Dear Colleagues,
Thank you! After 21 weekly letters, I will give your inbox a break, after this final letter. The Fall 2020 semester is almost here. By the first day of class, our entire faculty will have undergone training and course redesign with goals to uphold the Horned Frog curricular experience of virtual “face-to-face.” Every college will have worked extensively to create additional extra-curricular experiences for Horned Frogs. No other faculty in the country, to my knowledge, has achieved this. I am confident that you are ready.
There is still uncertainty about how COVID-19 will impact our campus. Hence, I encourage instructors of “on-campus/dual” courses to use the first three weeks of class to ensure you and your students are prepared for a seamless transition should the pandemic require TCU to move to a fully online campus.
The FAQs for the TCU Connected Campus Plan are now on the Provost Office website. Please monitor for updates regularly. If you have questions that you do not see answered, please email ConnectedCampus@tcu.edu.
One FAQ update coming soon will address an enhancement to the Phased Teaching Load (PTL) program. In my meeting with the Council of Department Chairs, concern was expressed about the timeline limiting availability of the program to faculty retiring by May 2022 – since the current state of the pandemic is causing a freeze on employee hiring. In response, I am extending the program to faculty who are eligible to retire between May 2021 through May 2023. All other aspects and deadlines of the program remain the same. Please consult Megan Soyer with your questions.
Another FAQ update will include information and step-by-step forms to address queries about on-campus activities with more than 10 participants, off-campus activities, travel, internships for academic credit, and other events outside the classroom. While current restrictions are frustrating, please know that these restrictions will not last forever. We will reassess in early September, once we’ve demonstrated that, as a community, we are able to successfully navigate health and safety protocols.
I will be out next week and hope that you are also able to realize some down time and self-care. This has been a truly unique summer - that I hope never to repeat. However, if I could choose any academic community with whom to spend time during a pandemic, I would choose you. You’re the best.
Go Frogs!
Teresa