Communications from the Dean

Dear CAS Students,

The recent killings of eight people in Atlanta-area businesses are heinous not only for their senseless claim of innocent human lives; the fact that six of the victims are women of Asian descent draws renewed attention to the deplorable rise of hate and violence against Asian Americans, along with the societal cancer of misogyny, in the United States.

An attack on any one member of our society is an attack on all of us. We share a moral responsibility to help and protect one another, and to ensure that the justice of human life and equality remains preserved. The recent killings in Georgia should outrage us all, and prompt us to be conscientious about how we can assist those in our community who have been affected by this tragedy.

In response, President Andrew Hamilton issued a necessary statement: “We at NYU stand together with the Asian community in mourning the murdered, in repudiating and opposing those who fan the fires of hate and stoke them with violent acts, and in letting the members of this community at NYU know that they are welcome here, that they are supported, that they belong here, and that as an institution we remain committed to their safety and well-being.”

On behalf of the College of Arts and Science at New York University, I likewise wish to extend my condolences to the families of those recently murdered. I also wish to recognize the increasing evidence of hate and violence committed against members of the Asian American community in our country. We must abhor any such expressions and actions of xenophobia anywhere and, if they occur, in our own CAS community. Asian American faculty, staff, and students have long been—and, of course, remain—citizens crucial to the legacy, life, and future of the College. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are unwavering principles that extend to all communities around and including us that rightly seek to improve the sense and existence of belonging at NYU. I should also note, finally, that the insidious misogyny of the killings, also rampant in our country, also cannot be ignored, and that it likewise persists as a societal challenge we must overcome and stamp out.

For additional resources that can help one through this moment, please consult the Office of Global Inclusion Anti-Racism Resources webpage, its Toolkit for Navigating Difficult Conversations Related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism, and its Resources for Addressing Anti-Asian Racism. One can also visit the NYU Asian/Pacific/American Institute information on anti-Asian discrimination and harrassment.

Finally, with respect to our own staff, Candace Sumner-Robinson (csrobinson@nyu.edu), CAS Assistant Dean of Diversity and International Student Advising and the Director of the Academic Achievement Program, is available in case one needs additional support and resources at this time.

Wishing you the best,

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett (he/him/his)
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Class of 2021,

The College of Arts and Science Baccalaureate Ceremony, or what we have come simply to call “Baccalaureate,” is an event we customarily have held for our graduating students toward the end of May, coinciding with the annual schedule of Commencement at New York University. Ranging from speeches and handshakes to cheers and picture-taking, the activities of graduation constitute the academic tradition that many of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced before and may wish to enjoy again.

I regret to say that we cannot congregate in person for Class of 2021’s Baccalaureate for the same set of reasons, as President Andrew Hamilton just announced, that All-University Commencement cannot occur in person this year either.

For nearly a year, New York University has been heeding the warnings of public health authorities as well as city and state officials by restricting in-person gatherings and protecting the health and safety of our community from  the COVID pandemic. Our need during last year’s graduation season to conduct remotely various academic engagements among faculty, students, and staff has persisted into this year’s graduation season, when the health hazard of the pandemic and the limits imposed on large social gatherings remain in place. 

Despite our efforts to imagine alternative graduation scenarios that could feasibly be run in person, our consultation with the University and our own internal planning confirmed that certain governmental and societal factors (ranging from the slow pace of mass vaccinations to the epidemiological uncertainty surrounding coronavirus mutations) will continue to restrict in-person large gatherings. We believe such a restriction will not be lifted any time soon to enable any large in-person event.

Last year, equivalent circumstances of public health and safety prompted us to schedule for Class of 2020 a unique virtual tribute. For that celebration we featured distinguished remarks, photographs, music, a toast, and an interactive opportunity where all well-wishers could express, in real time, congratulations via social media. Graduates had their names showcased during the tribute, which also was available for subsequent viewing on our CAS website and entered into the official NYU archives. Ultimately, that tribute was viewed and enjoyed by thousands all around the world in real time and afterward. 

We plan to produce a virtual tribute to the CAS Class of 2021 this year. All eligible graduating students should mark on their calendars Tuesday, May 18, 2021, the date when the event goes live online. In this web-based experience, we will make sure that the story of your graduation is told with the significance you have come to expect at NYU, and that your social connections with your classmates will thrive. 

