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 spring 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. 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 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.

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 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, October 4 through Thursday October 28. 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 administer an assessment 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 Colleagues: 

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 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 Fall 2021, 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.  

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

Jeffrey Shoulson
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Dear UConn Faculty and Staff,

We’re excited to share that our career fair will return to an in-person format again this fall, and we’re asking for your help in making sure students are aware of this opportunity. This is a noteworthy occasion to return to an in-person career fair, following nearly two years on hiatus due to the pandemic.

The Center for Career Development is hosting the in-person career fair at Gampel next week, Tuesday, September 21 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. We currently have 102 employers representing all industries and hiring all majors that are planning to attend the event and hire UConn students for internships and full-time roles.

We know there are also many employers working and recruiting virtually; to accommodate their needs we’re hosting a virtual career fair the following week, September 28, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. via our online career platform, Handshake. We have more than 100 employers registered for the virtual fair, again representing all industries and all majors. Students are able to conduct 10-minute 1:1 sessions and attend half-hour info sessions in this virtual setting.

Please help us make these events a success by encouraging your students to attend both fairs; there will be different employers at each event. Many of you know that the majority of our employers are hiring now for next summer’s interns and full-time staff, and will have their hiring completed by Thanksgiving. Please share this information with your students. Students across all of our campuses are welcome to attend both events.

Your support of our students in their career exploration is deeply appreciated.

Sincerely,
Michael

Michael Bradford
Vice Provost for Faculty, Staff and Student Development

Dear UConn Community,

I am writing to share an important decision that was approved by the University Senate to change the by-laws regarding Pass-Fail and Withdraw deadlines.

At the Sept. 13 meeting of the University Senate, the Senate Scholastic Standards Committee (SSC) brought forth a proposal to extend, align, and standardize the Pass-Fail and Withdraw deadlines. Their proposal sought to permanently change the deadlines for both Pass-Fail and Withdraw to occur at the same time and later in the semester, to the end of the 11th week of the semester. This proposal was approved by the University Senate, and takes effect immediately.

This means that starting in the Fall 2021 semester and going forward, Pass-Fail and Withdraw deadlines are at the end of the 11th week of the semester. The Pass-Fail policy applies to undergraduate students only; the Withdraw policy applies to undergraduate and graduate students.

In making this proposal, the SSC reviewed the three semesters in which the University extended deadlines in response to the pandemic (Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021). They consulted with numerous administrative and student service offices, as well as student partners to review how the extended deadlines affected students and processes related to these extended deadlines.

The SSC acknowledged in its proposal that moving back the Pass-Fail deadline from the 2nd to the 11th week is a change from the original intent of this grading option, which was primarily to allow students to take risks and explore topics without worry about low-grade impacts on GPA. The extended deadline allows for not only this original intent, but also for students to monitor their progress within a course and convert to Pass-Fail based on their changing circumstances.

The end of the 11th week deadline was determined as the most appropriate timing to allow for students to have sufficient graded assessments to make an informed decision about whether a Withdraw or Pass-Fail is appropriate for the course, for advisors to meet with and counsel students about such decisions, and for the Registrar’s Office to process these designations by students.

Consistent with past practice, SSC’s proposal limited the number of times that a student can make a Pass-Fail grade change. Specifically, students who convert a Pass-Fail and then revert the course back to a graded basis cannot again convert the course back to Pass-Fail. The proposal does not in any way change the limitations on which Pass-Fall can be applied, nor the number of courses to which Pass-Fail can be applied.

The new by-law language is copied below for reference:

II.B.10 Academic Advising and Registration. Adding, Dropping, or Withdrawing from a Course

Students may Drop courses before the end of the tenth day of classes without transcript notations. After the tenth day of classes and through the eleventh week of the semester, a student may Withdraw from one course (for any reason) with permission from the student’s advisor. Students seeking to Withdraw from more than one course after the tenth day of classes or seeking to  Withdraw from a course after the eleventh week of the semester must get approval from the student’s advisor and from the Dean or designee of the school or college in which the student is enrolled. Approvals are given only for extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s control; poor academic performance is not an extenuating circumstance. Any course Withdrawn from after the first ten days of classes will receive a ‘W’ on the transcript. Exceptions to transcript notations can be made only by the Provost or designee. For courses taught outside of the fall and spring semesters, these deadlines will be adjusted in a pro-rated fashion by the Registrar.

II.E.3.b Pass-Fail Option.

A student who has earned at least 26 credits and is not on scholastic probation may elect a maximum of 12 credits (not including credits on P/F recorded in spring 2020) to be distributed over not more than three courses, to be recorded as ‘P’ for Pass or ‘F’ for Fail on his or her permanent record. Courses taken Pass-Fail may only be used as electives; they may not be used to satisfy general education, school/college, major or minor requirements. Students who are selecting a course for the Pass-Fail option or want to convert a Pass-Fail back to a graded basis must do so by the eleventh week of the semester. Students who convert to a Pass-Fail and then revert the course back to a graded basis cannot again convert the course back to a Pass-Fail. Students seeking to put a course on Pass-Fail after the eleventh week of the semester must get approval from the student’s advisor and from the Dean or designee of the school or college in which the student is enrolled.  Approvals are given only for extenuating circumstances beyond the student’s control; poor academic performance is not an extenuating circumstance. For courses taught outside of the fall and spring semesters, these deadlines will be adjusted in a pro-rated fashion by the Registrar.

I am grateful to the thoughtful and hard-working members of the Senate Scholastic Standards Committee who pulled together this proposal, the leadership of USG who provided a strong voice for students throughout the process, and of course our senators who considered these issues from the perspectives of faculty, students, and staff.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to let you know about updates to the faculty consulting website, found at https://consulting.uconn.edu/

On the updated website, you can find your submitted requests and submit new requests from the “dashboard” link on the top menu, or from the link to “view your dashboard of submitted requests and/or to submit a new request” found on the homepage. The form itself has not changed, only the website has been updated.

Under the “Getting Started” options you can now find a comprehensive introductory guide to filling out the form, information about different activities that are undertaken as part of the faculty consulting program, and more general information related to consulting.

Our FAQ section has been significantly updated and includes questions and answers for faculty submitting requests, and for department heads, deans, or equivalent who are approvers.

We hope that this will be a useful resource to all those navigating the faculty consulting request process. Please get in touch with the appropriate Faculty Consulting Office representative if you have any feedback or any other questions related to the faculty consulting program.

Best regards,

Dr. Gladis Kersaint, Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives

Dr. Sarah Croucher, Director of Academic Policy and Faculty Affairs (Faculty Consulting Office, Storrs/Regionals)

Dr. Jody Terranova, Director of Faculty Consulting, UConn Health Center (Faculty Consulting Office, UCH

Dear Colleagues,

This message is to remind you of the University’s policy regarding religious accommodations for faculty, staff, and students, in particular how this policy applies in academic activities. I am also sharing guidance on reasonable accommodations for participation in certain extra-curricular activities.

Religious Observance

Faculty and instructors are expected to reasonably accommodate individual religious practices unless doing so would result in fundamental alteration of class objectives or undue hardship to the University’s legitimate business purposes. Such accommodations may include rescheduling an exam or giving a make-up exam, allowing a presentation to be made on a different date or assigning the student appropriate make-up work that is intrinsically no more difficult than the original assignment.

The full policy may be found at this link.

Your adherence to this policy is an important aspect in supporting our University’s commitment to building and maintaining a welcoming and inclusive learning and work environment.

Extra-Curricular Activities

Faculty and instructors are strongly encouraged to allow students to complete work missed due to participation in extra-curricular activities that enrich their experience, support their scholarly development, and benefit the University community. Examples include participation in scholarly presentations, performing arts, and intercollegiate sports, when the participation is at the request of, or coordinated by, a University official. Faculty and instructors are also encouraged to respond when the Student-Athlete Success Program requests student progress reports. This will enable the counselors to give our students appropriate advice.

