Colleagues –

A quick correction to Monday’s Update. The Department of Education grants were not awarded to the TRIO-Precollege programs in Enrollment Management, but rather the TRIO Student Support Services headed by Dean Simon Bronner at the College of General Studies and Dr. Karen Parrish Baker at the Kenwood campus.

Here are some key updates for the fall semester:

Syllabus statement

The Crisis Management Team (CMT) has now approved the COVID statement for all syllabi. Please provide it to your students, at minimum, in the syllabus document.

Academic Testing

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that instructors need to be prepared to accommodate students who are unable to be physically present because of illness, self-isolation/quarantine, or other valid reasons. Instructors should also consider how they can best provide assessments should the campus need to transition to fully online instruction at some point in the semester.

To provide for large-group, proctored exams for hybrid and face-to-face courses, UWM will set up a testing center in the Wisconsin Room of the Union, which can allow up to 150 students to safely take exams at the same time; we may also be able to provide testing in other large lecture halls.

If you already have determined your exam schedule in the fall and would like to use the testing center, please send the following information, via email, to Cheryl Andres at candres@uwm.edu:

Subject/Course number/section (e.g. MATH 105-004):

Enrollment:

Instructor:

Exam dates and times:

Two key considerations:

1. When making arrangements for students to take tests in-person, instructors should also be prepared to accommodate students who are unable to be physically present because of illness, self-isolation/quarantine, or other valid reasons. In such cases, instructors are strongly encouraged to offer online exams (Proctorio will be available if needed) or other arrangements at the discretion of the instructor.

2. Due to staff reductions and COVID-19-related guidelines on processing, the timeline for the Registrar’s Office to process Scantron forms will be in excess of two weeks. Given the need to provide timely feedback to students, it is strongly encouraged that instructors use other testing formats (such as use of blue books).

Supplies

If you would like to use your classroom’s blackboard or whiteboard, for health and safety reasons we ask that instructors provide their own markers and chalk and keep them with their own materials. Materials left in classrooms will be disposed of during cleaning.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs