Winter 2022 Mid-quarter Transition between Remote and In-Person Instruction

About

Information for Responding to Students

Some students have been asking questions about classroom safety and have raised concerns about the return to in-person instruction. These concerns have been communicated both through individual emails and an online petition. The Office of the Vice Chancellor Student Affairs is responding to student and parent emails.

To help instructors and School/Department leaders respond directly to student requests, the following information is being provided:

Information on case monitoring and model predictions:

We are currently monitoring cases on campus and in the community. Since the winter quarter began, we have used this time to extensively test our population and assess our environment. We have seen a recent decline in the Omicron surge, in both case counts and positivity rate, and the models predict that this will continue. The most current information about UCI’s COVID-19 response can be found here.

Information on campus preparation and response capabilities:

The last two years have provided us with the experience and knowledge to manage our response to cases on campus. Our Contact Tracing and Vaccine Navigation Services Team and Student Health Center are prepared to respond to positive cases with the goal of breaking the chain of infection and reducing the chances of further spread on campus. We will continue our robust testing program. We have appropriate quarantine and isolation accommodations available, and have updated our face covering requirements. The campus is making free KN95 masks available to students at several locations.

Actions students can take to increase their safety:

There are a number of steps we can all take as we return to in-person instruction to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our community. 1) Complete your daily symptom checker and stay home when you are ill. 2) Participate in any required COVID-19 testing and access testing on a drop-in or appointment basis for any reason at our campus testing sites. 3) Upgrade your mask from cloth to a higher-quality mask and wear it in indoor public spaces both on and off campus. KN95 masks are available free to students at a variety of locations on campus. 4) Get your COVID-19 booster dose as soon as you are eligible to stay in compliance with the UC COVID-19 Vaccine Policy. Those eligible now must upload their booster documentation by January 31 to the Student Health Portal. Those eligible for their booster dose after January 31 must upload proof of booster within 15 days after they are eligible.

Information on confirming individual course policies:

Please make sure to review the course policies for how each class is handling potential impacts of COVID-19. There are a number of ways instructors are able to accommodate COVID-19 impacts depending on the structure and nature of the course. It’s important to note that not all instructors have the same policies and approach. In addition, if you have a specific concern not addressed in the course policies or appropriate for the Disability Services Center, you can reach out to the Department Chair or the relevant Associate Dean for information on potential campus resources.

Information if students need health or disability accommodations:

If students have a specific medical or disability concern with their return to campus, they can contact the Student Health Center at (949) 824-5301 and/or Disability Services Center (DSC) at dsc@uci.edu or the DSC Front Desk at (949) 824-7494. If students are facing any other additional stressors, they can contact Campus Social Work at campussocialworker@uci.edu or (949) 824-0101.

Responding to students enquiries:

Here is suggested language you can use to communicate with students asking about possible exceptions/accommodation when there is not an option available within your regular course policies:

You may be eligible for accommodations if you have a medical condition or disability that prevents you from participating in person. Please contact the Disability Services Center (https://dsc.uci.edu/) if you are a student and want to discuss accommodation. For any other situations, accommodations are limited to those offered within the course policies. If you still have concerns or questions, please reach out to [Associate Dean of the School]. They can help identify support resources beyond academic accommodations that are available to students.

Information Regarding Course Policies

As noted above, students are being reminded of the normal channels for support during this time, which have not changed and have been regularly communicated to them. Also, in fall quarter, students were reminded that the additional exceptions to allow remote instruction were not continuing in winter quarter and this remains the campus policy. This was one reason students were reminded on January 10 to prepare for the return to campus.

At the same time, instructors are being asked to design course policies that are able to accommodate as wide a range of COVID impacts on students as possible. Obviously, not all courses are equally adaptable and flexible, and in most cases, students will have to be informed that their only option is to attend in person unless they have a formal DSC accommodation. Though individual instructors can certainly communicate their policies directly with students and make any accommodations that work for their courses, they can also forward students’ requests to Chairs and/or Associate Deans. In most cases, the only option will be to explain the safety protocols and items outlined above and remind the students of the obligation to attend in person if required. If an accommodation does seem warranted, Chairs and Associate Deans can reach out to the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning to determine if there are central resources available.

As a reminder, some potential actions on the part of instructors include, but are not limited to:

1. Ensuring that in-person portions of the course do not count toward grades and, where possible, providing access to the materials from class. Especially in cases of active-learning based courses, we recognize that the choice to not engage in in-person activities is not ideal, but providing the student with the materials used in the activities gives them sufficient opportunity to learn the material. If there is no explicit grade penalty for missing the in-person activities, this represents a reasonable approach.
2. Providing recordings of any in-person lectures, if available. For courses in which recording lectures is potentially a concern, at least recording lectures during a transition period can balance the risks associated with lecture recordings with the needs of students. Having an effective transition period as an option for students will increase the likelihood that any COVID-related concerns resolve themselves.
3. Having assessments remain remote for a period of time so as to increase the likelihood that any COVID-related concerns resolve themselves.

Again, it is important to note that these are not the only options and that not all courses can be accommodated with these or other remote options. For example, many small, discussion-based seminars require student presence. However, for this example, and others, there will often be the option of increased physical distance, and the lower numbers of students, all contribute to additional minimization of risk on top of all the other safety protocols.

The pandemic has presented many challenges to instructors and students alike, and more acutely so to those who are caregivers or have other home responsibilities. Please keep this in mind as you work with students and their requests. The Student Affairs team is available to help direct students to additional resources such as the FRESH Basic Needs Hub or affinity-based resources like the Veterans Services Center, as one example.