In both cases, for conflicts with final examinations, students should contact the Dean of Students Office. Students should be encouraged to review the course syllabus at the beginning of the semester for potential conflicts and promptly notify their instructor of any anticipated accommodation needs. Students are responsible for making arrangements in advance to make up missed work.

Thank you for your attention to this reminder.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey

Jeffrey Shoulson
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

Please review the Guidelines on FY23 Collective Bargaining Increases for Members of the AAUP Bargaining Unit, issued on May 27, 2022. Dates and process language have been revised as in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement.

To:            Deans
From:       Carl W. Lejuez, Ph.D., Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
RE:           FY23 Provost Fund Guidance

The “Provost Fund”[1] is a program that identifies a pool of university resources to be used for faculty salary increases for the purposes of retention, compression and inversion equity, and special achievement. The University may consider requests for salary adjustments for these categories according to the processes outlined below, which are broken down into two distinct phases.

Phase I – Retention

Definition: Retention increases aim to support the University’s efforts to retain exceptional, highly productive faculty from considering external offers from competing institutions. The Provost will consider pre-emptive retention requests in cases where there is evidence a faculty member is considering external opportunities.

Process:

• The Provost will consider retention requests from the Deans throughout the academic year, as the urgent nature of these requests require a timely response from the University.
• Faculty may request a retention increase by emailing their Department Head (copy Dean or designee) directly. This request should include any relevant supporting documentation (i.e. evidence of recruitment, request to interview, or offer letter from competing institution).
• The Department Head must review the request directly with the Dean in a timely manner.
• If the Dean intends to retain the faculty member, he or she will bring the request directly to the Provost (copy Vice Provost) with a requested increase amount and funding arrangement. If the Dean does not intend to retain the faculty member, he or she will notify the Department Head and faculty member of the decision at that time via email.
• The Provost will evaluate retention requests from the Dean immediately. If the retention increase is approved by the Provost, the faculty member will receive a retention letter from the Dean memorializing the details of the arrangement, which will go into effect August 23, 2022.

Phase II – Equity and Special Achievement

Definition:

Compression/Inversion Equity: Salary compression occurs when a competitive market urges hiring managers to bring new faculty in at higher salaries than in previous years, which may compress the difference in salary between ranks. Salary inversion refers to the situation in which faculty members in lower ranks earn more than colleagues in higher ranks. These patterns may be more generally referred to as inequity due to “compression/inversion.”

Special Achievement: Special achievement may be awarded in situations in which a faculty member has received a significant external acknowledgement such as a major prize or award.

Process:

• The Provost will consider compression/inversion equity and special achievement requests at the end of the academic year, as these requests are typically reviewed in parallel with the annual review and merit process (if applicable).
• Faculty may request a salary adjustment for compression/inversion or special achievement by emailing their Department Head (copy Dean or designee) between April 1, 2022 and June 1, 2022. This request should include any relevant supporting documentation (i.e. evidence of compression/inversion or major prize/award).
• The Department Head must review the request directly with the Dean or designee no later than June 6, 2022.
• The Dean will compile all faculty requests along with Department Head or Associate Dean recommendations. The Dean will submit his or her own recommendations to the Provost (via provost@uconn.edu) no later than July 1, 2022. If the Dean does not intend to forward a faculty member’s request to the Provost for review, he or she will notify the Department Head and faculty member of the decision at that time via email.
• The Provost will evaluate compression/inversion and special achievement requests from the deans by July 22, 2022. If a compression/inversion adjustment or special achievement award is approved by the Provost, the faculty member will receive a letter from the University indicating the increase amount and new salary no later than August 15, 2022. If the Provost does not approve a recommendation from the Dean, the Dean will notify the Department Head and faculty member of the decision at that time via email.
• All salary increases go into effect August 23, 2022.

Cc:          Christopher Delello, Chief Human Resources Officer

Karen Buffkin, Executive Director of Employee Relations, Labor and Employment Attorney

[1] Contingent upon reaching an agreement on a successor collective bargaining agreement that includes such provision in effect on or after July 1, 2022.

