Dear Colleagues,
We want to let you know that you have all been in our thoughts over the last week. We are aware that several in our community lost power, some were without heat and others suffered damage to their homes and vehicles. We hope that you and your families remain safe. We also understand that the current campus closures so early in the term have put an additional strain on you and your students as they caused the cancellation of a number of classes. We therefore ask for flexibility in addressing the needs of students who were not able to access or complete assignments due to power and internet outages, or unexpected child and family care. As you will note below, we have made some adjustments to deadlines to support students as follows:
Academic Deadlines
As many students were not able to participate in the normal second-week class activity, we are extending the add/drop deadline to Sunday, January 28th. This means that students will have through the end of week three to make adjustments to their winter term schedule. Although we are extending the add deadline, all adds will still require instructor approval. If you want to allow a student to add your class next week, you must provide approval through the registration override module in Banweb by selecting “Faculty/Dept Approval”, then the student may add the class online through Sunday. In conjunction with extending the add/drop deadline, we will move the financial aid census date to match the new deadline, meaning students will be funded based on their final enrollment level.
Initiation of Attendance
A number of faculty have raised questions about whether the snow closures might negatively impact students related to any associated delays in the reporting of initiation of attendance. Please rest assured that such delays should not impact students as long as you record attendance as soon as they participate in educational activities (i.e. submitting an assignment, engaging in online discussion, etc).
It is important that you record the initiation of attendance by the two-week deadline when students attend in the first two weeks. However, when the initial attendance or participation occurs after the two-week mark, it is still equally important to record the late attendance as soon as it occurs. Just check the box as soon as possible. Late recording of attendance will still benefit the students and will help the Financial Aid office mitigate any negative impact.
Support for Teaching
As a reminder, instructors may find information on the Office of Academic Innovation’s Teaching in Inclement Weather webpage helpful in determining how best to accommodate both the learning outcomes for their classes and the hardships and safety needs of themselves and their students.
For questions related to academic deadlines or initiation of attendance, contact the Office of the Registrar at registrar@pdx.edu.
As always, we are grateful for your support and for your kindness and dedication,
Stay well,
Shelly Chabon, Ph.D.
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Chuck Knepfle, Ph.D.
Vice President for Enrollment Management
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