CORRECTED DATES: Coronavirus Update (COVID-19)

Dear Faculty, Administrators, and Staff,

We continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation with regard to our University community and we would like to provide you with an update. Classes will resume without interruption tomorrow, Monday March 9, as students and faculty return from spring break. However, we are proactively preparing for the possibility of a brief or longer-term suspension of face-to-face instruction with our students.

As planning for academic continuity proceeds, we are finalizing preparation to move courses online should that become necessary. Since transitioning our courses to an online format on a University scale has not been attempted before, we wish to test our systems this week. For the first three days of this week, Monday, March 9 through Wednesday March 11, classes will resume in person. During these three days, we ask all faculty to discuss and communicate their online course delivery plans with their students. On Thursday, March 12 and Friday March 13 we will begin our trial run and deliver all classes via electronic channels.  Students and faculty will not be required to be on campus for classes these days.

Separately, we will temporarily suspend all in-person attendance policy until further notice just in case there are students who are not able to attend classes due to illness and other reasons. Later today, there will be a communication to students informing them of these developments and asking them to contact faculty directly if they are not feeling well and cannot attend classes. If students indicate to you that they have been instructed to self-isolate, refer them to the website to complete the self-isolation form located at www.stjohns.edu/coronavirus.  Please prepare appropriate take-home assignments (for example, readings, PowerPoints presentation, etc.) to ensure that they receive the material covered in class with no penalty.

Please complete the Academic Technology Survey but more importantly, provide the information for the quick intake sheet being collected through your Chairperson. If you can assist your colleagues in their transition to an online course delivery format, I urge you to contact your Chairperson. I also remind you of the memo that was circulated Wednesday March 6 with this helpful link to resources CTL Course Continuity Planning Guide.

After our two-day trial run, we expect in-person classes to resume on campus March 16, 2020.  We are implementing the above plans in a precautionary manner so that we are prepared to continue our academic and professional programs in case we have to temporarily suspend in-person classes and/or close administrative offices for a period of time. This will allow us to test our capabilities and identify any potential areas that need to be strengthened so we can address them quickly and efficiently. If questions arise that cannot be addressed by your Task Force Liaison or your Dean’s Office, please direct them to Dr. Nancy Kaplan at [email protected], who will be collecting these inquiries.

I want to extend my sincere appreciation to all St. John’s faculty, administrators and staff for your collaboration and teamwork as we address this challenge.

Simon G. Møller, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs