Dear colleagues,
President Turner is preparing to update the SMU community on Monday June 1 about our planning for the fall semester. We expect it to include information such as modality for course delivery, any adjustments to the academic calendar, initial plans for residential and dining facilities, enhanced cleaning of high-traffic areas, testing capabilities and more. To help in understanding, Tim (Rosendale) and I as well as the rest of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee wanted to send you a quick message to explain the decision-making process in greater detail.
As you may remember from President Turner’s message to the community on April 27, the taskforce, co-chaired by Provost ad interim Peter Moore and Vice President for Student Affairs K.C. Mmeje, oversees the work of six subcommittees, representing about seventy-five (75) faculty and staff members working tirelessly in extraordinarily difficult circumstances to address the charges they have been tasked with in addition to their normal work duties.
The subcommittees have been meeting several times a week and have generated many pages of detailed recommendations that are presented to the taskforce for discussion and vote. The taskforce also receives a daily summary of the ideas submitted through the Virtual Idea Box, which are then shared with the appropriate subcommittees for consideration. We are grateful to those of you who have submitted ideas and I encourage you to do so if you haven’t.
The taskforce meetings include all the subcommittee chairs so that they can provide feedback to the group. It is also is an opportunity to coordinate and collaborate on recommendations such as those that need input from multiple subcommittees to be fully formed. To provide an example, travel has implications for the Academic Continuity, Business Continuity and Campus Health and Wellness subcommittees so these teams collaborate to make one recommendation. Once the taskforce vets the recommendations, those agreed upon are presented to the President’s Executive Council, which makes the final decision.
The subcommittees most relevant to faculty are the Academic Continuity and the Campus Health and Wellness subcommittees. Their charges and members (I apologize for any member I forgot to include as the membership list grew after the initial announcement) are listed at the end of this email.
I have been tremendously impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness of the recommendations the subcommittees have prepared in such a short amount of time, representing a cumulative hundreds of hours of deliberation and analysis. Further, I expect that there will be continued faculty input during and after July term regarding what is working in the classroom as we continue to prepare for the fall semester.
While other universities across the country are implementing staff and faculty furloughs, layoffs and/or contract non-renewals as a result of the pandemic, SMU is looking forward, innovating and striving to keep its faculty and staff, and we are fortunate that our planned salary raises will go ahead as scheduled. Based on the thoughtful and comprehensive recommendations of the taskforce and its subcommittees, Tim and I, who both have witnessed the process from up close, are hopeful that the plan to be announced this Monday, June 1 will give SMU the very best chance to not only avoid the fate of those other universities but also make the very best possible use of our strengths as an institution to create, expand and impart knowledge while ensuring the health and safety of students, staff and faculty in those challenging and unprecedented times.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me or Tim or any of the Faculty Senate ExComm members for 2020-21, who are:
Past-President Tim Rosendale (Dedman I),
President Aurélie Thiele (Lyle),
President-Elect Pia Vogel (Dedman III),
Secretary Susana Solera Adoboe (Dedman I),
David Bertrand (Simmons),
Rob Frank (Meadows),
Luigi Manzetti (Dedman II),
Rebekah Miles (Perkins),
Anna Offit (Law),
Tom Tan (Cox).
Aurélie
for
Tim Rosendale, Faculty Senate Past-President rosendale@smu.edu
Aurélie Thiele, Faculty Senate President athiele@smu.edu
Academic Continuity – chaired by Michael Tumeo
Develop plans to support educational continuity through a variety of instructional modes, including in-class, online-only and a hybrid of both. Address situations where students, faculty and staff must remain away from campus for a brief or extended period of time, or must adapt to other limitations on normal academic progress due to COVID-19. Plan and develop resources to support continuing classes, strategies for maintaining graduate student research and guidance for academic events of all sizes. Assess implications for student travel for internships and global experiences, including all activities at SMU-in-Taos. Define criteria and procedures for altering academic policies, including the Academic Calendar. Assess and develop options to mitigate the financial impacts that graduate and undergraduate students may face.
Members
Provost Office
· Patty Alvey, PhD
· Whitney Henry, MBA
· Sheri Kunovich, PhD
· Dayna Oscherwitz, PhD
· Daniel Eady, EdM
· David Son, PhD
· Wes Waggoner, MBA, EdD
· Doug Reinelt, PhD
· Jim Quick, PhD
· Michael Robertson, PhD
· Michael Tumeo, PhD
Associate Deans
· David Sedman, PhD – Meadows
· Hugo Magallanes, PhD – Perkins
· Tom Carr, PhD – Dedman College
· Elizabeth Killingsworth, MLS – SMU Libraries
· Bill Dillon, PhD – Cox
· Becca Henley, JD – Dedman Law
· Paige Ware, PhD – Simmons
· Rumanda Young, PhD – Taos
· Volkan Otugen, PhD – Lyle
OIT
· Michael Hites, PhD
· Curt Herridge, MBA
Faculty Senate
· Tim Rosendale, PhD
· Matthew Wilson, PhD
Student Body Vice President
· Austin Hickle
Campus Health and Wellness – chaired by Melinda Sutton Noss, EdD and Peter Davis, MD, FACP
Develop comprehensive recommendations and plans for testing, contact tracing, social distancing, regulation of visitors, size of nonacademic events, frequent deep cleanings of facilities and other strategies to keep the campus safe, including facilities and activities at SMU-in-Taos. Create wellness information tools and resources to share broadly with the campus community.
