August 2021

UW Bothell Community Communications

Communications sent in August 2021:

August 18, 2021 | Your back-to-campus checklist

This message is being sent to all incoming and current students at UW Bothell.

Dear UW Bothell Student,

We’re excited to return to in-person learning this fall and to welcome you to — or back to — campus. As you prepare for autumn quarter, there are a number of things that you need to do in advance to ensure you start the quarter safely and successfully.

We’ve created a Back-to-School Checklist to help you get ready. There you’ll find details on steps you need to take before you set out for campus, as well as the things to bring with you.

Some key actions for you to take:

  1. Get vaccinated against COVID-19 and complete your student COVID-19 Vaccine Attestation.
  2. Enroll in Husky Coronavirus Testing, and get tested after arriving to campus.
  3. Bring face coverings — they are required in all UW buildings and facilities, regardless of vaccination status.
  4. If you’re not fully vaccinated and traveling from outside Washington, be prepared to self-quarantine for seven days upon arrival, take coronavirus tests before and after travel, and follow all other CDC travel guidelines. International travelers should also be aware of requirements for travel to the United States.
  5. Be aware of important health guidance related to COVID-19 symptoms and exposure, including the requirement to notify covidehc@uw.edu if you or a close contact test positive.

Again, these are just a few of the steps — the Back-to-School Checklist has all the details, and following it will help to ensure you have a safe, healthy and successful start to the new academic year.

We can’t wait to see you on campus again and to celebrate all that you’ll accomplish as you pursue your educational goals.

Sincerely,

Tim Wilson, Ph.D.
Dean of Student Affairs
University of Washington Bothell

August 16, 2021 | Instruction in Autumn for UW Bothell


This message is going to all faculty and staff at UW Bothell

Dear Faculty:

Dr. James and I wrote to you in July regarding how we can ease anxieties for our students by providing clarity with our course schedule for autumn quarter 2021. Since then, you received several messages from our tri-campus leadership as COVID-19 conditions continue to change. You may be wondering what all of this means for UW Bothell as we get closer to the start of the autumn quarter.

While the expectation continues to be that all campuses at UW will provide a primarily in-person experience for our community, I aim to do two things with this message for our UW Bothell faculty:
  1. Clarify what we know today about tri-campus policies that affect your instructional options, and
  2. Describe what we know is planned, as of today, for the UW Bothell campus as we approach autumn quarter 2021.

As indicated by President Cauce and Provost Richards, we expect to receive more tri-campus leadership updates by the end of August. If these updates change the information below for the UW Bothell campus, I will send a follow-up.

I wish I could conclude by saying that the challenging times are coming to an end. We are fortunate that the UW Bothell community continues to work together to meet these challenges within the context of our student-centered mission.

Sincerely,
Sharon A. Jones
Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs

 

UW Bothell Instructional Modes

  • Are there UW and/or UW Bothell requirements for instructional modes?
    • DL courses must be approved using formal UW processes. For autumn quarter 2021, the DL course approval process was completed by the end of spring quarter 2021. The UW Registrar's website includes information about the DL approval process.
    • As of now, neither UW Bothell nor UW Seattle requires a minimum or a maximum % of in-person instruction for hybrid courses. This means that faculty, in alignment with their school curricular and accreditation processes, have significant flexibility to offer and design hybrid courses. [UW Tacoma has formal policies regarding instructional modes.]
    • Remote was used by UW during the 2020-21 academic year to designate emergency teaching conditions. UW is now using remote as the designation for courses where a faculty member has an approved Disabilities Support Office (DSO) accommodation that allows them to teach 100% remotely.
    • For hybrid and remote courses, there are two options: asynchronous vs synchronous. The UW Bothell GFO developed formal definitions for these during 2020-21.
    • Hybrid, DL, and remote courses may impact certain student populations (those receiving veteran’s benefits and international students who have limits on how many online courses they can enroll in and maintain their visa status). These students need courses that are principally in-person and/or fully in-person. While we wish “principally” was better defined by our federal offices, it isn’t. Please see the email from me and Dr. James dated July 27 for more details.
  • How are UW Bothell faculty planning to teach in autumn quarter 2021?
    • As of the end of July 2021, of UW Bothell’s 836 class sections for autumn 2021, 16% are categorized as hybrid, 3% are DL, and 1% are remote. [For comparison, UW Tacoma expects 9% hybrid and 9.5% DL.]
  • Should I change my hybrid schedule now?
    • Students registered last Spring and built their schedules based on that information. This doesn't mean you should not change your schedule, as we have always tweaked things and summer provides a long window for tweaking. Some faculty have particularly challenging situations during this continued pandemic that have or can not be addressed, and adjusting the hybrid schedule may help. However, please consider the impacts to students, the motivating factors for the change, the UW goal to provide a primarily in-person experience for our students, the ripple effects on a student's schedule since they may be taking courses from several schools, etc. Students have different needs depending on where they are in their college journey and how privileged they are in terms of support towards their educational goals. Please discuss possible changes with your program leads and please ensure the time schedule is formally updated.
  • Does UW Bothell impose any other campus-wide restrictions/expectations on teaching for autumn quarter 2021?
    • Yes, we expect that courses are listed in the time schedule with the accurate instructional mode along with specifications about instructional meeting times etc. using approved Registrar standards for ease of use and analytics. Please do not rely solely on the comment box. Our primarily commuter student population depends on this information. Our staff also depend on this information for advising, classroom/laboratory cleaning, events scheduling, etc. Please help our students and our staff.
    • We do not expect instructors to teach the same course section in multiple instructional modes. Please focus on preparing your courses in the mode that you feel is best: in-person or hybrid or DL if it is designated as such or remote if you have a DSO accommodation. And, please make sure the time schedule is accurate so that students can plan.
  • Will a school, division, program, and/or FYPP have additional restrictions/expectations on how courses should be taught for autumn quarter 2021?
    • I cannot imagine all of the possibilities that your programs may have considered. Some examples of situations include: will some synchronous instruction be required for certain DL and/or remote courses; will all laboratory and/or fabrication courses be taught in-person; will certain hybrid courses be required to meet in-person with students each week; will multi-section courses include at least one DL and/or hybrid section; will large class sections rotate students through in smaller sub-groups to balance in-person versus online experiences? And so on… you and your programs control these decisions.
    • Please check with the relevant administrative leads (associate dean, program director, division chair) as these decisions are made within your own schools, divisions, programs, and/or FYPP depending on what you collectively know about your student populations, accreditation requirements, etc.
    • Similarly, please check with the relevant administrative leads in your programs about options to create your teaching schedule based on your individual circumstances regarding caregiving, particular elevated risk situations, expected teaching load, etc. Your administrative leads will continue to work with you to balance your individual needs with the collective needs of our teaching mission.

