Faculty Senate – October 28, 2020
Wednesday, October 28, 3:30-5:00pm, Zoom Link.
Audio and chat are posted on this webpage shortly after the meeting.
Final Agenda
Announcements [slides, 5 min]
Resolution to Name a NC Residence After Barbara McClintock [slides, 5 min]
Discussion (C. Van Loan)
Resolution on RTE Percent Limitation Approval Procedures [slides, 10 min]
Discussion (C. Van Loan)
Resolution on RTE Percentage Caps in the CVM [slides, 20 min]
Discussion (Dean Lorin Warnick, A. Travis and S. Fubini)
Recommended Changes to the Code of Academic Integrity [slides, 10 min]
Vote
Timely Discussions [40 min]
Revised Student Code of Conduct [ slides]
Positioning of “Breaks” in the S21 Semester [ slides ] [ see below including comments]
Let’s please take a couple days off in the spring! We are all going to need a break.
Not just the students. Maybe two days mid-week so less temptation for travel.
I strongly prefer we have an extended break, not just 1-day breaks scattered throughout the semester. 1-day breaks are not enough to allow students a mental breather from their schoolwork. I understand people are worried about students traveling to places during extended breaks, but that happens anyway during weekends. If we had an extended break and monitored students’ status (surveillance testing, etc) as they came back, that would be more effective.
Please give us a break in the spring
No break or only one day will cause more mental health problems and spread more stress
Students need break
2+ breaks pleaseee
As a current undergrad student, I do not any of my peers who used the one day off to relax. We were all were using it to catch up on the enormous amounts of school work we needed to finish. The people suggesting that the one day break was enough for us or that we don’t need any breaks in the spring semester are either very out of touch with students’ mental health needs or don’t interact with any of us on a daily basis. Please consider adding more breaks into the spring semester.
Please give more than one day of break; students and faculty have their limits, and having so few days off will surely worsen the mental health of students who are already have a lot on their plate.
I would like to propose having two days off in the middle of the week if student travel is a concern. Either Tues/Weds or Weds/Thurs. This semester has been untenable for undergraduate students. We are all suffering immensely from the lack of breaks. Please, I beg you to consider the exhaustion of EVERYONE involved.
I am a current student and would greatly appreciate more break days for my mental health. I wouldn’t mind more weeks with only 1 break day too (like fall break this year) if people traveling is an issue.
Please dont reduce the break! Sparsely placed breaks mid week are totally fine!
I’m a current student right now, and Professors have been piling up so much extra homework to us students. I don’t know why that is- but I’ve literally never been this busy before during the past three years and I’m taking more “chill” courses in my STEM major this semester. I live my days looking forward to the next break, because it gives me time to catch up and actually relax. Breaks are, I would argue, absolutely necessary for the good of our mental health. I understand that we cannot implement long stretches of breaks, but maybe having 1 Wednesday off every month makes me feel so much more comfortable going into the semester. Please consider!
I have noticed a sharp decline in the state of my peers’ mental health this semester. While the pandemic is certainly a factor, the fact that there was only a single day of break played a role as well. It can feel as though each day gets repetitive filled with nothing but work that piles on endlessly. A longer break (especially in the middle of prelim season) can be invaluable for students’ mental health
There needs to be more breaks! Going nonstop like this for a full semester is exhausting and discouraging!
I think multiple, single day breaks, spaced out periodically would be beneficial. I.E, take the number of desired days off, and intersperse them throughout the semester. The short duration of any single break will decentivise travel, while the accumulated break time will preserve sanity.
If it comes down to a 1-day break in the spring semester that’s fine, but there should be some sort of policy in place where professors are not allowed to give exams/papers/have anything due on weekends or on our 1-day break. Professors have been eagerly giving exams on weekends and making papers due on weekends which is completely absurd in my opinion if we’re not getting any breaks and the weekend is supposed to be our “break”.
-a burnt out undergrad student
Having few breaks will be devastating for the mental health and fitness of students and faculty. How about multiple 1-2 day breaks mid week, spread out say once every 2-3 weeks.
Several short breaks for sure. But please do something preventing professors from making large assignments due or scheduling prelims for the day back. Especially with single day breaks– it’s not really a break if I have to study for an exam the next day.
I strongly prefer an extended break, not just a 1 day midweek break. This allows students a true mental break from the stress of classes. I think we could monitor students with testing to ensure that we don’t have an outbreak. Even having the break on a Monday or Friday would provide more of a break than a midday week break, which isn’t really a break at all, from what students told me this semester. The mental health aspect is reallly important – even more as we head into a 3rd semester of the pandemic.
I strongly prefer several breaks next semester that are not midweek. The students’ mental health will benefit much more from a longer break. As we are heading into a 3rd semester of the pandemic, ensuring that we address mental health with adequate breaks for both students and professors will be very important.
