In this edition of the Friday Newsletter, we look ahead to the resumption of the Department Speaker Series on Monday, Oct. 18!
Contents
CHAIR’S WEEKLY MESSAGE
“Mask On … Mask Off”
The syllabus is an academic contract. It binds instructor and student, and it’s intended to do at least a couple things in the process. First, it establishes expectations both for the student and the instructor. The instructor commits to a course of action, but then is duty-bound to adhere to it. Likewise, the student commits to a schedule of expectations and learning goals and then is expected to work to meet them. Second, the syllabus protects. The student is to be protected from capriciousness or whimsical changes by the instructor, who holds nearly all the power in this academic relationship. The instructor, in return, is protected from student claims that they didn’t know something about the course – homework and attendance policies, how the grade is composed and calculated, etc.
Which brings us to the ending of the campus-wide mask mandate. In my opening address to the department faculty at the Oct. 4 Physics Faculty Meeting, I cautioned the faculty (albeit with no first-hand knowledge … just a sense of how people and institutions work) that we could likely expect the mask mandate to end over Fall Break. It seemed to be a natural break point. We had already been teased of the possibility of the mandate ending by a mistake in an email, inadvertently sneak-previewing a future faculty survey asking about how we felt about the mandate going away.
The university leadership made it clear ahead of the Fall Term that faculty control their classrooms, including masking policy. It tracks. If we can prevent students from using electronics in a classroom, it would seem (and it was confirmed) that we are imbued with the power to put in our syllabus the requirement to mask during a deadly respiratory infection pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people in the U.S. (more than the 1918 Flu Pandemic, usually the go-to for pandemic horror stories). With the ending of the campus mask mandate, it was implicit that faculty still controlled their classrooms. The Provost, among others, re-confirmed this week (see “What’d I Miss” in this edition of the newsletter) that faculty still control this policy in their classrooms. (but it’s not unlimited … see her exact instructions!)
The first step, if you have not already done so, is to communicate to your students your mask requirement more broadly. Use Canvas Announcement or an Email, but be aware that students get a LOT of emails and generally prefer messaging to come through Canvas, which has a dedicated app and inbox for their classes. Once you have informed/reminded students of your class policy as written in your syllabus, you can then address individuals who don’t follow the policy. Start by politely reminding them of the policy and offer them a mask (masks are freely available from the Physics Main Office if you need them). If they refuse, that’s when it’s time to step up the process.
For individuals who refuse to follow the policy, and do not have a medical reason provided through the DASS Office, you should next file a CCC bulletin to bring this to the attention of the Dean of Student Life and Student Affairs. On the CCC form, select “COVID-19 Concern” and in the explanatory box briefly explain your class policy, how it’s intended to protect people from a deadly and debilitating respiratory infection, and note that the student has refused to follow this syllabus policy. Please also report the student to me, so that I can have a conversation with them about obligations under the course syllabus and the duty to protect one another from harm the viral agent uses us to incubate and spread itself to more vulnerable people.
Finally, avoid policy changes as much as you can, unless it’s consistent with university guidance and in favor of protecting human health. The Provost noted that it is permitted to add a mask requirement to a syllabus that doesn’t already have one, but you need to be transparent about this (announce the change). You cannot now add a grade penalty … changes in grading are NOT ALLOWED after the start of term.
The high ground, ethically and morally, in our present situation is easily maintained if you act according to the best health outcome for your students. Nevertheless, nothing results in legitimate complaints like a faculty member who changes or violates their own classroom policies. Please only do so if it is intended, in this case, to protect human health (and consistent with the constraints the university puts on faculty authority in this regard). For example, if you have required masks since the beginning of the term, I don’t advise that you change that now. It will only give the students something to point to where you were inconsistent (and rightly so) and cause you more noise than the alternative. More people are in favor of masking to protect human health than are against it. Maintaining a mask requirement based on health outcomes, ethics, morality, and public opinion is a winner.
A well-known physicist is apocryphally noted to have said something like, “Consistency is sometimes more important than accuracy.” Consistency in your classroom – sticking to your syllabus – is more important than trying to be “the nice instructor” who gives their students choices that aren’t helpful, or worse, changes policies just to avoid what is perceived as a conflict situation. Life is full of potential conflict, and I urge the instructors in our program to remain as consistent as possible with the policies they set forth at the beginning of the term.
Whew. That was a heavy lift this week. Let’s try to lighten things up here at the end. In the edition of the newsletter, we look ahead to the resumption of the Department Speaker Series on Monday, Oct. 18!
Sincerely,
Stephen Jacob Sekula Chair, Department of Physics |
DEPARTMENT VIEWS
Department Speaker Series Events Resume with Prof. Kat Barger from TCU
The Department Speaker series resumes on Monday, October 18 with Prof. Kat Barger (TCU) visiting the department and presenting “Gas flows of the Milky Way and Magellanic Cloud Galaxies.” She will speak about her team’s detailed investigations of gas flows in galaxies using Hubble Space Telescope UV absorption-line observations as well as ground-based optical and radio emission-line observations.
Learn more: https://www.physics.smu.edu/web/seminars/
All past speaker series events since August 2020 are available in our YouTube playlist.
What’d I Miss?
We all get too many emails from the University and College. Here are a few things you might have missed this week.
- All: Provost Loboa used her Friday newsletter to inform the community about the record pace of SMU’s external research funding. “Year to date (YTD) research awards on record pace – As of Wednesday, October 6, our cumulative research awards for the 2022 fiscal year exceed $23M. We are only in month five of the current fiscal year, and our research awards already outpace total research awards for the entire fiscal year 2017. Over the past five years, SMU has not hit the $23M mark until January or February, at the earliest. Congratulations and thank you to our faculty and staff for this exciting accomplishment!” (“Weekly Update – October 8, 2021”, Provost Elizabeth Loboa)
- Faculty: The guidance from the Provost on the ending of the campus-wide mask mandate, but the requiring of masks in the classroom, is definitely worth re-reading. It answers a lot of questions you have all had this week. Emphasis is added to guide your attention.
” … you can still require masks in your classrooms. If you previously submitted this form and added language about mask requirements to your Canvas syllabus at the beginning of the semester, then the only action we strongly recommend would be for you to communicate clearly with your students ahead of time via SMU email and the Canvas announcements function. If you have not yet submitted the form or added masking requirement language to your syllabus, and wish to do so, please confirm your choice at this link and communicate with your students.
“Please note: If you had already added to your syllabus at the beginning of the semester that a participation/professional grade of up to 10% was tied to mask compliance, then it remains in effect. If, however, you did not have a participation grade tied to mask compliance in the syllabus at the beginning of the semester, then the grading policy cannot be changed half-way through the semester. In these cases, you can still require masks, just not use the professionalism grade.” (“Guidance regarding mask optional policy”, Provost Elizabeth Loboa, sent on Oct. 11, 2021) - Faculty: Want to teach in an inter-term, including on the Taos campus? Calls for inter-term and SMU-in-Taos course proposals are open! Proposals are due not later than November 5, 2021. (“SMU-in-Taos and Intersessions Call for Proposals”, Provost Elizabeth Loboa, sent Oct. 11, 2021)
- Graduate Students: A reminder that The Moody School is hosting a family-friendly picnic on Oct. 23. All graduate students (and their families) are welcome! For details, see the weekly Moody School newsletter. (“Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies Newsletter 10.14.2021”, sent by the smugrad email account, Oct. 14, 2021)
- All: A reminder of the Allman Lecture on Monday at 5:30pm. “Allman Lecture | Katharine Hayhoe: Finding Agreement about Climate Change in a Divided World. For climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, the key to convincing climate change-deniers that climate change is real is helping them see how climate change affects their own lives. The author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World (Atria: One Signal Publishers, 2021), professor of public policy and public law at Texas Tech University, and chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy will present this year’s Allman Family Lecture at SMU. For more information and to register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/katharine-hayhoe-climate-scientist-registration-172048480637.” (“This Week at Dedman College: October 18 – 24”, sent by the DedmanCollegeDean account on Oct. 14, 2021)
FACULTY NEWS
If you have something to share please feel free to send it along. Stories of your activities in research, the classroom, and beyond are very welcome!
STAFF NEWS
The department staff continue to work on behalf of Academic Operations (Lacey Breaux) and Research Operations (Michele Hill). They can be contacted for assistance, or to make appointments for input and help, through the Department Main Office (FOSC 102).
STUDENT NEWS
If you have something to share please feel free to send it along. Stories of students in research, the classroom, internships or fellowships, awards, etc. are very welcome!
Xiaoxian Jing Successfully Defends His Ph.D. Thesis Research
Congratulations to Dr. Xiaoxian Jing, who successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis this past week! Jing presented his contributions to the study of nuclear and nucleon structure, with emphasis on how one best combines constraints on nuclear structure from a wide range (dozens) of experiments providing a large portfolio (thousands) of measurements with different statistical and systematics uncertainties. His research advisor, Prof. Pavel Nadolsky, noted that ” … he presented an impressive body of his research work in elementary particle theory that he has completed at SMU and Hampton University/Jefferson Lab.” His Ph.D. committee consisted of Prof. Nadolsky, Prof. Fred Olness, Prof. Allison Deiana, and external member Dr. Alberto Accardi.
Jing will continue working on corrections to the written thesis with the goal of submitting it in the next month once it’s approved by his Ph.D. committee. He starts a position in industry in November. Congratulations!
ALUMNI NEWS
If you are an alum of the doctoral, masters, majors or minor programs in Physics at SMU, or have worked in our program as a post-doctoral researcher, and wish to share news with the community, please send your story to the Physics Department and we’ll work with you to get it included in a future edition.
THE BACK PAGE
Caring Community Connections (CCC)
We remind the physics community of the CCC system. It’s not just for reporting COVID-19 concerns about students who violate a classroom masking policy … it’s really intended as a way to express concern for a student whose needs go beyond the academic realm where faculty are not equipped, nor empowered, to help. If you have a student you are concerned about, immediately file a CCC report to put them on the radar of the Student Affairs office.
https://www.smu.edu/StudentAffairs/OfficeoftheDeanofStudents/StudentSupport/CCCProgram
