Dear Colleagues,

The middle of the semester is always a good time to assess progress personally and for our students. As we did in the fall at this time, I wanted to share a few resources for all instructors to utilize in their instructional plans, as an opportunity to review your students’ trajectory—along with your own—through the end of the semester. I appreciate the support of the Senate Executive Committee and leaders in the undergraduate and graduate student senates in pulling these materials together.

Formative feedback

 Mid-term formative feedback surveys can be useful tools for instructors to hear anonymously from their students on course materials, lectures, assessments, and other elements of course design. We encourage all instructors to implement a mid-term formative feedback survey in their courses. These surveys can be valuable resources to make mid-course adjustments, as well as to broaden student engagement. The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness offer resources to develop and distribute formative feedback surveys. In all cases, these are designed to be private (for instructors’ personal use only, not to be shared with department heads or other administrators). If you are interested in utilizing formative feedback, you can begin with a resource guide prepared by CETL.

Mid-term grades

Sharing mid-term grades with your students is another important part of reviewing student progress, which can have positive impacts on your students’ engagement in coursework. University Senate By-Laws state that by the end of the sixth week of the semester, instructors shall submit midterm grades for students in 1000- and 2000-level courses who have earned less than a C, or U, or N grade up to that point.

In these challenging times, however, I encourage all instructors to share mid-term grades with their students in all levels. This feedback on progress will help students make adjustments and access resources as necessary to stay on track academically and to assess their trajectory in the course to make decisions earlier on potential withdrawals or pass-fail designations in courses. This is also an opportunity to refer students of concern to academic support resources like the Academic Achievement Center (AAC).

We are sharing guides here with different options to submit grades to PeopleSoft. Informing your students of their grades or posting mid-term grades in HuskyCT is helpful, but posting grades in PeopleSoft is necessary to ensure this information regarding student progress is available to staff at the University who provide academic support. Grade submission opened on Monday, February 21 and continues through Thursday, March 24. Instructors can submit grades three different ways into StudentAdmin:

• Manually into Student Admin utilizing these instructions
• Via an Excel file utilizing these instructions
• Via a direct feed from HuskyCT utilizing these instructions

For any instructors who have yet to administer any assessments in their course by which to determine a mid-term grade, now is a good time to do so to ensure you and your students know how they are progressing in the course and mastering the material.

Finally, I want to encourage faculty to be as considerate as possible, and exercise as much flexibility as possible, regarding make-ups for students who may report being ill.  Students are urged not to attend class when they are feeling ill and this health precaution extends to scheduled exams, as well.

As always, thank you for all you are doing.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

Jeffrey Shoulson
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Dear UConn Community,

We have reached an important milestone in the development of a new Common Curriculum. The Senate Curricula and Courses Committee has introduced a set of Common Curriculum Guidelines for consideration by the University Senate. The Senate has called a special meeting to be held on Feb. 28 to discuss and vote on these guidelines.

I encourage you to review these guidelines at this link and share your feedback on them with your Senator colleagues to be sure they are prepared to share the views of their constituents; any proposed changes would be made through the Senate’s discussion of proposed amendments. You may view Senate membership at this link.

This is the first of three documents that will be presented to the Senate this spring as it continues the process of introducing a new general education program. If the guidelines are approved, the next step will be for the Curricula and Courses Committee to draft an implementation plan that will include a fiscal impact report. This plan would then be presented to the Senate in April for approval, alongside corresponding updates to the Senate By-Laws, Rules, and Regulations.

The purpose of the Common Curriculum is to ensure that all UConn undergraduate students a) are literate in different ways of knowing, b) exposed to many kinds of knowledge beyond career preparation, and c) able to enter society and their professions with a strong sense of moral, ethical, and social responsibility. Students, faculty, and staff have devoted countless hours to this effort to re-envision general education at UConn, and we now look forward to the full Senate body weighing in on the proposal that has been generated.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

02/10/2022

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share an update on the color-coded system for students across non-academic settings.