Admittedly, I write this message with a heavy heart. I know that graduating students last year, in Class of 2020, still patiently await their own in-person event. I myself am looking 

forward to a time when the mist of uncertainty will dissipate, and when the pathway toward holding their in-person event—and, in due course, yours—to recognize student accomplishments will be clearer. Until that moment arrives, we are hopeful that this year’s virtual tribute will fill you with Violet Pride, just as last year’s virtual event turned out to be one of which graduating students, along with their families and friends, were proud.

We will provide you more information about our virtual event as soon as we are able, so stay tuned. I am sure that many of you will have a series of questions to which we will not have exact answers. We plan to consult the leadership of CAS Student Council for ideas, so do relay yours to them. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep you informed over the upcoming weeks and months about our plans.

I thank you in advance for your resiliency and cooperation.  If you have questions, please consult the CAS Senior Class page or email cas.baccalaureate@nyu.edu.

Sincerely,

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett (he/him/his)
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students,

Welcome to the Spring semester at the College of Arts and Science at New York University. As unsettling as the world has been beyond NYU, I hope the holiday season was a time of rejuvenation so that you could prepare for your upcoming set of courses in the College.

This academic year I have written to you twice before: the first time about your moral responsibility to one another amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the second time about your civic responsibility to remain open to one another during a competitive election season. This time, I want to talk with you about another kind of responsibility that many of you have already well demonstrated but one that we should reiterate: your own responsibility as learners.

Very recently, I communicated with faculty about their responsibilities as teachers: the extent that courses taught in the College are attending to the major concerns that arise in classrooms of higher education today. Now that we have spent the past several months working under remote circumstances amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been able to accumulate and learn a series of lessons about how we can improve even more our ability to educate and engage you both within a course and outside it.

These lessons came from multiple sources: they emerged partly from our own research in partnership with faculty, and partly from the feedback we received from you either individually or by way of CAS Student Council. To our faculty, I stated that if we increase our collective attention to just five things—pedagogy, syllabi, office hours, academic integrity, and affordability—we can position ourselves more consistently to provide the high quality of education you seek to obtain in the College of Arts and Science. You can read my message to the faculty here.

But the responsibility our faculty bear as teachers goes hand in hand with the responsibility you bear as learners. By responsible learning, I mean the way that your education depends on your mindfulness of important expectations surrounding your courses’ social and intellectual inclusiveness, their encouragement of academic freedom and intellectual exchange, as well as their principles and practices of academic integrity.

I am providing here a straightforward checklist of 5 recommendations that, together, highlight our support of responsible learning—namely, your opportunity to clarify and fulfill the educational expectations that come with each and every course you take.

My goal is to circulate the following recommendations—which will be regularly updated—at the outset of each academic year, and to post it to one of the permanent CAS webpages.

Checklist for Responsible Learning

1. Syllabi. By the first day of class, please expect to receive and examine a written syllabus for each course you take, in order to learn the instructor’s full set of policies and practices.

2. Course Expectations. Please seek to understand the general expectations that your course instructors have for you, so that you can envision your ability to excel in completing assessments and to seek additional academic help in this endeavor. These expectations should be gathered, for example, from the written syllabi you receive from your instructors by the first day of class, along with the community agreements, grading rubrics, and other topics of conversation you discuss with them early in the semester.

3. Office Hours. Please take advantage of your instructors’ office hours, so that you can have opportunities to talk with them respectively about your classes and how well you are doing in them.

4. Inclusive Learning. Rest assured, a goal of mine is to ensure that CAS courses are aspiring to provide inclusive learning environments. By the same token, you should try to be inclusive in your own involvement in the course, ranging from your own considerate comments to your own behavior toward others in class.

5. Academic Integrity. Academic integrity is invaluable to higher education: it is a fundamental habit of intellectually honesty and academic responsibility. Please abide by all principles of academic integrity, underwritten by University policies, College policies, and our honor code. All successful courses depend on the requirement of students to submit work—whether a timed test or a paper, a problem set or a project—which can be verified as authentically yours and which can be held accountable to the policies of assessment stated by instructors.

