Dear Colleagues,

As this Spring term draws to a close, I want to celebrate your success at teaching through the pandemic and all of the uncertainty that has entailed. Our course evaluation global index scores increased during the 2020 terms and this is a testament to your investment in reaching out to your students during this period:

graph showing higher scores for course evaluations during the pandemic semesters

Note: Law courses are not included in this data because they use different evaluation criteria.

Additionally, data taken from Canvas shows that you are using this platform to communicate with your students, which we know correlates with student success:

I recognize the significant amount of thought and effort that these graphs show, and I commend you for your efforts to reach your students in new ways while teaching remotely. As we now turn to consider our “return to campus” and a return to the familiarity of face-to-face classes resuming in the fall, I wanted to make sure that each of you are aware of how digital tools can maximize educational equity for students with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Senior Taylor Hein offers some recommendations for this in the brief video below:

In closing, I would like to share some details about our summer development opportunities for each of you to consider:

  • Our Summer Diversity Infusion Institute (June 21-25), which is available only to a select number of full-time faculty with applications being due by May 7. We are hopeful that the cohort in this Institute will be able to meet in person for at least two of the days of the event.
  • Next, I encourage you to “Save the Date” for our Summer Academy keynote and workshop on August 19th 9-noon, which will be given by Jose Antonio Bowen. Dr. Bowen’s remarks will be focused on Inclusive Teaching.
  • Finally, below is an embedded collection of resources about “Post-Pandemic Education” for you to peruse: