Current Status of Campus Protocols

The current status of campus protocols is located on one Confluence page. Please refer to this page for up-to-date information.

Academic Convocation

On Thursday, August 26, Northwestern will host our annual academic convocation (having missed last year due to COVID). During this event, we will recognize new full-time faculty and new academic administrators, concluding with a ceremony of commitment that includes responsive reading. I look forward to beginning the new academic year with this celebratory event!

Fall Faculty Workshop

Next week we have the opportunity to unite as a community during our Fall Faculty Workshop. Our theme is Renewal, and our special speaker is Dr. Christina Bieber Lake. To access the program with a complete schedule and descriptions of all the sessions, please click here.

To help you prepare for using lecture capture this fall, refresher training sessions will be provided at the upcoming Workshop. You will have the opportunity to practice using the tools in situations where recording a lecture or supporting remote students is needed. Please sign up for a Fall Faculty Workshop Training session by using this Sign Up Document.

Lecture Capture

Understanding Fall Expectations

As we anticipate fall semester 2021, we recognize that some students may be impacted by COVID-19, requiring isolation or quarantine. Utilizing lecture capture throughout our last academic year enabled us to support students in ways that would have been impossible otherwise. This fall, we will be taking an additional step to support our students academically by providing class recordings if a student is unable to attend class due to a pre-approved University-sponsored event. We want to encourage students to participate and engage in university-sponsored activities, and they can now do so knowing their academic experience will be more fully supported.

New Lecture Capture guidelines were carefully developed with input from faculty, students, staff, department chairs/assistant deans, faculty senate, ACT, and P6 before going to SLT for final approval. The guidelines also contain several examples of when using lecture capture is recommended for our students. More information about using lecture capture and provided supports will be shared as we approach the beginning of the semester. 

As a reminder, two additional guideline documents were created this summer: Guidelines for Academic Achievement’s Approval of Student Accommodations and Adjustments and Guidelines for Utilizing Various Instructional Modalities in the 2021-2022 Academic Year. Please take some time to become familiar with both documents as you prepare for the launch of fall semester. 

Classroom Protocols

Seating Charts Required

Since physical distancing is encouraged but not required this fall, we will need to be prepared to identify students if contact tracing becomes necessary. At this time, a close contact is still defined as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. Health Services has stated the value of having seating charts available for every class should the need for contact tracing occur. To help address this need, all faculty are asked to create a seating chart for each class this fall and post it to Moodle for Health Services to access when needed. Additional details on this process will be shared closer to the beginning of the term. 

Updated COVID-19 Syllabi Statement

To help clearly communicate expectations to students this fall, an updated COVID-19 syllabi statement has been developed. You should have received an email from Ruth Fries last week with the new syllabi statement. Please take time to update your syllabi by including the revised COVID-19 statement. Thanks much for your attention to this request. 

Classroom Signage Updated

Updated classroom signage for fall has been created by our awesome Marketing Team. You can have a sneak peek of the new signs here. The plan is to have the current signs replaced with the new set by Friday, August 20. 

Feedback About Returning to Campus

If you have any feedback that you'd like to share about the return to campus this fall, you are invited to do so through this anonymous form. We appreciate hearing your thoughts!