Email from President Rogers
Friday, March 27, 2020, 3:10 p.m.
Dear LSC Campus Community:
Today during my usual early morning scan of higher educational online journals and other media, I came across Scott Berinato’s article in the Harvard Business Review. The article discusses Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief and insight from her co-author David Kessler. I urge each of you to read that short article carefully as it speaks directly to the higher education community and our various reactions to the grief we are feeling for our students, ourselves, our loved ones…and our previous work life.
Recall the five stages of grief are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. In answer to a question on how to manage the grief caused by the COVID-19 crisis, Kessler states:
“Understanding the stages of grief is a start. But whenever I talk about the stages of grief, I have to remind people that the stages aren’t linear and may not happen in this order. It’s not a map but it provides some scaffolding for this unknown world. There’s denial, which we [saw] a lot of early on: This virus won’t affect us. There’s anger: You’re making me stay home and taking away my activities. There’s bargaining: Okay, if I social distance for two weeks everything will be better, right? There’s sadness: I don’t know when this will end. And finally there’s acceptance. This is happening; I have to figure out how to proceed.”
“Acceptance, as you might imagine, is where the power lies. We find control in acceptance. I can wash my hands. I can keep a safe distance. I can learn how to work virtually.”
The emotional work of finding control and finding acceptance in these challenging times sparked another memory for me. During my time as a Fulbright Scholar in Iceland, I encountered a most amazing resiliency among my friends there and among the Icelandic citizenry in general. I heard the phrase “þetta reddast (pronounced thet-ta red-ust)” whenever people were dealing with a difficult or challenging situation. In a recent article, Katie Hammel provides a loose interpretation of this phrase: “It means ‘it’ll all work out in the end’ – and if Iceland had an official slogan, this would be it.”
When you live on an island of fire and ice, you can bet there are plenty of struggles to overcome. Icelanders know things will work out as they will and not as they may wish. They stay with reality and what they can control. They avoid needless suffering and anxiety by reminding each other “þetta reddast.” I witnessed this many times when I lived there. Things worked out. þetta reddast.
And all of our struggles will work out in the end! We will get through this stressful and confusing time. Realize that how well Lake Superior College thrives during and after this crisis depends on you. What we collectively do now impacts our collective future and the health and wellness of the college, since no one area or division by itself ensures success. It takes all of us doing our work in whatever ways we can within the guidelines for our own health and safety and for the health and safety and success of our students. If an area falls down, we are all likely to fall. This does not have to happen.
I hear you out there: “yeah, but…what if…” Right. The unknown, the worst-case scenario, the scary future…all of that can be categorized as anticipatory grief. This kind of grief is what causes the needless suffering and anxiety over things that have not happened.
Kessler says:
“Anticipatory grief is that feeling we get about what the future holds when we’re uncertain. … Anticipatory grief is also more broadly imagined futures. There is a storm coming. There’s something bad out there. With a virus, this kind of grief is so confusing for people. Our primitive mind knows something bad is happening, but you can’t see it. This breaks our sense of safety. We’re feeling that loss of safety. I don’t think we’ve collectively lost our sense of general safety like this. Individually or as smaller groups, people have felt this. But all together, this is new. We are grieving on a micro and a macro level.”
What to do? Find your balance. Stay in the present tense. Re-read my update from March 20th. Know yourself and be a warrior leader. Those of us who have moved into Acceptance of this situation are not more highly evolved or somehow “better.” We have just moved into that space that allows us to say “þetta reddast” (some with a better Icelandic accent than others) and move on with our work.
Judging others on their level of grief is not helpful. Rising to an Acceptance level also does not mean sitting around with our legs crossed on a meditation pillow. Acceptance is also action, which is exactly what we have been doing here at LSC: We have a plan, we are working the plan, and we will adjust the plan as the situation changes. Period. Leave out the things that have not happened and the things you cannot control. Focus on your work and our collective success.
Kessler said it this way: “…think about how to let go of what you can’t control. What your neighbor is doing is out of your control. What is in your control is staying six feet away from them and washing your hands. Focus on that.”
Visit https://www.lsc.edu/coronavirus/ often. PLEASE direct your questions at info@lsc.edu. Send your ideas and suggestions to info@lsc.edu. Encourage others to send their ideas, suggestions, worrisome rumors, and questions to info@lsc.edu.
We are ready for Monday, and Tuesday, and…beyond. We have this, folks!
Have a lovely weekend.
Patricia L. Rogers, Ph.D.
President
Lake Superior College
Memo from Ron Anderson, PhD, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs for Minnesota State
To Presidents and Academic and Student Affairs
March 27, 2020 at 1:59 p.m.
SUBJECT: Overview of Academic Continuity Guidance
This memorandum summarizes current guidance to campuses relative to academic continuity, including some new guidance related to grading and summer term among other topics.
Spring Semester Classes and Services
As you know, instruction will resume on March 30th (or April 6th for 5 colleges), via online or via alternative delivery modes. Student and academic support services will also be available online, on the phone, and through other technology-based communication forms such as email and videoconferencing. Limited student and academic services may be available face-to-face on campus, as will courses requiring a face-to-face component–both observing strict health and safety precautions and following MDH and CDC guidelines. Guidance on cleaning protocols has been shared with campus facility staff, and you are encouraged to share that information with your faculty and staff on campus.
If an instructor teaching a course that requires a face-to-face component has underlying health conditions or finds themselves unable to teach the course for other reasons, they should be accommodated by taking COVID-19 leave. Similarly, if a student enrolled in a course that requires a face-to-face component has underlying health conditions or finds themselves unable to complete the course for other reasons, accommodations should be made that best suits their educational goals.
Continuing Education and Customized Training
Continuing education and customized training courses can continue to be offered both off-site and on-site, provided that they observe strict health and safety precautions and follow MDH and CDC guidelines.
Technology Access
Student should continue to have access to technology on campus throughout the duration of the stay-at-home order. However, not all students will have the ability or desire to come to campus for that purpose. Campuses should develop an outreach strategy to identify students who do not have access to computers and/or to the internet away from campus. Faculty should work with those students to identify where possible an alternative method of communication and possible instruction that does not rely on technology, presumably in a correspondence delivery mode. Our goal remains to complete the spring semester on the previously-identified end dates as outlined on our academic calendar. It is important that students without access to technology should not be penalized or suffer negative academic consequences during this period.
We encourage campuses to designate a limited number of specific spaces for computer and internet access that will be open to students, and to clearly communicate that information to faculty, staff, and students. In determining those designated spaces, pay close attention to both physical safety and ADA accessibility needs.
ASA, Equity and Inclusion, and ITS staff are exploring options for funding support, availability, and guidance on the equitable distribution of additional technology devices for students without remote access to technology. This guidance will be shared once it is fully developed, likely sometime next week. This forthcoming guidance in no way limits actions that you may wish to take at the campus level, but rather is meant to augment those efforts.
New Guidance: Campus Libraries
Questions and concerns about library services and access have arisen in the past two days. Our guidance is that these services be treated like other academic and student support services and be migrated to online delivery. It is strongly recommended that libraries remain accessible if they serve as technology access areas for students. In such cases, it is expected that appropriate physical distancing be enforced, and that appropriate health and safety precautions are taken, following MDH and CDC guidelines. All other library functions should be migrated online.
New Information on Previous Guidance: Student Work Study
Guidance on paying student workers who are unable to work because of COVID-19 impacts was issued on March 23, 2020. Since then, new state legislation has been enacted that aligns state work study guidelines with federal work study guidelines, and we await final implementation guidance from the Commissioner of Higher Education. We will share that information with your campus financial aid directors as soon as it becomes available.
Course Placement
All onsite and online course placement testing has been suspended until further notice. In light of this suspension, the guidance issued on March 26th suspends the standardized testing requirement and allows for the use of cumulative high school GPA as a standalone measure of readiness. Students without a reportable high school GPA (e.g., adult learners), are allowed to self-determine placement.
We will be convening a group of testing directors, admissions staff, faculty, and registrars to develop more specific operating instructions to guide timely implementation. Updates will be communicated to your staff as soon as they become available.
New Guidance: Summer Term
Given the anticipated progression of COVID-19 over the months ahead, it appears unlikely that MDH and CDC guidance on public gatherings will be broadened sufficiently to allow for the full resumption of face-to-face instruction by the start of the summer term. As such, campuses should prepare summer term courses for delivery via alternative delivery modes, as previously identified: online using D2L, Zoom, or other technologies as a first preference, or in-person with physical distancing strategies for those course components that cannot be moved to online or correspondence delivery. Campuses should also be prepared to continue delivering academic and student support services remotely and with limited face to face interaction in the likelihood that current protocols on physical distancing will continue into the summer.
New Guidance: Grading
Although there is no Board of Trustees policy governing grading practices, we are providing the following general principles for campuses to follow in considering grading options:
- Campuses are strongly encouraged to lift their local P/F or S/U grading restrictions, up to and including the possibility of allowing students to opt for P/F or S/U grades for all of their courses this semester. Campuses changing this practice should identify downstream impacts and implications for other academic progress and related policies, and take steps to adapt those policies as appropriate to ameliorate possible negative consequences for students.
- Modifications to pass/fail (P/F) or satisfactory/unsatisfactory (S/U) policies should be developed in consultation with faculty, department heads, deans, registrars, and other relevant administrators.
- Students should have choice in changing the grading options, and a reasonable time frame for making that choice.
- We understand that P/F and S/U grading options impact course transfer, and will be working over the next few weeks to identify and resolve those issues in a consistent manner across the system.
Associate Vice Chancellors Glass and Green-Stephen will provide more detailed guidance to SAOs, SSAOs, and registrars in the days ahead. Later this year ASA and Equity and Inclusion will be convening a workgroup to address equity in grading policy and practice across the system, with the charge of developing long-term policy and practice recommendations.
New Guidance: Extension of Last Day to Withdraw Deadline
Minnesota State procedure 3.34.1 sets the last day to withdraw at the 80% completion point of a course. To accommodate the disruption caused by COVID-19 and the impact that resulting shifts in instructional and service delivery will have on students, we are extending the last day to withdraw to the 90% completion point of a course. This allows student sufficient time to
evaluate their ability to complete a given course in its new delivery modality and in light of other impacts to their academic and personal lives.
ASA will work with ITS staff to address the technology modifications needed to support this change, and will provide an update to your academic and student affairs leaders and registrars when those changes are fully defined.
Declaring the semester complete
Campuses do not have the authority to unilaterally declare the spring semester complete at a given point in time other than the predetermined final day of the semester. As has been our approach throughout this public health crisis, we want to respond with as much consistency across the system as possible, and remain committed to our collective intent of completing the semester as planned and getting as many students as possible through to completion of the term. Should circumstances arise that make this impossible, the campus president and Chancellor will discuss the most appropriate course of action.
Campuses do, however, have the discretion to determine whether or not enough of a particular course has been completed to warrant the issuance of a grade and declare that particular course complete. Campuses must determine a consistent process for making this determination, and must include both faculty and academic administration in the decision-making process.
cc: Chancellor Malhotra
Cabinet
Senior Academic Affairs Officers