UW Bothell Classrooms

  • What has UW Bothell done to reduce risk in our classrooms?
    • Our facilities team installed MERV 15 filters in the HVAC systems for UW1, UW2, and Discovery Hall (the maximum level for these filters is 16). The recommended filter level for COVID-19 conditions is 13+.
    • During the COVID-19 period, the campus also increased the air intake to 30% (pre-COVID the intake was 10%) i.e., more outside air introduced into each building. I do not have similar information for classrooms in leased buildings at this time.
  • Is the air quality safe in our UW Bothell classrooms?
    • Similar to UW Seattle, our facilities team (via a contractor) is currently testing the air quality in a sample of classrooms that represents the various HVAC conditions at UW Bothell. If they find that we are not up to public health standards set by UW, they will purchase, locate, and maintain air purifiers in those classrooms.
  • What about masking in the classroom?
  • Does UW Bothell have classrooms equipped for HyFlex?
    • We do not have any classrooms equipped for hybrid flexible or HyFlex instruction.
    • Currently, the advice from the digital learning experts at UW (tri-campus and UW Bothell) is that HyFlex is very challenging to execute well.
    • If UW Bothell faculty are interested in such an option for the future, please work with GFO to develop a campus-wide recommendation.

UW Bothell Students (as it relates to instruction)

  • Is UW Bothell still planning to host Pack is Back & Convocation?
    • Yes, planning is moving forward for an extended series of events for faculty, staff, and students with the assumption that they will occur primarily in-person. The teams in advancement and student affairs are working closely with EH&S and other facilities staff to ensure that all UW guidelines, policies, and restrictions are met.
    • Several nbfac and nbstaff messages about the planned welcome back to campus events have been sent. More information will follow from Student Affairs.
  • Will students get Disability Resources for Students (DRS) accommodations based on COVID-19 and how will that impact faculty?
    • We expect that a small number of students will receive medical accommodations from DRS because of COVID-19.
    • As with DRS accommodations pre-COVID-19, you are not required to create multiple versions of the same course. The accommodation may mean that you have to record classroom sessions where appropriate and give students access to course materials via canvas, email, etc.
    • If a student requests accommodation for any reason other than an approved DRS accommodation, or if the DRS rejects their request for a DRS-sanctioned accommodation, please treat the absence request like any other such request as described in the course syllabus. There is no expectation for special accommodations for COVID-related absences or requests for remote learning options.
  • What happens when a student tests positive for COVID-19?
    • The tri-campus EH&S team has been supporting the UW Bothell campus throughout the pandemic. Over the last 19 months, the team refined the system for addressing positive cases of COVID-19 for anyone in our community including students in our classes. This refined system will be in effect for autumn quarter 2021.
    • You may consider including the links to these official UW FAQs in your syllabus, on your canvas site, or other means so that all students have the information ahead of time.
    • While there is a lot of information at the website link, please remember that medical information is protected information. The EH&S team is the group that you should contact if you know that a student (or a staff or faculty member) has tested positive and EH&S will let the relevant people know what steps should be taken. You should wait for their instructions. They are very responsive.
    • If a student(s) in your course has to quarantine or becomes sick, you should manage this the way you managed such situations before COVID-19. You are not required to create multiple versions of the same course. It is possible that in these situations, a student then receives a DRS medical accommodation. Please see above regarding DRS accommodations.
    • OE/HR supports faculty with sick leave and other types of leaves that may be needed throughout the autumn quarter.

UW Bothell Staff

  • Will staff be on campus during autumn quarter 2021?
    • Many of our staff have been in-person on our UW Bothell campus throughout the COVID-19 pandemic keeping our facilities clean and maintained, receiving supplies and equipment, preparing offices and classrooms, moving furniture, helping students in crisis, hosting remote events/classes/laboratories, fabricating parts, supporting research faculty and students, providing contact-free pick-up of library materials, and much more.
    • Those staff who have been primarily working remotely will be transitioning back to in-person operations at our UW Bothell campus between September 13 and September 24 2021.
    • After the transition period, all public-facing offices will be open for in-person services between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm Monday through Thursday and between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm Friday. Campus services such as the Library, the ARC, the Learning Centers, Campus Safety, etc. will provide extended hours based on their unique needs.
  • Will there be changes to operations at UW Bothell?
    • Our staff are planning to use the many lessons learned during the last year+ to enhance operations moving forward across all offices and all services.
    • Some staff members will shift to hybrid telework schedules where they work up to two days per week off campus. We are implementing these plans on a trial basis for the autumn quarter 2021.