COVID-19 Emergency Measures for Student Academic Success

The UNM Faculty recognizes that supporting instructional continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic will require unprecedented collaboration between UNM faculty, students, and staff and seconds the administration's efforts to ensure that students can continue their course work remotely in Spring 2020 and make progress to degree completion. We also understand that because of COVID-19, students may be experiencing unforeseeable challenges in accessing food, housing, health, family care, employment, and computers and the internet throughout the remainder of the semester. We implore the University to work diligently to meet these needs. Student financial aid is also at risk, and while we have supportive guidance from both the state and federal levels, there are still concerns in this area. For discretionary academic scholarships managed by UNM, we encourage the University to use GPAs from either Fall 2019 or Spring 2020 whichever is greater, to determine scholarship eligibility for Fall 2020. We are especially concerned about students who are approaching graduation. We feel that the University has an obligation to support our students through this crisis which includes eliminating administrative obstacles that may prevent them from graduating on time. For example, any incomplete that requires a student to enroll for a credit in the next semester, we strongly recommend that the University waive tuition and fees for said course. As a faculty, we encourage the administration to use wisdom and humanity in its decisionmaking and to trust in the UNM Faculty’s judgment in academic matters. We anticipate that the University’s administration will fully support the UNM Faculty as we work to keep our students engaged and focused on degree completion during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whereas the University of New Mexico is taking extraordinary measures to address the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our academic community

Whereas the UNM Faculty feels strongly that UNM students should not suffer from or be held accountable for circumstances produced by the COVID-19 pandemic

Whereas the UNM Faculty is unequivocally committed to student success; now, therefore, by unanimous vote, be it

Resolved that the UNM Faculty is:

1. committed to exercising flexibility with respect to deadlines and attendance. In order to facilitate communications during this time of crisis, Faculty commit to communicating due dates for graded assignments with a minimum of one week of advance notice. Agree to suspend graded assignments during the soft roll out period March 23 – April 5. This would apply to all courses regardless of their format or period of time offered during the semester.

2. committed to providing alternative and make-up assignments for students who have been sick or have cared for someone diagnosed with COVID-19 and will not require medical notes.

3. committed to providing students with information about electing the CR/NC grading option and will support a student's decision to choose that option throughout the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester.

4. committed to using incompletes as a last resort and only under extreme circumstances, given the undue burden that incompletes will place on both faculty and students in these uncertain times.

5. committed to working with colleagues in their degree programs to ensure that vital content is reviewed in the Fall 2020 semester to prevent penalty to students for partial gaps in prerequisite knowledge due to Spring 2020 instructional continuity challenges.

Further, be it Resolved that the UNM Faculty Senate:

1. authorizes faculty to record a grade of CR for a student who has elected a CR/NC grading option if the student has demonstrated a good faith commitment to learning and meeting the Student Learning Outcomes for the course.

2. authorizes a waiver of CR/NC requirements for Spring 2020 for undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. CR/NC courses taken in Spring 2020 will not count against the standard maximum of 24 credit hours for undergraduates and 6 credit hours for graduate and professional students.

3. authorizes that a grade of CR in a course completed in Spring 2020 may count for all degree requirements, including prerequisites within a degree program sequence, even if the degree program does not allow CR grades.

4. authorizes that if an instructor of record is impacted by COVID-19 and cannot deliver coursework in a remote instructional form, they will be allowed to grade the entire roster of students as CR/NC based upon work performed prior to March 30, 2020 unless the instructor’s department decides to assume responsibilities for completing grading on behalf of the instructor of record.

5. authorizes that any existing incomplete that is scheduled to lapse automatically to an F grade in Spring 2020 shall be extended through the Fall 2020 semester.

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