We have been informed by the administration that non-instruction break days should be treated as Spring Break for faculty and students.
Some of our questions were posed previously during an undergraduate deans meeting and we received more insight from administration in our last Labor Management Meeting.
Instructors should not schedule additional sessions to compensate for the double Wednesday or single Tuesday cancellation. In the case where a course meets only once a week, the two Wednesday non-instruction break days would essentially result in a 13-week semester. Course load will be up to faculty discretion, however it should coincide with communication at a unit and/or program level to navigate curricula in an equitable manner.
For example, faculty might make a modest modification to the course in light of the break days by assigning additional homework or reading to offset the two Wednesdays break days.
Whether or not faculty hold office hours on non-instruction break days is also a matter of instructor discretion.
ICES SCORES
Our team continues to meet with the administration to make sure our members are protected and supported during this tumultuous time.
We have asked the administration about the possibility of adding notations or language in the ICES core request form where faculty could choose to exclude semesters when they make a promotional request.
While the administration does want FA20 scores to go into promotional files, they also acknowledged that FA20 is measuring a different kind of teaching in most cases, so some sort of stipulation to note the difference of modality may be appropriate. For example, Fall ICES is capturing faculty’s online teaching—not their f2f.
Any glaring differences should be contextualized by faculty in a promotional dossier if there is any concern about interpretation. The administration has agreed that if 2020 is an outlier in an ICES core, most people aren’t likely to miss the fact that the scores occurred during COVID.
We are asking for an additional look at ways to mark ICES scores during COVID.
Want to know more? Have concerns you want addressed? Reach out to our Bargaining Chair, Jordan Sellers.
