By Caden Merrill, Mar. 16, 2021
During Cal Poly Pomona’s March 10 Academic Senate meeting, the university announced that in-person instruction for the upcoming fall semester will be prioritized for courses such as labs, activities and internships. Under this policy, 750 sections are currently slated to be in-person.
The announcement, made in the Provost’s Report to the Academic Senate, added that virtual courses will remain online for the entirety of the fall semester.
Sep Eskandari, associate provost of academic planning and faculty excellence, provided insight on how classes would operate differently, especially those with face-to-face or synchronous modes of instruction.
“Fall is a transition semester as we come to a new norm. Classes with enrollment of 30 or more, we’ve asked those classes to be online. Because again, we are certain that social distancing and other risk mitigation factors will continue to have to be observed,” Eskandari said.
Eskandari also stated at least a half hour must pass in between classes in all departments to ensure that ventilation allows air in the classrooms to properly circulate.
Sylvia Alva, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, elaborated that the HyFlex pro-gram will have a significant presence as students gradually return to campus amid the ongoing pandemic, giving students the options to learn in-person or online, both synchronously or asynchronously. More information can be found in fellow Poly Post Jose Herrera’s article here: https://thepolypost.com/news/2021/03/08/cpp-gears-up-for-hyflex-pilot-program/.
“We’re really excited about it because, truthfully, we’ve been living through a pandemic, but anything can happen,” Alva said. “There could be an incident on campus that requires us to quickly rethink how we approach teaching and learning, and these kinds of models give us maximum flexibility to be able to pivot in, pivot out, and ensure that students are able to access the quality of teaching and learning that really has come to define our institution.”
In other news, Sen. Alex Small of the College of Science, presented a report detailing a possible discontinuation of the music education option under the music bachelor’s degree. The report can be found here: https://www.cpp.edu/senate/documents/packets/2020-21/03.10.21/ap-003-201_re-port_first_reading_discontinuation_music_ba_music.pdf
“The basic rationale is that the old, existing music education option is no longer compliant with some of the commission on teacher credentialing standards; but the new bachelor of music program already is suitable for students who wish to pursue a music education career and get credentials in California,” Small said. “The department has straightforward mechanisms by which students could transition into the new program without losing any progress towards their degree, and so the (Academic Programs Committee) saw no reason not to sunset the old program.”
The next Academic Senate meeting is scheduled for April 14 at 3 p.m. More information regarding the Academic Senate can be found at https://www.cpp.edu/senate/index.shtml.
Feature image courtesy of Bench Accounting.