Members
· Health Center—Peter Davis, MD, FACP
· Environmental Health & Safety – Brandon Chance, MS, CCHO
· Global Health – Eric Bing, MD, PhD, MBA
· Health Center – Randy Jones, MPH, DDS & Diane Melcher, RN
· Health Promotions – Griffin Sharp, MS, MPH
· Junior Student – from Dr. Bing’s Creating Impact in Global & Public Health course
· Human Resources—Mai Bui, MBA
· RLSH—Amanda Bobo, MBA
· OIT—George Finney, JD, CISM
· OIT – Curt Herridge, MBA
Dear colleagues,
President Turner is preparing to update the SMU community on Monday June 1 about our planning for the fall semester. We expect it to include information such as modality for course delivery, any adjustments to the academic calendar, initial plans for residential and dining facilities, enhanced cleaning of high-traffic areas, testing capabilities and more. To help in understanding, Tim (Rosendale) and I as well as the rest of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee wanted to send you a quick message to explain the decision-making process in greater detail.
As you may remember from President Turner’s message to the community on April 27, the taskforce, co-chaired by Provost ad interim Peter Moore and Vice President for Student Affairs K.C. Mmeje, oversees the work of six subcommittees, representing about seventy-five (75) faculty and staff members working tirelessly in extraordinarily difficult circumstances to address the charges they have been tasked with in addition to their normal work duties.
The subcommittees have been meeting several times a week and have generated many pages of detailed recommendations that are presented to the taskforce for discussion and vote. The taskforce also receives a daily summary of the ideas submitted through the Virtual Idea Box, which are then shared with the appropriate subcommittees for consideration. We are grateful to those of you who have submitted ideas and I encourage you to do so if you haven’t.
The taskforce meetings include all the subcommittee chairs so that they can provide feedback to the group. It is also is an opportunity to coordinate and collaborate on recommendations such as those that need input from multiple subcommittees to be fully formed. To provide an example, travel has implications for the Academic Continuity, Business Continuity and Campus Health and Wellness subcommittees so these teams collaborate to make one recommendation. Once the taskforce vets the recommendations, those agreed upon are presented to the President’s Executive Council, which makes the final decision.
The subcommittees most relevant to faculty are the Academic Continuity and the Campus Health and Wellness subcommittees. Their charges and members (I apologize for any member I forgot to include as the membership list grew after the initial announcement) are listed at the end of this email.
I have been tremendously impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness of the recommendations the subcommittees have prepared in such a short amount of time, representing a cumulative hundreds of hours of deliberation and analysis. Further, I expect that there will be continued faculty input during and after July term regarding what is working in the classroom as we continue to prepare for the fall semester.
While other universities across the country are implementing staff and faculty furloughs, layoffs and/or contract non-renewals as a result of the pandemic, SMU is looking forward, innovating and striving to keep its faculty and staff, and we are fortunate that our planned salary raises will go ahead as scheduled. Based on the thoughtful and comprehensive recommendations of the taskforce and its subcommittees, Tim and I, who both have witnessed the process from up close, are hopeful that the plan to be announced this Monday, June 1 will give SMU the very best chance to not only avoid the fate of those other universities but also make the very best possible use of our strengths as an institution to create, expand and impart knowledge while ensuring the health and safety of students, staff and faculty in those challenging and unprecedented times.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me or Tim or any of the Faculty Senate ExComm members for 2020-21, who are:
Past-President Tim Rosendale (Dedman I),
President Aurélie Thiele (Lyle),
President-Elect Pia Vogel (Dedman III),
Secretary Susana Solera Adoboe (Dedman I),
David Bertrand (Simmons),
Rob Frank (Meadows),
Luigi Manzetti (Dedman II),
Rebekah Miles (Perkins),
Anna Offit (Law),
Tom Tan (Cox).
Best wishes,
Aurélie
for
Tim Rosendale, Faculty Senate Past-President rosendale@smu.edu
Aurélie Thiele, Faculty Senate President athiele@smu.edu
Academic Continuity – chaired by Michael Tumeo
Develop plans to support educational continuity through a variety of instructional modes, including in-class, online-only and a hybrid of both. Address situations where students, faculty and staff must remain away from campus for a brief or extended period of time, or must adapt to other limitations on normal academic progress due to COVID-19. Plan and develop resources to support continuing classes, strategies for maintaining graduate student research and guidance for academic events of all sizes. Assess implications for student travel for internships and global experiences, including all activities at SMU-in-Taos. Define criteria and procedures for altering academic policies, including the Academic Calendar. Assess and develop options to mitigate the financial impacts that graduate and undergraduate students may face.