Shorter breaks within the semester are great, but I think at least one extended break–whether 3 days or a week–is equally important. Students take courses 4-5 days a week with exams sometimes happening over weekends. A proper break over several days is the only way to give them and faculty space to recalibrate in a meaningful way. It’s also a way to ensure that courses don’t misread these days as unofficial work days. One day a week–whether a MTW or TTh–is often functionally not a break in terms of quality relative to a two-day stretch, say W/Th.
Students AND faculty need breaks, primarily for mental health and time management. Many students and faculty are experiencing an even more intense burnout than usual, and one-day breaks often don’t feel like breaks at all.
We know from comments on social media and private conversations that people (not only students) go elsewhere when they need to for family or medical reasons. I think Spring semester is often more stressful than Fall semester, and that facing another term knowing there is no substantial break to anticipate is a formidable barrier to successful completion of the the semester. I wonder whether the lack of a Spring Break may even tip some students into deciding not coming back for Spring semester?
How about we have 1 day break each month that doubles as the “snow day” for the preceding month. If there ends up needing to be a cancellation of classes, that day is “used up” but if there isn’t, the students get that day off on the designated day. That would allow faculty to plan for a consistent amount of teaching days while students can expect some time off.
As a faculty member, I think we need a couple of breaks for both the students and faculty. I would prefer breaks that would discourage travel away from campus. I think one day or two day breaks in the middle of the week two or three times in the semester would be good.
As faculty member, I strongly support multiple one-day breaks, positioned on alternating days mid-week, to support the mental health of students. Another marathon like the current semester is untenable. Faculty should be asked to arrange their syllabi to avoid having major commitments due right after these breaks to allow students to take a true day of rest.
I concur and suggest that, if we end up with too many breaks on mid-week days, that we could classify some remaining days in the semester as “Wednesday schedule”, for example, on a Tuesday, so that an even number of days of the week are affected, if not in reality, then in class schedule.
More than one day of break, please! The single Wednesday off this Fall was barely adequate for students and faculty with primarily M-W-F class schedules and no break at all for those with primarily T-Th schedules.
A single one day break is worthless. Why not keep us all online through mid March and then a one-week break (while folks return to campus etc) and then in-person through the end of the semester – ending a week later?
This seems like an excellent solution- similar to this semester but in reverse.
Comment here from current faculty. I have seen and experienced a lot of stress from students (also clearly reflected in the comments) and agree that it would be beneficial to them to consider a greater number of single-day breaks throughout the semester. I finished my own undergraduate degree not so long ago at Yale, where we did not receive any break until the week of Thanksgiving, and I do not believe that it is cruel or unusual to have a semester without days off. However, I think that we faculty are not used to crafting a semester for our Cornell students with that in mind, and until such time as we are able to do so–and given the markedly different tenor of the current climate–we should consider building in some days of respite.
Students and faculty need more than a 1-day break. There is so much stress this fall, the pandemic, the election, racial violence…and we all needed a longer break.
I suggest we offer several two-day breaks during the spring semester, when there are no large assignments, quizzes, tests, allowed over those days, and when we entice students to stay on campus to relax and rejuvenate, and discourage them from leaving – sign a contract, if you are coming back for the spring semester, you stay in Ithaca until the end of May. During breaks, Cornell would plan fun, socially distanced events…bus trips for students to local hiking trails, meditation sessions, outdoor carnival games on the football field, free ice cream, outdoor concerts with masks… Give them a break, and give them something fun to do on campus (other colleges have always traditionally had winter or spring carnival weekends) – set up a survey and let students vote for the options they would like to see over breaks.
My students tell me they feel like this has been one long semester with no break. Added to the isolation many of them feel, this is not sustainable. I agree that an extended break that allows for travel is not a good idea. But we do need to have at least one planned two-day break in either March or April. Adding to that a day off on the other month (which can be substituted for by a snow day if that were to happen) would be helpful.
What if we focus on what produces health and what the purpose of a break is? I agree with so many comment above that a one-day break that is end-capped by exams/assignments due is no break at all — it’s just “sit sit sit work work work screentime galore scramble catch-up study” time. What if the given break is actually a mandate to faculty to REQUIRE NO STUDENT WORK but students can get points for attending socially distanced fun and social and health activities put on by Cornell? Why can’t we be creative enough to incentivize students to NOT travel and to stay and have some healthy fun?
All of the student comments on this thread about the need for actual breaks lines up with what I’ve been hearing from students about the strain they are feeling. I am aware of how the stress is mounting during this period when the days are getting colder and shorter, and the lead-up to final exams and projects has begun. A single day off is, for students (and faculty), no day off at all. The strain of the pandemic and its consequences are showing for everyone. Faculty and students need breaks that are actual breaks. There must be a way do design these that account for the need to discourage travel. And there must be a way to ensure that faculty offer some work relief on breaks and weekends.
