Laurentian University is gradually shifting its teaching back to campus this month, but it’s making some accommodations for students who may not be comfortable with in-person learning due to the Omicron wave of the pandemic.
In his Feb. 15 report to LU’s senate, Laurentian president Robert Haché said the university’s staged return to campus began the week of Feb. 7 with experiential learning activities, such as labs and research activities.
Beginning the week of Feb. 28, all classes originally scheduled to be face-to-face will return to campus.
However, Haché said that in order to provide more flexibility to students, some classes originally scheduled to be delivered on campus will be offered in a hybrid format for the remainder of the term.
Faculty will contact students directly if the course they are teaching will have a hybrid option for the remainder of the term.
“Although it is not possible for all courses and face-to-face learning to be offered through hybrid delivery, the registrar, deans, faculty and staff continue to work together to discuss options to continue to support students,” Haché said, in his written report.
“I would like to acknowledge the dedication and flexibility of faculty members who have volunteered to teach in hybrid mode and members of the IT department who have worked to obtain additional technology to support the increased delivery of hybrid courses.”
Members of the Laurentian University senate also made a couple of decisions relating to the delivery mode of exams amid the ongoing pandemic.
They passed a motion that would see all theory-based sections of courses during the current term having fully online or remote evaluation methods “unless an exception is requested by the faculty member and approved by the dean.”
As well, all non-theory based sections of courses during the current term must also have online or remote evaluation options, unless there’s an exemption.
These motions were brought forward by Laurentian Students' General Association (SGA) president Eric Chappell. At Chappell’s request, and after a vote by the governing body, debate on the motions took place in camera.
Chappell said he recommended going in camera because the item “has vast impacts on student mental health,” and the conversation would most likely focus on mental health, “and could be triggering for some community members.”
He said he was concerned about the discussion possibly being “televised.”
“It is in the senate’s best interest to have the discussion in-camera to produce an environment whereby the members are comfortable having an open and frank discussion on a very important topic,” he said in his written report to senate.
While voicing his understanding that the discussion could be triggering for some, senate member Dan Scott objected to the debate being moved in camera.
“A lack of openness and transparency has caused this institution to be affected deeply in the very recent past, and we need to learn from those mistakes,” he said.
While we’re not able to report on the discussion surrounding the motion because it was in camera, Chappell said in his written rationale that there is a significant concern at Laurentian around absenteeism due to the pandemic.
“For example, suppose a professor is symptomatic on the day of a test, the test will either be moved to a later date or put online,” he said.
“However, if students are symptomatic, they have to make accommodations with the faculty member, which can be complicated.
“This barrier can have the perverse effect of encouraging students to come to the institution for convenience when they are symptomatic. Furthermore, taking this approach will help remove barriers for blended/dual delivery courses, which is the preferred option for students according to the SGA student survey.”
Also at the Feb. 15 meeting, members of LU’s senate passed a motion that will mean all fully online and remote classes in the spring 2022 term will have fully online and remote evaluation methods.
This was an extension of an earlier motion passed in November that put the same measures into place for the winter 2022 term.
The senate’s teaching and learning committee is examining the matter of evaluation methods for online and remote courses, but says it needs more time to make a permanent recommendation, thus the extension of the previous motion to include the spring 2022 term.
