[VPAAEtal] Thank you for finding ways to meet our students' needs

[Academic Affairs]

Dear A&M-Commerce faculty:

Thank you again for your heroic efforts in meeting the instructional needs of our students during the challenging environment created by the spread of the COVID-19 virus. We have a tremendous amount of expertise amongst our faculty and your creativity in finding new ways of sharing that expertise makes me proud to be a faculty member at this institution. Still, we have students that need more from us right now. While our early data shows the majority of students are feeling positive about their online coursework thus far (i.e., okay, good, and excellent), there is still a considerable group that is predictably struggling. During such an unsettling time, our collective knowledge is important for sure, but we must lead with our humanity as we engage with our students. Just as quickly as you turned your face-to-face courses online, some of the students in those classes have returned home and just as quickly picked up work hours to try to alleviate the economic losses of their families. We also have a large number of non-traditional students, for example, single moms who are working full-time and taking online courses, but now have the added responsibility of having their children at home and trying to be effective teachers for them as well. It is crucial that we approach our courses with as much encouragement, compassion, understanding, and flexibility as we can muster. Please, please keep this in mind as you continue to refine your online offerings, as our students' futures depend on it.

We are also mindful that our required responses to the COVID-19 virus could potentially have negative implications for our faculty, particularly our junior tenure-track faculty, during this difficult time. Please be assured that we will administratively demonstrate the encouragement, compassion, understanding, and flexibility that we are asking our faculty members to display. This will manifest in a number of ways, including extensions of tenure clocks for junior faculty members, postponement of third-year reviews, and adjustment to student evaluations of courses. Now that we have successfully transitioned to all online coursework, I will be working with the executive team and the deans to fashion a more detailed plan that I will communicate to you this week. Please let us work to see to your needs - you focus your attention on meeting the needs of our students.

Thank you for all that you are doing. Stay safe and stay well. We will get through this.

Best regards,

John

Dr. John Humphreys
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Texas A&M University - Commerce
(903) 886-5018
john.humphreys at tamuc.edu

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