Present: Mahmoud Abdalla, William Arrocha, Mahabat Baimyrzaeva, Philipp Bleek, Katherine Punteney (Vice President/President Elect), Thor Sawin (President), Anna Vassilieva. Absent: Pushpa Iyer. Staff: Stacie Riley.

Follow-Up Items from March 9 Senate Meeting:

• The faculty feedback survey was sent out this afternoon. The deadline will be one week from today.
• Thor will create an anonymous Google form with the questions on the evaluation statement regarding race and ethnicity to send to the Senators for comment.
• An invitation to an upcoming Senate meeting will be sent to Hannah Ross soon.  
• Philipp forwarded Dean Burian a proposed essay prompt for program chairs about how they configure faculty teaching load allocations in their programs. Dean Burian will follow-up with Thor. A discussion about faculty workload follows:
  • Dean DePaolis has asked MPA, ITED, and IPD to rethink their programs. MPA is thinking about making all classes 3 credits (similar to IEM) to help equalize the faculty load. TSOL/TFL is also moving to 3 credits classes.
  • A full teaching load is 20 credits except in T&I where it is 16. Reducing the teaching load to 18 or 15 credits (something divisible by 3 credit classes) might be a start. It was pointed out that the policy might state a full teaching load is equal to 16 and 20 credits, but that is not what is happening in practice.
  • The prep time is the same whether you prepare a class for 5 or 20 students.  
  • Enrollment in classes seems to be the most problematic to include in this type of a metric, however, the amount of individual feedback might be something to consider.
  • Directed study needs to be counted in teaching load in two categories: mandatory versus voluntary. There is a big difference in the workload.
  • The idea of complete equity is setting us up for defeat.

This is a massive conversation that everyone agrees should be on the agenda for academic year 2021/2022.

Feedback from the Faculty Town Hall on March 11: The Institute Council announced the fall 2021 plans for HyFlex teaching. What should the Senate share back to the Council regarding how faculty are feeling and what steps can be taken to help faculty be equipped for the challenges of teaching in the fall?

• It has been four semesters in a row of crazy changes. Spring 2020 emergency movement to online courses, fall 2020/spring 2021 creating meaningful online context, and now fall 2021 a HyFlex model.  
• It would be helpful to see specific models of what other people have been doing, a HyFlex template or syllabus.
• Create conversations groups among faculty, even cross-programmatically.
• Chronicle of Higher Education published an article with the pros, cons, and challenges of HyFlex education.
  • Ensure that the Institute Council has access to and has read this article.
  • The need for appropriate space is the main requirement for true inclusivity.
• Have DLINQ organize a share out from college faculty about how they addressed these challenges:
  • What they did with students while in quarantine
  • How they accommodated students from a distance.
• Space and technology are issues. Faculty need details on the efforts to prepare the space and technology, a minor “Manhattan Project” effort to meet these needs with clear details on tech support.
• A clear statement from the Administration that they understand this is going to be challenging and that it is going to entail trade-offs. Some of us will work harder, but there will be limits to how hard and the fairness of the work. There needs to be a statement of clear empathy from leadership.
• Share the results of the second-year student survey as soon as possible (mid-April survey and scheduled mid-July survey).
• Teaching in the language with students both online and in-person is especially challenging and likely to shortchange those online.
  • We need clear examples of how this has looked and what the extra time demands are.
  • Language classes have very little content delivery, which is what HyFlex research assumes. This is going to be very challenging.
• Some of the second-year students will remain remote (some programs promised they could finish their degree remotely), but realistically how many of the first-year cohort will be accommodated at a distance?
  • Is it just a hope that first-year students will be in-residence during the fall 2021 semester, or is it a policy?
  • What is Admissions saying to these students? Are they trying to attract distance learning first-year students or are they telling them if they cannot come to Monterey they need to defer for a year?
• With space constraints how many students can be on campus? Do we have to accommodate online students based purely on space constraints?
• Faculty need assurance that they will have unlimited access to their offices in order to accommodate the extra work of HyFlex education.
• TAs managing online students makes the faculty work much easier.
  • Can MIIS expand the capacity to assign TAs to any faculty who want one, for instance shifting some faculty development funds to this purpose?
  • Can TAs start prior to the beginning of the fall semester?
• How many courses are realistically going to be taught via HyFlex per program? It could be a smaller number than previously thought and knowing the answer could diminish anxiety.
  • IEM is planning to do one in-person class followed by the same class online instead of HyFlex. TESOL/TFL plans to do the same.
  • Some faculty thought all classes were going to be taught HyFlex and are shocked that this is not the case.
  • Language classes, which are some of the smallest classes at MIIS, do not have the capacity to accommodate the diversity of modality on top of diversity of content and diversity of proficiency.
• Will there be access to the library?
• Are we setting ourselves up for defeat?
  • Imagine a scenario of a five-hour weekend workshop where the tech breaks down in the middle of the day. This could lead to many dissatisfied students.
• Clarity about whether faculty can continue to teach strictly from Zoom and have in-person office hours. Do programs have the authority to decide which classes will be taught by HyFlex?
• Will faculty be required to be based in Monterey for a certain amount of time (similar to Barry Olsen)?
  • We need clarity on the proposal about half the usual contact hours with exceptions for certain individuals.
• Faculty are largely willing to give to the Institute in all the ways listed above. What can the Institute offer us?
  • More training/mentoring?
  • Will evaluation criteria be changed?
  • Will there be increased access to technology?
  • Do faculty have more rights to not be on campus than they did in the pre-COVID world?
  • Can we create a compact with what each party will offer the other?