From:
"_ ec22@uw.edu" <ec22@uw.edu>
Subject:
[Execaaup] From the UW-AAUP Executive Board
Date:
July 9, 2021 at 11:24:47 AM PDT
To:
markrich@uw.edu
Cc:
execaaup@uw.edu
Dear Provost Richards,
As you
have acknowledged, UW faculty have shown extraordinary dedication to their
students over the past 16 months. We have indeed worked far more hours on our
teaching during the pandemic to provide instructional continuity, pedagogical
excellence, and the extra support our students needed through these turbulent
quarters of remote instruction. Too many faculty have
put research agendas on hold to work exclusively on teaching and mentoring,
doing so while experiencing our own losses and traumas.
UW
faculty will continue to demonstrate collective and individual commitments to
our students as the state’s pandemic response evolves. However, we must keep in
mind during this evolution that the interests of students and faculty are
aligned, not opposed: students are not well served when exhausted faculty are
operating on the edge of burnout.
Regarding
instruction in Fall 2021, we have received guidelines only from the Center for
Teaching and Learning (https://teaching.washington.edu/topics/preparing-for-autumn-2021/).
Most of the CTL recommendations are open to a range of interpretations, and in
some cases, recommendations appear contradictory. “Instructors are not expected
to develop two versions of the same course. But please do consider how remote
students might be supported in a course where the majority of students are
in-person,” the CTL writes. The concept of a “majority” in-person class –
implying, as it does, the existence of a smaller (minority) contingent of
remote students in these classes – suggests precisely that instructors are
expected to develop two versions of the same course, or in other words, that
multi-modal teaching will be the norm in the 2021-2022 academic year, and
perhaps beyond.
We understand the pedagogical, public health, and ethical reasons
for building maximum flexibility into course offerings, and
affirm again our commitment to equity and student access. We’ve taught for
equity long before COVID-19, using principles including universal course
design, going above and beyond DRS recommendations to accommodate all students.
Nevertheless, CTL guidelines largely expand the framework of “accessibility,”
and UW faculty are deeply concerned regarding post-COVID workload
increases given our experiences over the past 16 months. Thus, the
AAUP asks for clarification regarding what instruction and “in-person”
learning now means at the University of Washington.
Will students requesting to take classes remotely (for designed
in-person classes) be referred to an office such as DRS to provide support for
their accommodation request? In the pre-Covid context,
students requesting accommodation were required to work through DRS, where
trained professionals, not the instructor, determined eligibility for
accommodation through a formalized process. DRS offers both students and faculty
crucial forms of support to implement such accommodations. Imagine a scenario
in which a relatively small number of students are unable to safely return to
campus in the fall; such an additional small number of students might be
accommodated through DRS; indeed, most of us willingly accommodate students on
an ad hoc basis who need to miss class sessions or tests. This is
however an altogether different scenario from one in which a much larger
“minority” of students remain remote for an array of reasons, including
caretaking responsibilities or work schedules.
UW faculty are committed to access and equity for our students.
The pressures on students working full-time jobs, providing child
care, and commuting long distances while attempting to remain as students
earning their degrees are real and staggering, long pre-existing the pandemic. But
the cost of accommodation must not fall upon the faculty in the form
of an uncompensated overload. The problem is not solved by claiming (as
the CTL guidelines appear to do) that this is simply a matter of faculty
flexibility, up-to-date pedagogy, and adroit use of technology, rather than
identifying it for what it truly is: a substantial escalation of faculty
teaching loads.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Western Washington
University administration and its faculty union (United Faculty of Western
Washington) states: “No instructor will be required to teach a section
including both remote and in-person students. Instructors who choose to teach
in a mixed modality (both in-person and remote instruction in some manner) can
expect to receive necessary support.” The MOU further stipulates that “if a
faculty member teaches a course with mixed modality (where, for example, some
students attend in person and other students attend remotely, or classes are
split periodically into smaller face-to-face meetings along with asynchronous
remote instruction, then the faculty member, the chair, and the dean will
determine the amount of extra workload in credit hour terms” and the faculty
member will be compensated at “50% of the usual overload rate.” (At Western,
this would be 1/72 of the faculty member’s annual academic salary per
additional credit hour.)
The principle here is clear: this form of multi-modal teaching
raises faculty course workloads. Faculty must retain the option to
choose (or not) to assume this overload and, if they opt to do so, they must be
compensated accordingly. Can UW faculty receive the same assurance from our
university leadership?
We are asking for unambiguous guidelines that can inform the work
of all academic units as course offerings and expectations are defined
in each program. Because resources and practices vary greatly
between units, it is imperative to have central guiding principles, such as
Western’s MOU, recognizing the workload implications of multi-modal
instruction.
Most UW faculty use the summer to prepare for next year’s
teaching, and it is critically important for us to know what we are actually
preparing for, ensuring that our students have the best experience possible. To
this end, we request your preliminary response by July 23, 2021.
Respectfully,
The UW-AAUP Executive Board
Eva Cherniavsky
Andrew R. Hilen
Professor of American Literature and Culture
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of English
Box 354330
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
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