Dear Students,
We find ourselves at a time when course delivery and class activities must align with the need to maintain social distancing guidelines and minimize the spread of Covid-19. The safety of our students, staff, and faculty are of the utmost importance. While following County Health recommendations setting a maximum of 10-person gatherings, wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing is a priority, it is also important to provide one-on-one interaction between students and faculty, a hallmark of our student experience. Many of our programs rely on the production of real objects and face-to-face processes to fulfill the learning outcomes. So the guiding principle for the development of course delivery strategies for the fall 2020 term is to maintain the highest level of safety, while incorporating a student experience that emphasizes one-on-one student to faculty interaction.
The safety protocols will follow the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health requirements, while the strong student to faculty interaction will be led by faculty.
After receiving input from our faculty, we have developed the following strategies for delivering course learning outcomes in the fall 2020 term that meet the objective mentioned above.
In addition to reviewing pedagogical strategies – online or in person – and using this review to determine how much material of the fall course work will be online, the university is also determining students’ access to campus by analyzing their course schedule while minimizing large gatherings. Students will be given access to campus three days a week in order to provide equitable campus access. Students will be able to schedule appointments during those days on campus in the following spaces:
The three allotted days on campus will be optimized based on the courses in the student’s course schedule, taking into account the days with the most classes scheduled and the types of classes in which students are enrolled. If faculty would like to meet with students on days that do not coincide with the days students are given access to the campus, or if students need additional time on campus, students and faculty can notify department coordinators to make arrangements.