Message to Faculty from the Provost

Colleagues,

I wanted to add some information to the academic continuity plan announced earlier today by President Stanley. Since that message has gone out, we have received additional information and our leadership team has had the opportunity to discuss next steps. Please understand that this is a very fluid situation.

As you know, SUNY Oswego is on spring break the week of March 16 – 20. Starting on March 23, 2020, and continuing to at least April 13, 2020, all face-to-face instruction, including at the Syracuse campus, is suspended. During this time, and in accordance with the plans I asked you to develop, instruction will move to online and distance learning modalities. This does not necessarily mean moving your entire course onto an online environment at the level we typically do for our online classes. There are many different options and a variety of resources available to help you in making these instructional changes. Two of these are highlighted below and will continue to be updated.

• A number of people have been working diligently to put together resources for helping you continue instruction online. We have made many of these resources available at the online learning portal website.
• CELT has all of this week’s workshops (as well as previous workshops) available to watch on YouTube. You can find these on the CELT website. Check the listings under the Spring 2020 workshop listing for this week's workshops. You can find older recordings under the past events listing.

Our hope, assuming stability in the public health situation, is that we return to somewhat normal operations on April 13, 2020. It is possible though that we will only conduct face-to-face classes in those areas where the learning experience cannot be provided in a remote way (e.g., labs, studios, etc.).

The campus will remain open and services will be provided during this time, and in fact, we expect that a number of students will be in the residence halls.

I truly appreciate all of your flexibility that will be necessary as we continue through this semester. I also appreciate and recognize the efforts you are putting in to provide the best learning experience possible given this unprecedented situation.

Please continue to pay attention to the messages coming out and know that President Stanley and the leadership team will get information out to you as soon as possible as situations evolve. All messages will be posted to the COVID-19 website.

Thank you.

Scott

Scott Furlong
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs