To Our Graduate and Professional Students Who Register through the Student Information System (SIS):
I write today to update you regarding course teaching modes and registration timelines.
As the president and I explained last week, faculty will teach fall semester courses in one of three ways: primarily in-person, a mix of in-person and remote, or entirely remote. In addition, some remote courses are delivered synchronously—that is, students must attend at the time it is being offered—or asynchronously—meaning students can attend when offered “live” or watch a recording of the course at another time.
As part of preparations for the upcoming academic term, faculty have provided the Office of the University Registrar information regarding their courses’ Mode of Delivery (primarily in-person, a mix of in-person and remote, or entirely remote) for the fall semester.
Staff in the registrar’s office have added these details to listings of courses for graduate students whose degrees come from the School of Graduate Studies. Those programs can be found on the Graduate Studies website.
You can see an example of how the designations will appear in SIS on the registrar’s website.
Details are still being added to courses located in professional schools (where degrees come directly from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing; Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences; School of Dental Medicine; School of Medicine; School of Law; and/or Weatherhead School of Management). Students in those programs will receive updates from their school or program leaders as soon as designations for those courses are complete.
As a result, the information below applies only to students enrolled in programs in which degrees come from the School of Graduate Studies.
Whenever you review your course designations in SIS, please keep in mind that:
- the nature of some courses means that they cannot be taught effectively online;
- as with so much else involving the pandemic, the information in SIS may change in the coming weeks; and
- school and/or program leaders will work with students unable to take a course required for graduation during the upcoming term because of the mode of delivery.
Finally, faculty whose courses are designated as in-person or blended have said they are willing to accommodate students unable to come to campus. The Office of the Registrar is exploring with deans whether such designations can be added to SIS course listings; we will continue to update you regarding progress in that effort.
If you have questions about any of the information detailed above or other academic aspects of the upcoming term, please contact the director of your academic program or the individual in the dean’s office responsible for academic affairs.
The School of Graduate Studies and your respective schools and programs will provide additional information as it becomes available.
Thank you for your patience as we all work to provide you the greatest breadth of course options while mitigating health risks.
Ben Vinson III
Provost and Executive Vice President