is aimed at providing the same journal support at a cost that is viable long-term, which will allow us to address impending budgetary shortfalls in the Library and to re-invest any additional savings back into the Library to reverse damaging reductions in staffing and services over the past several years.

As we explore the necessary systems to support a potential widespread shift to an article-on-demand system, we will pilot the approach over the next six months with a small number of select journals (about 1% of current subscription and database titles held by the end of FY 2020-2021). During this interim period, the Library will share updates and progress on their website to keep our communities apprised. Work will continue over the spring and summer for an integrated approach to be piloted more broadly throughout the fall 2021 semester.

If this approach is not deemed acceptable, the committee will go back and work through other options. Regardless of the approach we decide upon, a commitment to the quality of journal service to the academic community will be foremost in our decisions.

The Library has created an FAQ about this project, which is available at this link: lib.uconn.edu/research/collections/future-of-journals/.

Support of the mission of the Library to provide access to and stewardship of the world of information is of utmost importance. I know many of you understand the truly difficult situation the scholarly communications crisis has brought to universities across the U.S. Institutions are seeking ways to take aim at the pricing and publishing models that have led to this juncture, and we are carefully tracking the successes of other institutions as we seek solutions tailored best for UConn’s diverse users and needs.

Our success will provide an opportunity to manage our Library budget without the burden of being dominated by the unsustainable increasing costs of journal subscriptions. Instead, the Library will be positioned to be nimble in support of the critical endeavors of the Library and of the University as a whole. In close collaboration with the members of the Future of Journals Subscription Committee, Dean Langley and I will monitor and assess the transition throughout the pilot project. We encourage you to reach out to any of us with feedback and/or questions. You can also email the Library at journalsfeedback@uconn.edu.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

On Monday, January 18, the University will observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to reflect on the meaning of Dr. King’s work and sacrifice. In recent years, the University has requested student services and academic departmental offices remain open on the holiday to meet the needs of new and returning students as they prepare for the spring semester on campus. Starting this year, the University is encouraging all departments and offices that can close in observance of the holiday to do so. We recognize that certain critical university operations and departments serving our residential students such as dining, facility operations, and residential life remain open to meet student and campus needs. However, it is our intention that, wherever practical, University operations will be closed to observe the holiday. More information on holiday observances is available on the HR website. Questions regarding scheduling or time issues should be referred to Labor Relations at laborrelations@uconn.edu.

Further details about commemoration of the holiday at UConn will be shared in the coming days.

Sincerely,

Scott Jordan
Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

After a very long year, we have finally made it to 2021. The last several months were particularly taxing with so many in our community giving their all to support our academic mission. The spring semester will still have its challenges, but there are many ways in which your hard work in the fall has provided a foundation and template to build upon for the spring. I cannot thank you enough for all you have been doing.

In advance of the spring semester starting in two weeks, our office wanted to share with you a few key reminders and resources for your syllabi for the spring 2021 semester.

One of the most valuable resources at your disposal is the syllabus guidance created by CETL, available on their website. A helpful starting point is their syllabus template, which you may review by clicking here. All instructors are welcome to use any of the language in this template to make the process of building your syllabi easier. Additional instructional resources can be found on UConn’s Keep Teaching website.

In particular, I want to draw your attention to a few areas that are new or modified in the context of COVID-19:

Authentication

• UConn is required to verify the identity of students who participate in online courses and to establish that students who register in an online course are the same students who participate in and complete the course activities and assessments and receive academic credit. Your syllabus should include information for students on the methods you will use in your course for authentication. Please see this resource guide for more detail: https://kb.ecampus.uconn.edu/2020/12/02/authentication-of-students/

Assessment/exam proctoring

• In many cases this semester, you will be administering exams and assessments remotely. The use of Lockdown Browser with Respondus monitor during online examinations may be a useful way to help promote academic integrity. If you plan to use Lockdown Browser with Respondus monitor, we recommend that you indicate this in your syllabus. This will allow students an opportunity to test the technology and identify any potential complications that may arise during the exam, e.g. technology, accommodations, or objections to accepting the Lockdown Browser’s terms of use agreement. Please work with your students who identify such complications during the practice or actual exam. Further guidance is available at https://ecampus.uconn.edu/keep-teaching-assessment/.

Reading Days

• Reading Days are scheduled for April 29 through May 2 in the spring semester*. On Reading Days, you may not hold regularly scheduled or make-up classes, and you also may not have assignments due or exams scheduled for these days. Please be mindful of these restrictions on Reading Days when constructing your syllabus. Fully optional activities including office hours, study sessions, and/or other accommodations may be scheduled during these days.
  *Reading Day dates vary for UConn Law and Health programs.

Inclement weather

• In the event that the University cancels classes because of inclement weather, this applies to all courses (remote, hybrid, in-person). For asynchronous courses, this may mean that you adjust deadlines by a day or two. Even in the event that the University does not cancel classes amid inclement weather, some of your students may report difficulty with technology or Internet accessibility. Consider including a note about how to contact you in such events, as well as a link to the University’s inclement weather policy, https://policy.uconn.edu/2011/10/27/emergency-closing-policy-2010-2011/.

Finally, we encourage you to share your syllabi with students early this semester – ideally a week before the first day of class. In addition to posting syllabi in HuskyCT for course-enrolled students to view on the first day of classes, faculty are encouraged to send a copy by email to all enrolled students or alternatively upload their syllabus link here (https://ecampus.uconn.edu/syllabuslink/) to provide access to all students so they can better prepare  for the semester, as well as make decisions earlier if they determine they would like to drop any classes.

Thank you for all you do to prepare rigorous and engaging course material for your students. Your efforts are noticed and appreciated.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs