end of Week 7, more grad funding, masks, libraries, West Side Story

[Bill Maurer]

Dear social sciences lecturers, grad students, staff and faculty,

Well, my sweet little cat picture led to an eruption of West Side
Story-like dueling emails in my Inbox last night: The Cat People versus
the Dog People. So, just to mix it up.... see below!

Some news:

Grad students: Soon you will receive an email from Vice Provosts Gillian
Hayes and Michael Dennin about a new program to provide summer work while
assisting faculty in the preparation of remote instruction materials:
The DTEI Fellows program (I think this is what it will be called; and
maybe you have already received the email!). We believe there will also
be additional funding coming to the schools directly to support more grad
students who will be hired to assist with summer and in preparation for
fall. If you are interested in such an opportunity, please follow the
application procedures for the DTEI Fellows program (i.e., even if you
end up funded through the School, we want you to apply to the DTEI program
so that the campus gets a better sense of the overall interest and need).

The Library: I was in a meeting today to review and comment on the
Libraries staged re-opening plans. It was pretty exciting and just
plain interesting, too (with information on things like quarantining
books!). Where things are headed is toward curbside pickup once the
state goes to Stage 2 (which is likely still some time off). However,
once the physical doors open, the virtual door to the HathiTrust library
service ends; this is due to copyright reasons, so just be aware if
you are enjoying that now, it will go away once Stage 2 begins, and
books people check out will, upon return, be quarantined for a period
of time. Interlibrary loan will come back in the beginning of Stage
2, too. The Library is also planning virtual study rooms for students
(grads and undergrads) to have a collective virtual space for study and
other virtual activities.

Masks: The campus is working on a plan for the acquisition and
distribution of reusable cloth face masks for employees. They will be
delivered to work sites once people begin returning to campus. Remember,
however, that the "return" is going to be a slow, staged process, and
we in Social Sciences are still expecting drastically reduced occupancy
of our buildings for quite some time. But: nice to know there will be
masks for those working on campus when the time comes.

Take A Break: Please take a break! We're all working under suboptimal
conditions and probably harder than we ever have done before. YOU
ARE ALLOWED TO DISCONNECT AND UNPLUG! 

Staff: take a vacation day, for
real! You have them, use them! Put an "away" message on your email and
just disconnect. I promise you, you will feel more refreshed and able
to focus after you have had a day off.

And then you can all resume the "cats vs. dogs" fight.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Bill

and fish!