The committee is engaged in addressing the fall planning as well as the concerns raised in the recent letter for the president. In the three hours the committee met last week, the committee discussed the faculty’s autonomy in determining how to deliver their courses. The administration confirmed for the committee that a faculty member can choose to move to a fully remote format at any time. Although it is required that faculty identify that they are not teaching in-person, the form to indicate they plan to teach remotely was updated on June 30 so no health information or rationale needs to be shared.
The committee began a discussion of the effects of systemic racism on campus, noting the impacts on faculty and staff, as well as students. These have been honest and challenging discussions, but FAP is working to identify the role it can play in creating some immediate changes. Although this topic will continue to be part of FAP’s agenda, a few actions already being taken by the College were noted in these discussions. These include a visiting scholar position that has been approved for Africana studies for the upcoming academic year and a collaboration between the library and Africana studies that is generating online content suitable for incorporating anti-racist education into the curriculum.
The committee also discussed tuition and fees for the upcoming year, and whether some adjustment in the tuition may be warranted to fairly reflect the differences in the student experience compared to a pre-COVID-19 semester. The current modeling suggests that a carefully considered reduction can improve enrollment and retention without increasing the anticipated budget gap for the fiscal year. As tuition and fees are determined and enrollment becomes known, the committee will continue to work with the administration to identify and communicate budget priorities.
FAP will meet again at 3 p.m. today to discuss the health and safety of the students, faculty, and staff by reviewing with the administration its latest risk assessment of a primarily on-campus approach.
Although FAP will use traditional direct communications via email to convey significant advice, reports or motions, we also will continue to use the Lafayette Today posts to provide less formal and more timely updates of our ongoing work and discussions.