Dear colleagues,

We are writing today with some reminders related to University travel that are of particular importance as we face continued disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. Failure to follow appropriate policies and procedures related to University travel may result in unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses for individuals. We hope that the following guidance can ensure all faculty and staff avoid such situations.

• Pre-approval: All work travel by University employees, students, and guests must be pre-approved prior to travel. University employees are required to submit their Travel Request for pre-approval in Concur. Pre-submission of travel requests in Concur also allows the University to offer support in the event of an emergency. Failure to obtain pre-approval of travel will result in non-reimbursement of travel expenditures.
• Travel agent: We strongly recommend that all University travel is booked through our travel agent, Anthony Travel, using the University-sponsored T-card. Anthony Travel has a dedicated UConn agent. Travel can also be booked online within the Concur system where you can search for flights similar to the Expedia application.
  • If you book travel independently and have to cancel this travel, you will be responsible for any resulting costs that will not be reimbursed by the University. For instance, if you book a non-refundable flight on Expedia and then have to cancel this travel due to the pandemic, you will not be reimbursed for the ticket. Anthony Travel will support any cancellation or postponement of travel that they have booked, including obtaining credits for the unused tickets. There are no booking fees or agent fees charged back to the department when using Anthony Travel.
• Driving: If you are choosing to drive instead of fly, please review section 3a of the Travel Policy. Costs for ground travel above the lowest reasonable commercial fare for your trip typically will not be reimbursed. If choosing road or rental car over air travel, please email travel@uconn.edu to discuss strategies for best supporting your trip.

If you have questions about your travel and need any support in finding the best way to travel to meet your needs, please reach out to travel@uconn.edu. The Travel Services staff are always happy to help. You can also find the FAQs on UConn domestic travel reopening here.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Blanchard
Interim Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer

Jeffrey Shoulson
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

This message was sent to deans, associate deans, department heads, academic leaders, faculty, and academic staff.

Dear Colleagues,

As follow-up to this week’s message and town hall on our shift back to in-person operations this fall, I’m sharing clarification on two items related to academics.

1. Flexible work and telecommuting arrangements by staff are at the discretion of schools and colleges. Department heads should consult with their deans on any questions or issues regarding their staffing plans for fall; other academic leaders should consult with the Provost’s Office.
2. An instructor teaching an in-person course will not be expected also to offer that course in a virtual modality; however, they may voluntarily choose to do so based on appropriate and effective pedagogy.

Please continue to share your questions with our office and your deans. While we try to anticipate as many issues as we can, we also rely on your feedback to help us make sure we are being as comprehensive in our approach as possible.

Sincerely,
Carl

Carl Lejuez
Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to remind you of the importance of submitting faculty consulting requests as we begin a new fiscal year. As you are hopefully aware, any faculty undertaking consulting activity (defined as any work for compensation related to your area of expertise or any work – even if unpaid – for faculty affiliated companies) requires approval through the online faculty consulting request system. Any prior approvals for consulting end with the fiscal year on 6/30/21. Therefore, if you have any ongoing activity, or if you are going to undertake any new consulting activities, you will need to submit new consulting requests.

During the summer months, you are still required to obtain prior approval for consulting activity. Please be aware that activities such as giving talks for honoraria, receiving a stipend for editorial work, teaching at another institution, or receiving payment for reviewing grants all fall under the definition of faculty consulting and require consulting approval.

If submitting approvals for ongoing activity in the new fiscal year, please be sure to choose the “start on approval” option.

Please also be aware that our usual recommendation is to submit consulting approvals at least one week ahead of the activity taking place. Approvals may be slower during the summer if approvers are on vacation, so try to submit activities well ahead of the start date wherever possible.

If you have any questions about the faculty consulting approval process, have questions about the status of your request, or have any other issues related to faculty consulting, please reach out to Sarah Croucher, Director of Academic Policy & Faculty Affairs (sarah.croucher@uconn.edu). Even if your question seems minor, we are always here to help support you through the approval process and to answer your questions.

 

Gladis Kersaint, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives
Professor of Math Education
Member, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE)
Trustee, CT Science Center