Dean of the College

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Faculty Update: Spring Semester 2022

As you complete your syllabus planning, please feel free to consult with your program director to discuss specific questions about continuity of instruction in the opening days of the term. 
 
For almost three weeks, a little over five-hundred first-year and transfer students (in addition to another 100 student workers and several dozen student athletes) have been living and studying on campus for Citizen Science and Language & Thinking.  We have had remarkably few interruptions to either program and there continues to be no pattern of viral transmission in classrooms either at Bard or on college campuses in general, while Dutchess County continues to see a rapid decline in cases.  Bard's Response Team monitors the public health situation, remains in contact with federal, state, and local public health authorities, and adjusts policies as needed, as has been the case throughout the pandemic.  
To remain up to date on policies, please see Bard's COVID-19 information site: https://www.bard.edu/covid19. Queries to the Response Team, now as always, may be directed to: [email protected]  This semester’s schedule for Response Team office hours will soon be announced.
 
As second-, third-, and fourth-year students plan to return to Bard, we expect that some may be delayed in their arrival due to receiving a positive result on a pre-arrival test: they will be directed to isolate for 5-10 days to comply with COVID protocols and CDC recommendations. The number of first-year and transfer students affected by these requirements during the month of January was relatively small, so we do not expect major disruptions for the beginning of the semester.  Students may also need to isolate for 5-10 days at later points during the semester.  For these reasons, we do need to be prepared to support those students who are temporarily unable to attend class in person. 
 
Since all classes will be meeting in person this spring, it is important to provide students unable to attend the first or second class meeting with a flexible point of entry to each course. This does not mean that faculty will be expected to deliver hybrid instruction (although hybrid tools may prove useful for some) or to teach the class twice.  In the first week of term, we recommend that you be explicit about the attendance policy for your class while outlining how students can keep up with coursework if they fall ill or are required to isolate.
 
Some pedagogical strategies and tools (useful for other health-related absences or winter weather cancellations) include:
·  Asynchronous assignments/activities--planning now for the possibility of student absences 
·  Adding “make-up” dates to the syllabus
·  Flexibility in schedule (i.e. flex time for labs or studios)
·  "Catch up" office hours over zoom for those unable to attend in person
·  Use activities to build community and get students talking and working with each other and with you
·  From Bard EH: Creative assignment ideas for teaching at a distance.
While the occasional class on zoom (once or twice a semester) may be necessary, it cannot be a regular option - there are challenges to using zoom in place of in-person classes.
·  Consider equity of resources: circulate a questionnaire re. students’ access to technology, plus any concerns they have entering the new semester.
·  Level of engagement is often sacrificed in an online class format.
·  Zoom is a useful alternative for office hours/one-on-one meetings with faculty/students.
·  Think about how a meeting on zoom in week 1 would work for your class. Be very clear from the start that the course will be conducted in person throughout the semester.
As a resource to help you make decisions about your syllabus, course goals, and continuity of instruction, the Center for Faculty and Curricular Development (CFCD) will be offering five virtual drop-in hours over the next week for individual faculty or small group or program consultation. 
 
CFCD Drop-In Hours
https://bard.zoom.us/j/82921564277
Meeting ID: 829 2156 4277
 
Friday, January 28th  1-2pm (w/Emily)
Monday, January 31st 3-4pm (w/Phil)
Tuesday, February 1st 12-1pm (w/Brooke)
Wednesday, February 2nd 11am-12pm (w/Michael)
Thursday, February 3rd 4-5pm (w/Emily)
 
If you yourself should be required to isolate, please be sure to contact HR (via email at [email protected])  at your earliest convenience.  Then reach out to your program director and to the Office of the Dean of the College to develop a specific plan for continuity of instruction until you are well enough to rejoin class.  Please know that we are here to support you and your students.
 
CFCD's suggestions come from Bard faculty experience over the past three semesters, reflecting the spirit of resourceful creativity that is the hallmark of our community.  Thank you for the care and integrity with which you contribute to and uphold Bard’s educational mission. 
 
With gratitude and respect,
Deirdre d’Albertis & Emily McLaughlin

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Ask an Expert 

Both SUNY/CUNY had transitioned to distance learning on March 11th for the remainder of the semester and on March 16th, Governor Andrew Cuomo was to sign an Executive Order closing all schools statewide. March 15th was a Sunday: students, faculty, and staff were struggling to understand the unfolding crisis. People couldn't be tested; illness was reported but undiagnosed. Understanding transmission of COVID-19 was partial, at best, and communication challenging.  Colleagues called upon one another to share information, to assist with risk assessment, and to help shape Bard's emergency planning.  The Response Team came together early on in the crisis, remaining a steady, calm, and authoritative source of truth for students and employees to consult as they adapted to life in the time of coronavirus.  Various working groups were formed to build out policy and communication even as everyone navigated a disrupted, disorienting spring semester.  In that moment in the middle of March, a series of emails brought together a wide range of Bardians to share what they knew--or were learning--about COVID-19.  In what became "Ask an Expert," a suite of essays was posted, nearly daily, between March 16th and June 6th, 2020. The collection serves as a time capsule of sorts, three months' worth of conversation at the beginning of what would turn into a very "long haul" indeed. Reading these entries now, a full year later, we can recollect acute confusion over masks, testing, and therapies.  And we can measure the magnitude of hardship and loss--felt so unevenly and inequitably as we were soon to discover--by Bard people and their families, friends, neighbors over this past year.  

I want to thank Felicia Keesing for starting this series and to acknowledge the generosity of so many experts (many of whom challenged us to be skeptical of expertise) who took the time to share their own questions, knowledge, insight, and humanity with Bardians near and far. Thanks are also due to Mary Smith and Sherry Gildersleeve for bringing these essays together for all who wish to read and remember.