SR 19-04 - Continuity and Compassion Amid Disruption by COVID-19: Mode of Instruction and Use of Student Ratings of Teaching in Spring 2020

WHEREAS on March 11, 2020, the University announced plans to put strong social distancing measures into place by discontinuing face-to-face instruction and replace it with ‘virtual instruction’ starting on April 6. These plans allowed for a slow transition to voluntary virtualization of teaching followed by Spring Break and then an additional week of canceled classes to allow faculty a week to transition to mandatory virtual instruction; and

WHEREAS on March 12, the Ventura County Public Health Officer declared COVID-19 to be a local health emergency. On March 13, the pandemic led President Trump to declare a national state of emergency.1 On March 15, the governor of California directed that populations especially vulnerable to COVID-19 self-isolate at home. At the same time, to accelerate social distancing in California, primary and secondary schools were closing their campuses and moving instruction online; and

WHEREAS on March 15, the University announced an acceleration of social distancing plans, canceling classes through Spring Break, and giving faculty the week after Spring Break to retool for virtualization, starting virtualized instruction one week early on March 30. The center for Teaching and Learning Innovations mobilized to assist instructional faculty in this transition; and

WHEREAS on March 17, the Ventura County Public Health Officer issued the first shelter in place2 order for the county which ordered non-essential businesses to close and all citizens to self-isolate at home. On March 31, this county order was updated3 to align with a March 19 state-wide stay at home order from the governor4. On March 22, President Trump declared the pandemic to be a major disaster for the state of California. On March 30, the county’s Stay Well Stay Home order was extended5; and

WHEREAS the US Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education issued guidance for interruptions of study related to Coronavirus (COVID-19) on March 5 (and revised on March 20) that allows courses to convert to modalities that support ‘distance education’ without going through normal approval processes; and

WHEREAS this timeline shows the rapid development of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rapid University response to the public health emergency, and the immense pressure put on all members of the University community, it puts unique and poorly understood pressures on the institution’s instructional mission.

WHEREAS feedback from students on courses is an important source of feedback for instructional faculty.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that student ratings of teaching should be distributed for Spring 2020; and

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that faculty be permitted without prejudice to choose to permanently exclude Spring 2020 student ratings of teaching (SRT) from their Personnel Action Files (PAF) after seeing the evaluations, and on a course-by-course basis; and

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that in order to ensure continuity of quality instruction, the Academic Senate suspends Senate Policy 14-146 and Senate Policy 12-087 to allow faculty the flexibility to support their students through alternative modes of instruction for the duration of the Spring 2020 and Summer 2020 terms.

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED that to make sure the University’s instructional enterprise does not lose the opportunity to hear the student voice on the efforts made by instructional faculty have made to adjust instruction in these emergency circumstances, the Faculty Affairs Committee of the Academic Senate will design and distribute a survey to all enrolled students to …

If any resolution or part of a resolution in this document conflicts with or contradicts guidance on other University policies or procedures, these resolutions shall prevail without invalidating any other portion of the University policy or procedure. If any part of a resolution statement in this document conflicts with existing CSU policy, executive order, or coded memoranda, or if any resolution in this document conflicts with local, state, or federal statute, or the Collective Bargaining Agreement, that part of a resolution statement will be declared invalid without harming any other resolution statement in this document.

1 Text of the White House declaration of nation emergency https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefingsstatements/
letter-president-donald-j-trump-emergency-determination-stafford-act/

2 Text of the Ventura County Stay Safe Stay Home order can be found online at
https://vcportal.ventura.org/CEO/VCNC/2020-03-17_Ventura_County_Public_Health_Order.pdf.
3 Text of the Ventura County Stay At Home order https://s30623.pcdn.co/wpcontent/
uploads/2020/03/StayWellAtHomeOrder.pdf
4 Text of the California state-wide stay at home order https://www.gov.ca.gov/wpcontent/
uploads/2020/03/3.19.20-attested-EO-N-33-20-COVID-19-HEALTH-ORDER.pdf
5 Text of the revised Ventura County Stay Home Stay Well order
https://vcportal.ventura.org/covid19/docs/March_31_2020_Order.pdf

6 Policy for On-Line Teaching and Learning, text can be found at https://senate.csuci.edu/policies/2014-2015/sp-
14-14-policy-for-online-teaching-and-learning-final.pdf
7 Policy for Listing of Online Course Offerings, text can be found at https://senate.csuci.edu/policies/2012-
2013/senate-policy-12-08.pdf