As you may recall, we started the semester in red for this color-coded system determined by the Division of Student Affairs. Given the carefully managed return of students to our campuses, it is no longer medically necessary to remain in red. Effective Friday morning (Feb. 11) at 6 a.m., the color-coded system for student activities, campus dining, residential life, and the Rec Center will be in orange. More information regarding the color-coded system and its current status is available here.

This shift from red to orange is specific to student non-academic settings such as guest presence in the residence halls, gathering sizes and travel for Club Sports and Student Activities, and in-person dining. Notably, this change to orange in non-academic settings is essentially equivalent to how we have been and are continuing to approach academic settings with masks still required inside in nearly all university spaces unless you are actively eating or drinking.

Thank you for all you have done to enable our return to in-person learning and activities this semester.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of UConn’s Life-Transformative Education (LTE) initiative, I am pleased to present the line-up of activities for the spring semester.

The spring series of events features an exciting line-up of guest speakers from other institutions and our own talented faculty and staff. It also includes the return of the LTE Cultivate workshop, on Feb. 25.

LTE Speaker Series: Dr. Rochelle Gutiérrez
“Mathematics, Passions, and Right Relations: How Identity Factors Into Our Work”
Friday, Feb. 18, 12 to 2 p.m. 

Dr. Gutiérrez is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Gutierrez’ scholarship focuses on issues of identity and power in mathematics education, paying particular attention to how race, class, and language affect teaching and learning. In this talk, Dr. Gutiérrez will expand on how her life growing up around powerful womxn and activists taught her to channel her passions into her academic and life work. She uses the case of mathematics as an example of how we are taught to simply accept the stories we are told and how a deep grounding in ourselves can help us challenge those stories and write new ones. This is also a great warm-up to the LTE Cultivate II workshop the following week.  

UConn LTE Cultivate II
Friday, Feb. 25, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

The UConn LTE Cultivate workshop returns with a new slate of activities to inspire, develop, and empower all faculty and staff as Life-Transformative Education champions. The half-day workshop will include a wide variety of activities, including breakout sessions with focus on topics including mentoring, advising, service learning, and DEI principles; wellness activities; and a keynote conversation with Dr. Amelia Parnell, vice president for research at NASPA, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.  

Tell Us Your Story: A UConn LTE Panel
Monday, March 28, 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. 

Join us for this panel featuring UConn faculty and staff, sharing their experiences in infusing LTE principles into their interactions with students, from teaching practices to student mentoring and more.   

Featuring Dr. Shardé Davis, Assistant Professor, Communication; Fany Hannon, Director, Puerto Rican/Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC); Micah Heumann, Director, Academic Center for Exploratory Students (ACES); and Dr. Hana Maruyama, Assistant Professor, History. 

All UConn faculty, staff, and students are welcome to attend any LTE event. Registration is required for these events, all of which will be hosted virtually. More information, including registration details, are available on the LTE website. We look forward to seeing you at LTE events throughout the spring!

Sincerely,
Michael

Michael Bradford
Vice Provost for Faculty, Staff, and Student Development

02/07/2022

Dear Colleagues:

I am writing with two updates related to classes: 1) final exam opt-out and 2) supporting students in quarantine.

Final Exam Opt-out

Several years ago, the University Senate passed a by-law change regarding final assessments in all undergraduate classes. The change enabled all faculty and instructors in our undergraduate courses to choose a variety of assessments of student work, stating that the final assessment does not necessarily need to be an exam. The change also eliminated the approval of the department head and of the dean of the school or college for faculty who choose not to offer a final examination.

If you are not delivering a final exam in Spring 2022, we ask that you fill out a brief form to notify the Registrar that you are opting out. The form and instructions are available by clicking here. We are asking for those who use another method of assessment (portfolios, projects, etc.) to let us know so that the room and/or time may be available for other instructors during the assessment period. It is also important that instructors recognize that due dates for these alternative forms of final assessment should not fall on days designated as Reading Days. As always, all due dates should be indicated on the syllabus at the beginning of the semester.