Members
Provost Office
· Patty Alvey, PhD
· Whitney Henry, MBA
· Sheri Kunovich, PhD
· Dayna Oscherwitz, PhD
· Daniel Eady, EdM
· David Son, PhD
· Wes Waggoner, MBA, EdD
· Doug Reinelt, PhD
· Jim Quick, PhD
· Michael Robertson, PhD
· Michael Tumeo, PhD
Associate Deans
· David Sedman, PhD – Meadows
· Hugo Magallanes, PhD – Perkins
· Tom Carr, PhD – Dedman College
· Elizabeth Killingsworth, MLS – SMU Libraries
· Bill Dillon, PhD – Cox
· Becca Henley, JD – Dedman Law
· Paige Ware, PhD – Simmons
· Rumanda Young, PhD – Taos
· Volkan Otugen, PhD – Lyle
OIT
· Michael Hites, PhD
· Curt Herridge, MBA
Faculty Senate
· Tim Rosendale, PhD
· Matthew Wilson, PhD
Student Body Vice President
· Austin Hickle
Campus Health and Wellness – chaired by Melinda Sutton Noss, EdD and Peter Davis, MD, FACP
Develop comprehensive recommendations and plans for testing, contact tracing, social distancing, regulation of visitors, size of nonacademic events, frequent deep cleanings of facilities and other strategies to keep the campus safe, including facilities and activities at SMU-in-Taos. Create wellness information tools and resources to share broadly with the campus community.
Members
· Health Center—Peter Davis, MD, FACP
· Environmental Health & Safety – Brandon Chance, MS, CCHO
· Global Health – Eric Bing, MD, PhD, MBA
· Health Center – Randy Jones, MPH, DDS & Diane Melcher, RN
· Health Promotions – Griffin Sharp, MS, MPH
· Junior Student – from Dr. Bing’s Creating Impact in Global & Public Health course
· Human Resources—Mai Bui, MBA
· RLSH—Amanda Bobo, MBA
· OIT—George Finney, JD, CISM
· OIT – Curt Herridge, MBA
Academic Continuity – chaired by Michael Tumeo
Develop plans to support educational continuity through a variety of instructional modes, including in-class, online-only and a hybrid of both. Address situations where students, faculty and staff must remain away from campus for a brief or extended period of time, or must adapt to other limitations on normal academic progress due to COVID-19. Plan and develop resources to support continuing classes, strategies for maintaining graduate student research and guidance for academic events of all sizes. Assess implications for student travel for internships and global experiences, including all activities at SMU-in-Taos. Define criteria and procedures for altering academic policies, including the Academic Calendar. Assess and develop options to mitigate the financial impacts that graduate and undergraduate students may face.
Members
Provost Office
· Patty Alvey, PhD
· Whitney Henry, MBA
· Sheri Kunovich, PhD
· Dayna Oscherwitz, PhD
· Daniel Eady, EdM
· David Son, PhD
· Wes Waggoner, MBA, EdD
· Doug Reinelt, PhD
· Jim Quick, PhD
· Michael Robertson, PhD
· Michael Tumeo, PhD
Associate Deans
· David Sedman, PhD – Meadows
· Hugo Magallanes, PhD – Perkins
· Tom Carr, PhD – Dedman College
· Elizabeth Killingsworth, MLS – SMU Libraries
· Bill Dillon, PhD – Cox
· Becca Henley, JD – Dedman Law
· Paige Ware, PhD – Simmons
· Rumanda Young, PhD – Taos
· Volkan Otugen, PhD – Lyle
OIT
· Michael Hites, PhD
· Curt Herridge, MBA
Faculty Senate
· Tim Rosendale, PhD
· Matthew Wilson, PhD
Student Body Vice President
· Austin Hickle
Campus Health and Wellness – chaired by Melinda Sutton Noss, EdD and Peter Davis, MD, FACP
Develop comprehensive recommendations and plans for testing, contact tracing, social distancing, regulation of visitors, size of nonacademic events, frequent deep cleanings of facilities and other strategies to keep the campus safe, including facilities and activities at SMU-in-Taos. Create wellness information tools and resources to share broadly with the campus community.
Members
· Health Center—Peter Davis, MD, FACP
· Environmental Health & Safety – Brandon Chance, MS, CCHO
· Global Health – Eric Bing, MD, PhD, MBA
· Health Center – Randy Jones, MPH, DDS & Diane Melcher, RN
· Health Promotions – Griffin Sharp, MS, MPH
· Junior Student – from Dr. Bing’s Creating Impact in Global & Public Health course
· Human Resources—Mai Bui, MBA
· RLSH—Amanda Bobo, MBA
· OIT—George Finney, JD, CISM
· OIT – Curt Herridge, MBA