Fall 2021 Scheduling

[downer]

Normally by this time of year I have a rough idea of what the fall assignments will be. This year I have very little idea, which isn't that surprising, but I don't like it.

What issues or struggles are faculty, dept chairs and deans facing in planning for the fall?

[onehappyunicorn]

At this point we are planning the schedule as if we are going to be back in-person in the fall despite knowing that we will likely have to make modifications. The leadership is in the "wait and see" phase but ideas that are being bounced around are moving to an alternating in-person schedule for students or possible cutting classroom caps in half and offering more courses online.
We will most likely go ahead and staff as per usual and hope for the best, I think the biggest challenge right now is the exhaustion from this last year. Like many of my colleagues we moved everything online without any real support.

[littleapple]

Our school is currently requiring departments to create three(!) different schedules based on how many classes can be held on campus (this academic year we have mostly been remote, with only a few labs having an in-person component).  At some point in the next month the administration will have to choose which modality seems most likely for fall, and then let us know which schedule they are going with.  I don't envy those that have to make one Fall schedule, must less three different ones.

[Ruralguy]

We're only being asked to do in person 14 week semester scheduling. However, its very likely we will devise our own alternate schedule during the summer in case we're asked to do so, which I think is somewhat likely, but depends on a number of external factors (prevalence of virus, thoroughness of vaccination, and political/governmental restrictions). 

[Parasaurolophus]

We're in the midst of scheduling like nothing's changed. But if we're back in-person at less than full capacity, then there are going to be headaches (our classrooms can hold ~7 people socially distanced, but classes are capped at 35).

[Morden]

We're in the midst of scheduling like nothing's changed. But if we're back in-person at less than full capacity, then there are going to be headaches (are classrooms can hold ~7 people socially distanced, but classes are capped at 35).

Ditto. And since we're in Canada (with slower vaccine roll out than the US), it's extremely unlikely that things will be back to normal by fall.

[Liquidambar]

Our fall schedule is in-person, so at least that part wasn't unusual.  However, we had to submit it before a lot of staffing decisions had been made.  Now it needs to be totally redone because we're short on manpower.  I guess we'll have to cut a lot of courses.  Or combine sections?  Is it fair to have someone teach their usual course load but with twice as many students, so there's twice as much grading?  It's a huge mess.

[clean]

The schedule is out.  We have reverted to the 2019 model for class delivery.  So if you were face to face in 2019, you will be this fall. 

We need the money from students being on campus. 

I am not sure about the class start dates, though.  I know that there was a 5 year schedule, so there was a start date planned.  However, I think that the start date that allowed classes to to not return after after Thanksgiving was a good idea. 

My online limits, though allow me to schedule my classes such that I can schedule classes so that I dont have to come back after (I can be remote those few days).

(my state is in the news that we have dropped the mask requirements effective in a week, so that may influence the events).

With the national news reporting that we may well have all adults vaccinated by June 1, I am pretty comfortable with the decision to return in the fall, but my schedule is for only one face to face class in the fall (as that was my 2019 schedule).

[marshwiggle]

We're in the midst of scheduling like nothing's changed. But if we're back in-person at less than full capacity, then there are going to be headaches (are classrooms can hold ~7 people socially distanced, but classes are capped at 35).

Ditto. And since we're in Canada (with slower vaccine roll out than the US), it's extremely unlikely that things will be back to normal by fall.

My concern is that the decision of whether to go in-person or remote may be delayed more than last summer to see how the rollout progresses. (For people from outside Canada, the federal government's goal is to have everyone vaccinated by "the end of September", which makes a very big question mark for classes starting at the beginning of September, and given that vaccine deliveries fluctuate wildly so the margin of error for predictions is huge.)

[the_geneticist]

We were told to plan the Fall 2021 schedule as if classes would be in person.
Next, we were told that classes under 35 (why 35?) could be in person and "large" classes could be in person only if the room was no more than 50% full.  Our largest lecture hall holds about 500.  The next largest rooms hold 300 (all both of them).  My department alone has more than 10 classes with over 100 students. 
I feel very, very sorry for whoever has to deal with the absolute cr@ptastic disaster of room scheduling!

[lightning]

It's the same BS as planning for the Spring 2021 semester and the Fall 2020 semester, in that we offer just enough in-person courses on the Schedule of Classes, to make it look like "normalcy" is returning. This is for purposes of retention even though it's disingenuous. Heck, it worked for the Spring 2021 semester and the Fall 2020 semester!

[EdnaMode]

It has been announced that our fall semester will be normal, with normal class sizes, in-person teaching, etc. My biggest concern is that just like last fall, my lab sections will be fully enrolled, but we'll still be at Covid numbers and implementing social distancing, and once again I'll have twice as many students in a lab section as can physically be in the room, and will have to cut lab time in half to accommodate all the students. I asked if lab sizes could be limited to Covid capacity until mid summer and then if things look good, make the enrollment limit higher but was turned down and told I was focusing on the negative.

[clean]

I just dont see that students will be the age group that is most negatively effected by COVID.   I dont think that we will again implement shut downs to the extent we have.  Social Distancing, maybe, might be used, but virtual classes are not going to be used as they caused too many problems for budgets.  (It is hard to run a university as it is, much less a bankrupt one!) 

It is faculty and staff that are the ones in danger, but the counter will be that the vaccine will be out to anyone that wants it by June, and if there are boosters necessary, then go get them.  (hell, they may even be offered on campus!)  But your health is only going to be of limited concern to the university, I fear.

The Bottom Line is that labs will be run, classrooms will be full, dorms will be near capacity, food service will be back, parking will be hard to find, and virtual classes will be limited to online programs.  Those are my predictions. 


If there are any historians on such things, what was done with outbreaks of polio, measles, and small pox? 

(In junior high, I was of the age where the measles vaccines were being changed, and one version seemed to lose its effectiveness just as students were entering puberty, so we all were revaccinated, but nothing else. 
With Smallpox, if there was an outbreak, the area was flooded with vaccine drives.
Polio was a summer outbreak, mostly, I believe, so even the ancient movie theater I worked at in high school touted it was Air Conditioned!  - but school wasnt particularly an issue)  So what did we do differently then?

[lightning]

It has been announced that our fall semester will be normal, with normal class sizes, in-person teaching, etc. My biggest concern is that just like last fall, my lab sections will be fully enrolled, but we'll still be at Covid numbers and implementing social distancing, and once again I'll have twice as many students in a lab section as can physically be in the room, and will have to cut lab time in half to accommodate all the students. I asked if lab sizes could be limited to Covid capacity until mid summer and then if things look good, make the enrollment limit higher but was turned down and told I was focusing on the negative.

Fear the possibility of "normal" classes, and then a few days before the beginning of class, you will get some email from some administrator with an impressive "Campus Health" title that says you have to teach half the students enrolled in the lab in-person and half the students enrolled in the lab via Zoom, at the same time, with some kind of alternating rotation schedule  that you have to concoct, manage, and enforce, on your own. --And you will get no help in providing IT support to students learning at home (you have to be your own help desk), and at the end of the semester, you will get a pat on the back for your efforts. But don't expect anything beyond a pat on the back like a COL raise, after all this, because, you know, ----COVID--you're lucky you have a university to teach at. 

[mythbuster]

We have been told that we are planning for a full face-to-face fall semester, because we all now know how to easily switch to remote if we need to last minute! Like it's no big deal and causes no confusion at all.