Many of our instructors have used other forms of assessment that align more purposefully with their intended learning objectives. Assessment formats can include individual or group-based strategies, e.g.  projects, portfolios, papers, team-based work, creative works, performances, presentations and other assessments in lieu of final exams.

Finally, please note that it is prohibited by Senate By-Laws to give your final assessments during the last week of classes. Exams during the last week of classes puts an undue strain on students who are trying to attend and participate in their other courses during the last week of classes.

Supporting Students in Quarantine

The return to in-person instruction has gone smoothly but, as expected, some students have been required to isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure or infection. Many of you already have experience supporting students who have had to miss class for illness prior to the pandemic, but the task is simply more complicated with the increased COVID-related numbers. In most classrooms instructors have the option of live-streaming or recording their in-person sessions. In those cases, you can distribute the link to the live stream or a recording of your class to those students who are in quarantine/islolation. The decision to do so is entirely left to the instructor, but I do want to clarify that live-streaming and/or recording a class is different from teaching in two modalities simultaneously, as it does not include active engagement with those outside of the in-person class. If this is not an option you want to utilize, we encourage you to reach out to CETL and/or your department head to identify strategies that you feel comfortable employing, which could include making slides available or encouraging use of your office hours.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

Jeffrey Shoulson
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to let you know that the search for the next director of the Office of Clinical Placement Coordination has officially gone live. The job description and application information for interested candidates is available at this link.

The search will be open through February 16 and I encourage you to help us field a broad, deep, and diverse pool of candidates by sharing this information widely and urging potential candidates to apply.

Thanks to Nancy McMahon for agreeing to chair this important search.

Best wishes,
Jeffrey

________________________________________

Jeffrey S. Shoulson, Ph.D. (He | Him | His)
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite nominations for spring awards from the Office of the Provost. We are now seeking nominations for the Provost’s Outstanding Service Award, Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Community Engaged Scholarship, and Alumni Faculty Excellence Award.

Nominations for each of these awards are due to provost@uconn.edu by new deadline, 5 p.m. March 23, 2022 5 p.m., March 11, 2022. Please review information about each of the awards below for more detail on nomination eligibility and materials. Awardees will be announced in late spring 2022.

Provost’s Outstanding Service Award

This award honors faculty whose volunteer service (i.e., not that assigned as part of one’s job description or expectations in teaching, research or assigned service) is exemplary in enhancing the University’s mission in teaching, research, service, or engagement.

Nomination eligibility and materials: https://provost.uconn.edu/events-and-recognition/awards/provosts-outstanding-service-award/

Provost’s Awards for Excellence in Community Engagement Scholarship

Public engagement is integral to the academic endeavor and the institution-wide mission of a land-grant university. This award honors faculty, staff, students, and community partners who work collaboratively to address important community issues.

Nomination eligibility and materials: https://provost.uconn.edu/events-and-recognition/awards/provosts-awards-for-excellence-in-community-engaged-scholarship/

Alumni Faculty Excellence Award

This award is given in partnership with the UConn Foundation. It honors faculty for excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Graduate Teaching, and Research and Creativity in the Sciences, and the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

Nomination eligibility and materials: https://www.foundation.uconn.edu/about-the-foundation/history/faculty-excellence-awards/

We look forward to receiving nominations for these awards. Please reach out to provost@uconn.edu if you have questions.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

 

 

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of the interim director for our Waterbury Campus. Angela Brightly, associate director for Waterbury, will take on this role, beginning today, February 1.

Angela brings tremendous institutional knowledge to this position, having started her career at UConn in 1987 and serving as associate campus director for Waterbury since 1999. She previously served as Waterbury’s registrar and worked in the former College of Continuing Studies. She has also been active in professional organizations, including the New England Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (NEACRAO) and the Connecticut Association of Collegiate Registrars (CACR). She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College.

I look forward to working with Angela as leader of the Waterbury Campus while we prepare for a search for the next director. Her deep familiarity with the campus will provide a seamless transition following the retirement of Campus Director Bill Pizzuto, as he pursues the next stage of his career in local politics. I thank all of you who shared your input on the interim director appointment.

Please join me in congratulating Angela on this new role.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs