Colleagues,

Spring semester is upon us and numerous teams have been meeting for the past several weeks to evaluate spring semester plans. Thank you for your patience as we worked through this dynamic situation to chart UWM’s path.

This morning after final discussion with the Covid Management Team, we have approved the following for the start of spring semester 2022:

UWM will start classes on January 24, 2022, as planned for spring semester with both in-person and online presence. To facilitate the transition to full-scale campus operations with added challenges of the omicron variant, UWM will allow units as needed to shift in-person classes to online during the first week of the semester. Courses with pedagogical, accreditation, clinical or other in-person requirements will start as planned in person on January 24. UWM will work with departments and programs to determine which courses will start their first week in an online format.

We met with deans and associate deans earlier today and will meet with department chairs tomorrow to provide them with the guidelines for moving in-person courses to online for the first week. Your department chairs and/or deans will communicate these expectations to you tomorrow afternoon. Departments should finalize their plans as soon as possible and instructors should notify students of any first-week shifts in modality no later than Wednesday morning, January 19, 2022.

A campus-wide communication will be sent soon about our start to the semester and other important details. All campus and administrative buildings will remain open and may have reduced staffing as approved by unit/division supervisors. Again, thank you for your patience and understanding as we considered the many details of starting the semester.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs