be on the lookout for important campus messages re: Fall
Bill Maurer
Thursday June 11 16:15:42 PDT 2020
Dear social sciences grad students, lecturers, research staff, faculty
and staff,
A few updates: I'm expecting a series of emails will hit your Inboxes
soon regarding Fall quarter. The undergraduates will also be receiving
some messages. The bottom line for us in Social Sciences is as follows:
-all instruction in Social Sciences, at the graduate and undergraduate
level, will be conducted remotely in the Fall.
-housing will be accommodating students (turning quads into doubles and
turning other rooms into singles, I think) with priority being given
to first years and transfers. So students will indeed be returning to
campus--a smaller number of undergrads than normal, but still a sizeable
population, as well as grad students, all taking courses remotely.
-outdoor areas will be reserved for co-curricular activities and student
clubs but not classes. This means we will probably be able to hold,
say, mentoring activities, SSARC or Dean's Ambassadors' Council events,
or even non-mandatory in-person meet-and-greets connected to our classes,
BUT subject to social distancing and other precautionary measures. (There
was a tent committee.... which ruled out tents! I do not know why, but
I am disappointed I was never asked to serve on it). In Social Sciences
we will be reconfiguring interior spaces where students congregate in
order to reduce their presence (in, say, SBSG lobby), and Andy's team
is assessing whether we will need to boost WiFi for our outdoor plazas
and other outdoor areas around our buildings.
-There will be an "Anteater Agreement," a sort of honor code for students
regarding monitoring themselves for symptoms of illness and staying home
and calling Student Health if they feel ill. We should also expect to hear
more about the policy regarding the use of the self-check app. But again,
the emphasis will be on "changing the culture" rather than surveillance.
-There will also be testing of students, but please watch for the emails
about this, because the protocol as it was presented to the deans today
is still confusing to me. I'll try to break it down once I've seen the
written words myself. But, it will NOT be testing of everyone (even UC
San Diego, which set out on that path, is now abandoning it due to high
rates of false test results, logistics, and cost), and it will focus on
testing of symptomatic students. Again: watch for the email we'll receive,
and I'll translate it from administrativese into human language if it
is unclear.
-There will be a (paid) contact tracing training program for interested
grad students. Watch your emails for details. (Interestingly, UC Irvine
can not initiate contact tracing unless it is deputized by the OC Health
Agency to do so. But the campus is going to train people anyway, on
the assumption that we will be given the authority to conduct our own
contact tracing).
So, lots of stuff! Like I said, watch for emails from the campus!
Til tomorrow,
Bill
And here's your Thursday dose of Rufus. He always makes this face when he reads campus-level zotmails.