March 30, 2020  |  News & Events, Provost's Updates, Timely Announcements

Good afternoon, colleagues. Here is this week’s update from Academic Affairs.

Welcome Back

A special word of welcome back to our students after the extended spring break this semester. As I mentioned last week, these are extraordinary times, and I want to thank you all again for working together so that our students can complete their courses and progress toward their degrees as planned.

Extension of Tenure Clock

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to disruptions in the normal progress of tenure-track faculty in the areas of research, scholarship, teaching, and service and thus towards tenure. Disruption due to the pandemic is a reason for requesting an extension of the tenure clock. Interested tenure-track faculty should submit their requests to the Dean who will forward the request to me for approval. Because the circumstances are beyond the control of the faculty member, there is a presumption of approval of these requests. Requests for extension of the tenure clock for up to one year due to COVID-19 pandemic should be sent to the Dean on or before December 23, 2020. I will provide a report on the approved requests to the University Committee.

Extension of Academic Staff Probationary Period

Accommodation will be made to extend the probationary period for academic staff on track towards indefinite status. Because the circumstances are beyond the control of the staff member, there is a presumption of approval of these requests. The extensions will be available for individuals who have files due on or before December 31, 2020. A written request for an extension should be made to the Academic Staff Committee Chair as well as the Chair of the Instructional and Research Academic Staff Review Committee (IRASRC) OR the Chair of the Non-Teaching Academic Staff Review Committee (NTASRC). Extensions must be requested by the staff member by September 15, 2020. This extension is not available to individuals with probationary status who have already received a non-renewal notice for Spring 2020 (as these files were due to the committee prior to the COVID-19 disruption). The extension allows employees to complete the indefinite status appointment process by May 31, 2021. Notification of the extension will be provided to the supervisor/executive committee/ Dean/Division Head.

Emergency Grading Accommodation – Interim Policy

Upon consultations with a multitude of internal constituencies and with the approval of the University Committee and the Academic Staff Committee, I (as Chancellor’s designee) have issued an interim policy on emergency grading accommodation for undergraduate students. All enrolled students will receive a letter grade in each enrolled Spring 2020 course by the grade deadline of May 21, 2020. Students will have until July 3, 2020 to exercise their option to designate each eligible Spring 2020 course to be graded on a Credit/No Credit basis or to keep the grade they received. Students who earn a C- or better in a course may opt for the Credit/No Credit option for that course. The current limitations on the number of courses/credits for the Credit/No Credit option are being suspended for the spring semester. By April 14, 2020, each school/college will designate a limited number of courses as ineligible for the Credit/No Credit grading option due to licensing/certification/accreditation requirements. Students will have until July 3, 2020 to exercise their option by completing a downloaded form and submitting it to their academic advisor via an email attachment sent from their UWM email account. Students should consult their academic advisor with questions about this policy and the corresponding procedures.

While we have the grading accommodation interim policy, I encourage all students to put forth the full effort in each enrolled class to successfully complete the coursework. I encourage all students to utilize the available support services to assist with their work.

End of Semester Course Evaluations

Recognizing the profound impact of COVID-19 on spring 2020 instruction, we have decided not to conduct formal course evaluations this semester. Departments/instructors, who want to gather student feedback on the student experience in the course this semester, may ask some open-ended questions to obtain the feedback. However, such feedback from this semester should only be sought by the instructor, should remain with the instructor, and must not be used in personnel evaluations of the instructors.

Assessment

This semester presents unique challenges to our campus. Assessment of our programs and general education courses, in many cases, cannot proceed as normal. For some courses or programs, the new environment may have little impact on assessment or offers new opportunities to use it as a means to reflect on and narrate our successes and challenges this semester. Where circumstance allows it, program and general education assessment data should still be collected as this is very important for our next accreditation review. Programs and those teaching general education courses should use their best judgment about whether and how to collect assessment data this semester. Programs that have collected assessment data from Fall 2019 can report that as their 2019-20 program data.

Office of Undergraduate Research update

If you have an undergraduate SURF student helping you with your research and want the student to stay on the payroll and continue to work at home or remotely, please fill out the quick form on the Office of Undergraduate Research website. It only takes a few moments.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is also proceeding with its Summer SURF Awards process (deadline April 10). If you have an undergraduate that you would like to support as a research assistant this summer, please apply. The OUR will fund the awards in two rounds. The first round will focus on research that can be done under the current restrictions; the second round will then take place as soon as the research restrictions can be lifted.

Kudos

The Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) has given UWM’s Zilber School of Public Health and College of Health Sciences the green light to officially begin the development of a Master of Public Health – Nutrition and Dietetics track. The Future Education Model Demonstration program at UWM would be one of only two programs in the central U.S. that incorporates all the training necessary to attain both an MPH degree and the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) credential. Well done!

Tanya Joosten (Academic Affairs) reports that the free edX course she co-developed, “Pivoting to Online Teaching: Research and Practitioner Perspectives,” has enrolled 1,100 learners from 95 countries (31.7% US, 7.3% Unknown, 4.5% Australia and Canada, 4.3% UK and South Africa, 2.7% Brazil, 2.2% Germany and India, and 1.9% Russia). Excellent news, Tanya!

Kudos to the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) for their yeoman work in assisting with the transition of instruction to alternative modes and implementation of the proctoring solution.

Correction

A few details were corrected in last week’s announcement commemorating the life of Dr. Clifford Smith. See the updated post here.

The Virtual Week

Monday 

I start the week with a Crises Management Team (CMT) Leadership meeting (we meet every morning), followed by my weekly meetings with Robin Van Harpen and Paul Klajbor, a meeting with Student Association leadership, the Chancellor’s cabinet meeting, and then a CMT meeting with the larger group. The Chancellor and I will meet with 2030 Think Tank Co-Chairs Jennifer Doering and Kris O’Connor, I have my weekly staff meeting, my one-one-one with Dave Clark, and will end a long day of meetings with my daily meeting with Dev Venugopalan and Laura Pedrick.

Tuesday 

In the morning, I have another CMT Leadership meeting, a Connected Systems Institute Core Team meeting, a CEMAT Leadership meeting, and my standing meeting with Simon Bronner. In the afternoon, I have my weekly meeting with Chancellor Mone and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Wednesday

Today, I again join the CMT Leadership meeting, followed by the Deans Morning Meeting where the discussion will focus on enrollment management and summer teaching. Later, I have the UW System Provost Council weekly teleconference and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Thursday

Thursday morning starts, as usual, with the CMT Leadership meeting and I’ll attend the Board of Regents meeting via teleconference – the meeting has been reduced to a half day instead of the planned two days. In the afternoon, I have the Chancellor’s Cabinet weekly check-in meeting, then I will join a meeting with the Chancellor to discuss commencement alternatives. I also have an enrollment management planning meeting with the Chancellor and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Friday

Today, I again meet with CMT Leadership, followed by my one-on-one with Dave Clark and Kay Eilers, and I’ll join the Chancellor in a call with UWS. I end the day with my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Announcements

Technology Updates

  • Because of very limited on-campus IT staff availability and concerns for staff health, Teams headset on-campus pick-up service ended March 25.
  • UWM’s Help Desk will be using a new Microsoft Teams phone system to answer incoming calls from the campus community.
  • Due to AT&T-associated delays, as well as emergent COVID-19-related campus technology needs, the April timeframe for Teams number provisioning has been postponed.
  • Online training on Teams is now available to faculty and staff. Please check the online training webpage for instructions and dates/times.

Support for Online Teaching

  • Get support from CETL from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through email cetl@uwm.edu or Microsoft Teams, or reach both CETL and your School/College support via Canvas.
  • Sign up for Open Help Sessions held twice a day. Attend the full 1-hour session or just a portion.
  • Get peer support through the Online Teaching Partnership Program. CETL will connect you with a colleague based on type of online instruction (asynchronous, synchronous, or a mixture of both). All levels of online teaching experience welcome! Complete this form if interested.
  • Participate in CETL workshops from home – CETL will connect you using Collaborate Ultra:

Academic Data Science Alliance

The Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute is part of The Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA), which is a grouping of institutions of higher education engaged in academic programs and research related to Data Science. The ADSA established a website (ADSA COVID-19 website) where the data science community can use and contribute data sets and programs for research on addressing the COVID-19 crisis. Please feel free to visit the website to explore the resources there. If you are interested in contributing data or programs to this collection, please contact Purush Papatla (papatla@uwm.edu).

Panther Gear

UWM’s online branded merchandise and apparel provider shopUWM.com has temporarily halted production due to COVID-19. The production facility, located in Dallas, TX, has been closed due to a Shelter-in-Place order. Orders can be placed at shopUWM.com and they will shop once the Shelter-in-Place order is lifted.

Linkedin Learning

Reminder: all faculty, staff, and students have free 24/7 access to Linkedin Learning. Learn technology, professional, and soft skills at your own pace.

Other

Of interest: UW System has created a COVID-19 Resources page.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs