3/13 email

Members of the CSI Campus Community

Thanks for your patience, perseverance, and ingenuity during this unprecedented time in CSI’s history. I appreciate how you are all stepping up to the plate to work together to create a safe and academically rich experience for our students under very challenging circumstances.

I wanted to briefly address some issues that have come up that are particular to Academic Affairs.

Work Study All campus facilities remain open even during the pause for transition to distance education. Work study students should work the schedules specified by their supervisors.

CLTs and Labs Again, the campus is open, and that includes labs. CLTs should expect to work, but they may be doing different things than they would if in-person classes were being held, such as assisting faculty in their transitions to distance teaching.

Clinical Placements NYSED has issued the following guidance for addressing the needs of students impacted by the Coronavirus: “Clinical experience must meet regulatory requirements. If all the avenues to meeting clinical requirements have been exhausted, the program may… seek approval to use simulation or alternative methods.”

The Office of Academic Affairs at CUNY has shared the updated guidance and pre-filled request forms to all CUNY Health and Human Services (HHS) Program Deans and Chairs to be completed and sent to Central Office for submission to NYSED. The form includes information on NYSIM as the requested simulation facility, but may be substituted with the campus Simulation Lab, as appropriate. In the meantime, the University is working closely with NYSIM to ensure the necessary staffing and capacity to meet CUNY. For more information, please contact Patricia Simino Boyce, University Dean for Health and Human Services (Patricia.Boyce@cuny.edu).

For an academic program leading to a recommendation for the issuance of an initial teacher certificate, applicable NYSED regulatory requirements in 52.21 define student teaching and describe experiences that must span at least 40 school days. In some instances, college program requirements exceed NYSED requirements. Every effort must be made to provide continuity of the clinical experience and meet the applicable regulatory requirements. If a P-12 placement school closes for a period of time, student teaching within the school should resume upon reopening if this occurs within the calendar previously established for student teaching. The following guidance is also applicable to field experience hours. If a P-12 placement school has organized remote learning for their P-12 students, the student teacher may be able to continue planning/instruction/assessment within this remote learning framework under the remote supervision of their cooperating teacher and college-based supervisor. In the case of an extended closure of a P-12 placement school that makes resumption of student teaching not possible and that provides no opportunity for supervised teaching through a remote learning framework, if re-placement in another P-12 school is not possible, and if a program is not able to provide a clinical experience that meets the regulatory requirements, college deans should contact Dr. Ashleigh Thompson, University Dean for Education (ashleigh.thompson@cuny.edu) to discuss next steps for communications with NYSED.

Labs, Studio Work, etc. The campus remains open during this period when distance education is the mode of instruction. We are aware that some kinds of instruction (art studio work, some kinds of science and technology labs) may need to continue in a modified face-to-face format. This is permitted, but efforts should be made to decrease density of instruction to allow for maximum social distancing during those activities. I will be asking the chairs to provide lists to their Deans of programs/activities that have instructional needs that cannot be delivered online so we can assess this issue.

Exams CUNY is compiling an overview of methods we can use for delivering and proctoring online exams. I know this is an area of concern for many instructors. We will provide more guidance as we receive it.

Undergraduate Student Research Conference Regrettably, we feel it prudent to not go forward with the traditional in-person format for the CSI Undergraduate Research Conference, which was scheduled for April 30. We recognize the importance of this event for students and their faculty mentors, and Associate Provost for Research, Graduate Studies and Institutional Effectiveness Mel Pipe will be working on determining alternate methods for delivery including an electronic version of the abstract volume and possibly a virtual conference. Because of the educational recess, the deadline for abstract submission will be extended to March 25. Stay tuned.

We will be providing regular updates as things develop.

Thanks again for all your efforts for CSI and our students, especially during these extremely trying times.

Best

Michael