Dear Colleagues,

As we approach the halfway mark of the semester, academic life at UConn is settling into a routine, albeit a routine that is still new to us all amid a pandemic. Although there are far fewer people on our campuses, I can still sense the changed energy when students and faculty are engaged in coursework and events across the University. All of this activity is the result of much hard work and dedication on the part of faculty, staff, and students, and I continue to be grateful for your commitment to progress in a challenging year.

The middle of the semester is always a good time to assess progress personally and for our students, and perhaps even more important this year given the different approaches we have all implemented in our courses. 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 and your students’ trajectory through the end of the semester.

Formative feedback

Mid-term formative feedback surveys can be a useful tool 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. I appreciate the support of the Senate Executive Committee and leaders in the undergraduate and graduate student senates in pulling these materials together.

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. Students and instructors are continuing to adapt to new modes of learning and this feedback on progress will help students make adjustments and access resources as necessary to stay on track academically, and 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 grade 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. Grades can be submitted beginning on Monday, February 22, through Thursday March 18.

• Submitting via Student Admin at this link
• Via an Excel file at this link
• Via HuskyCT at this link

As always, thank you for all you are doing.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that Jason Irizarry has accepted the role of interim dean of the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education.

Jason is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, and currently serves as associate dean for academic affairs. The Provost’s Office sought feedback from the Neag School’s faculty, staff, and students on the interim dean appointment. In that feedback, we saw strong support for Jason to serve as interim dean, given his leadership experience in the Dean’s Office, as well as his involvement throughout the Neag School community and across UConn.

This appointment is effective starting Monday, March 1. Over the next two weeks, Dean Gladis Kersaint and Jason will work closely on the transition before she begins her new role as vice provost for strategic initiatives. Once in the role, Jason will determine how best to address the duties of his vacant associate dean position. As we shared previously, we will proceed with a national search for a new dean. I will be in touch very soon with Neag School constituents to gather input on ideal timing and approach.

Jason is an accomplished leader, scholar, and educator. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural education, culturally responsive curriculum development, urban education, and participatory action research.

His research focuses on urban teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention with an emphasis on increasing the number of teachers of color, culturally responsive pedagogy, youth participatory action research, and Latinx students in U.S. schools. A central focus of his work involves promoting the academic achievement of youth in urban schools by addressing issues associated with educator preparation. Manuscripts documenting the findings of his research have been published in a variety of journals in the field including Teachers College Record, American Educational Research Journal, Educational Leadership, Education and Urban Society, Multicultural Perspectives, Journal of Latinos and Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Centro Journal of Puerto Rican Studies and others appearing as chapters in various books. He is the author of the award-winning book, The Latinization of U.S. Schools: Successful Teaching and Learning in Shifting Cultural Contexts (Paradigm Publishers, 2011) and co-editor of Diaspora Studies in Education: Toward a Framework for Understanding the Educational Experiences of Transnational Communities (Peter Lang, 2014).

Please join me in congratulating Jason as he takes on this new leadership role within the Neag School.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to nominate exceptional colleagues for the Provost’s Outstanding Service Award. The 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.

By honoring such individuals, the University demonstrates its commitment to service as an activity essential to its mission and to its governance, provides incentive for faculty to pursue activities that enhance the quality of their service, and emphasizes the importance of outstanding service. We were pleased to recognize Mohamed Hussein, professor of accounting in the School of Business, and Thomas Long, professor-in-residence in the School of Nursing, as the 2020 POSA awardees.

Nominations are due to provost@uconn.edu by March 12, 2021. The nomination requirements and selection criteria can be found on our website and are also posted below. For more information, please reach out to Amanda Pitts at amanda.pitts@uconn.edu.

Nomination Materials

• One Letter of Nomination that details in what ways the faculty member has made long-term and extraordinary service contributions to the University in committees and/or University volunteer activities.
• List of the Service Contributions the nominee has made to the University, with various kinds of service distributed among categories.
• A minimum of two additional Letters of Support (in addition to the Letter of Nomination) from persons who have the ability to judge the significance of the nominee’s service contributions. We recommend at least one letter come from outside the nominee’s department or college/school to demonstrate the breadth of the nominee’s service.

Eligibility Criteria

• The nominee must be a current UConn faculty member who has been employed at UConn for at least five years
• Previous recipients are not eligible
• Self-nominations will normally not be accepted

Sincerely,
Michael

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

Dear Colleagues,

As the semester forges on, I want to bring to your attention a few new resources for instruction, as well as remind you of a few other critical items at this early point in the spring.

• Difficult dialogues: CETL has created a guide online with strategies to prepare for and manage difficult dialogues in your courses. These steps can be useful in managing challenging topics you plan to address in your courses, as well as intervening when difficult dialogues spontaneously develop.
• Tech Check: ITS partnered with CETL to develop “Tech Check” to help address at-home challenges that impede instructors’ interactions with students. Through this support service, instructors can schedule virtual one-on-one meetings with ITS staff who will assess workstations, audiovisual equipment, network speeds, and other aspects of home IT infrastructure and will make recommendations to improve performance.  More information is available on the IT Knowledge Base.
• PPE and masks: As the overall logistics situation has improved over the last six months, PPE has become more available. Review these resources for obtaining various types of PPE and masks.
  • Surgical-type paper procedure masks can be obtained from the UConn Warehouse utilizing a request form at https://warehouse.uconn.edu/face-mask-requests/.
  • Clear face shield and microphone covers can be obtained from CETL, by emailing cetl@uconn.edu.
  • PPE necessary for laboratories, research programs, and facility operations can be obtained through the normal procurement process through HuskyBuy: https://ubs.uconn.edu/
  • If you have needs beyond these types of PPE, please reach out to Amy Allen, Associate Director Supply Chain Management, at amy.allen@uconn.edu, to discuss options.
• Final exam opt-out: 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 their online form.
• Student authentication: We shared earlier this semester that just one method of student authentication is required, rather than two. Please consult our memo online for more detail on authentication methods and guidance.

As you’ve seen throughout this past year, we continue to develop new resources and guidance as we all learn how to best deliver instruction in the midst of a pandemic. If you have suggestions about other guidance or resources that would be helpful, please share your feedback.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Questions? Email at carl.lejuez@uconn.edu, join me in my online office hours at provost.uconn.edu, or view our Provost’s Office FAQs at s.uconn.edu/ProvostFAQs.

Dear UConn Community:

I am writing to share updates on course add/drop deadlines for the spring 2021 semester.

• 10^th Day Deadline: Because of the current snowstorm, the deadline to add or drop a course has been extended from today to this Wednesday, Feb. 3. Any students who drop a course through this Wednesday, Feb. 3, will be able to do so and not have that course appear on their record. Courses dropped after this date will have a “W” for withdrawal recorded on the academic record. See Adding and Dropping Courses for Undergraduates and Graduate School Academic Regulations).
• Late Withdraw Deadline: The Senate Scholastic Standards Committee has extended the deadline for late withdrawals by undergraduates from the 9^th week of classes to the 14^th week of classes. The same extended deadline will be available to graduate students. Both undergraduates and graduate students must receive advisor approval for a late withdrawal. Students will be able to elect this option through Wednesday, April 28.

Please note that the above deadlines do not apply to students at UConn Law, Medicine, or Dental Medicine.

Students should consult with their advisor for more guidance on withdrawing from a course.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

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