I recommend two-day breaks midweek (giving a break to those teaching MWF and TR schedules). Scheduling two of these plus a one-day break on a Friday would make up for the typical spring break.
We need a break The 1-day Fall break was akin to nothing.
WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS – i understand the interest to not have students go home and return (long weekends, week breaks). but going the full semester with no breaks is devastating. other universities are doing regular mid-week breaks with no class, no exams, no assignments, but with free university offered wellness activities (breathing, etc). regular could be every other wednesday, once a month.
A mid-week break like the one in the fall just becomes another work day for catching up on all the unfinished tasks. I’m not sure how to encourage students and faculty to really take the day off for mental health. Making it into a long weekend might help although then students might try to travel. Some planned activities to encourage walks outside or true disengagement from work on the break days might be worth considering.
I agree with the comments above about the importance of an extended break so that students and professors can have a chance to breathe during the semester. 1 -day breaks are not sufficient to recharge and finish the semester mentally strong. Why not surveillance test and require students to stay in Ithaca during the break?
We need more than a single-day break. All of my students simply used our one day “off” this fall to work… they were overwhelmed and couldn’t even think of that one day as “off”. If shorter breaks are more desirable than a longer break, we need at least two in a row, maybe more.
To truly care for the staff and faculty whose children are in school, schedule a break of at least 2-3 days during the ICSD break (April 5-9).
Single day breaks don’t really give students a break. And, single days randomly sprinkled throughout the semester make laboratory courses nearly impossible to schedule/administer.
A black out week of no assignments/prelims/etc. would allow a breather, while dissuading travel and limiting scheduling issues. Faculty compliance would have to be enforced.
I think an extended break is important, rather than multiple one day breaks.
The students really, truly need a break that’s longer than a day or two. Learning THIS semester has suffered greatly from the absence of just an October Break, and Spring Break is an even more important outlet.
Clarity and timeliness regarding breaks is essential in order to prepare course syllabi well in advance of the semester. I appreciate that scheduling in light of the COVID19 response has been a moving target, however particularly for faculty teaching in-person/remote and non-synchronous remote simultaneously, it’s important that these decisions are established (and communicated) as soon as possible. Regular breaks are essential for stress relief.
I strongly agree with those who say that 1-day breaks are pointless and that a minimum of 2-day breaks are necessary. If we also stay away from M or F to discourage travel, then I propose either: 1) two 3-day breaks, TWR, positioned one-third and two-thirds thru the semester; or 2) three 2-day breaks arranged T-W and W-R, approximately 25%, 50%, and 75% way through the semester. Yes, W would be disproportionately affected, but we can’t have everything. There is no “perfect” solution, folks!
As a faculty member, I did not feel like the one day break this fall was enough. I did encourage my students to get out and see the fall color, and I did so myself (well, in the late afternoon), but the hybrid teaching is so intense that it was not enough. About a third of my students took the day off. We are all pretty exhausted going into the second half of the term.
We will definitely need breaks. Myself and everyone I know all feel extremely burnt out. The stress of the pandemic, the world, the country, and the future on top of school has been too much to handle. My mental health has suffered a lot. I understand the tendency to not want longer breaks to deter off campus travel but a single day break like this semester will not be sufficient. Maybe multiple single day breaks, but honestly one day (particularly in the middle of the week) just feels like another day to work and work like always. If we had a longer break (which I personally would prefer), maybe we could mandate a check in or a COVID test to ensure we remain in Ithaca
Having no breaks seemed very hard on the students (and faculty) in an already hard semester.
Please be considerate of faculty with children and coordinate the breaks with ICSD breaks.
Can the Cornell breaks please be aligned with the ICSD breaks?
What about two-day breaks in the middle of the second week of March, April and May? Each two-day break would happen on a real Wednesday and Thursday, but the the order of the days of the week would change on the second week for April and May. So, while March break week would have classes M, T W, Th, F with the break on W and Th, the April break week would have the days of the week “altered” so that week would start with W, Th, F, M, T with break days on the altered F and M (still an actual W and Th). The Monday of May break week would start with Th classes, followed by F, M, Tu, W with the break on the faux M and Tu (still an actual W and Th). This would give students a distributed “full week” off during the semester and not seriously short-change any class falling on a particular day of the week (although in this scheme, two “Mondays” are break days – this could be altered to make any day of the week the day with the double break). This model would place breaks in the middle of the week to discourage travel but also give a longer break than just one day.
One day break is just an extra day for work, not an actual break. it’s helpful, but we need more or more spread out.