I am hopeful that, as we advance a shared culture of responsible teaching and learning in the College, the high quality of education you seek and the academic excellence you hope to achieve are well within reach.

Sincerely,

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett (he/him/his)
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear Colleagues,

Despite volatility of the broader world, I hope your holiday season was restful and productive, in preparation for another semester of educating our students this academic year.

Now that we, as a community of faculty, have spent the past several months working under remote circumstances amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been able to accumulate and learn a series of lessons in the College of Arts and Science at New York University about how we can improve even more our ability to educate and engage our students both within a course and outside it. (These lessons have emerged partly from our own research in partnership with faculty, and partly from the feedback we have received from individual students, student groups, and CAS Student Council.) The challenges we have had to overcome should not be underestimated: they include maintaining public safety and health; strengthening our pedagogic dexterity with online software and computer technology; sustaining our professional focus despite societal distractions; as well as planning our undergraduate curriculum with strategic mindfulness and precision.

I have great confidence that the majority of our undergraduate curriculum is exceptional for being academically expansive and intensive. But the various challenges of this past year have thrown into sharp relief the fundamental responsibility that comes with teaching our students. Whether we are teaching a large lecture course with close to 1,000 students or a seminar of about 10 students, we must always anchor excellent teaching to, at minimum, responsible teaching.

Responsible teaching is the foundation on which excellent teaching rests in the College. I am providing at your convenience a checklist of 5 recommendations you can follow to confirm that your course is attending to the major concerns that tend to arise in classrooms of higher education today.

For each recommendation, I have included relevant webpages ranging from the advice of the CAS Undergraduate Curriculum Committee to the guidelines articulated by the broader University. This message, therefore, represents the bridge between, on the one hand, the rigorously upheld criteria for new courses in the College and, on the other, the standards we should uphold year after year in maintaining the high quality of our longstanding courses.

My goal is to circulate the following recommendations—which will be regularly updated—at the outset of each academic year, and to post it to one of our permanent CAS webpages. Please note that I have also written to our students a companion message on their responsibility as learners, which I likewise plan to circulate annually. You can read my message to the students here.  

Checklist for Responsible Teaching

1. Pedagogy. Please ensure that your method and practice of teaching are thoughtful and updated. Do seek to refine your teaching materials and course expectations, including community agreements, to be inclusive of different kinds of students, even as your course enjoys the privilege of academic freedom. Please be sure also to assess your students consistently and fairly across assignments.

2. Syllabi. For each course you are teaching, please circulate to your students, such as through the learning management system NYU Classes, a written syllabus by the first day of class, which also is the ideal class to describe its details. The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee has recommended information that should be included in a syllabus, such as the course’s meeting times, a description of the course’s goal and learning outcomes, course materials, course assignments, disability accommodations, office hours, and policies about academic assessment and academic integrity.

3. Office Hours. Please designate as office hours regularly-scheduled time slots when students may visit you or other course instructors to discuss course content, learn more about faculty research, and meet other advising needs. You can review our CAS webpage to learn why office hours are important for New York state requirements, why they may matter to you, and why they do matter to our students.

4. Academic Integrity. Please address violations of academic integrity in a preemptive way, talking with your students at the outset of the semester about the alignment of University policies, College policies, and our honor code. If students do violate academic integrity policies, penalties should be consistently applied across students and proportionate to the offense. We have articulated a host of practices to uphold academic integrity here.

5. Affordability. If educationally feasible, please aim to make the materials needed for your courses as affordable as possible. The College and the University have been working together to reduce or eliminate the costs of course materials, ranging from textbooks to computing software and hardware, in effect minimizing the expenses students incur after they have enrolled in a course.

By increasing our collective attention to just five things—pedagogy, syllabi, office hours, academic integrity, and affordability—we can advance a shared culture of responsible teaching and learning whereby the quality of education we provide our students inevitably will rise, and the examples of excellent teaching, I believe, should increase in wonderful proportion. 

Thanks in advance for your cooperation, and I hope you have a successful semester.

Sincerely,

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett (he/him/his)
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students,

Election Day, as it arrives tomorrow, has spawned a political season more consequential than what we have encountered in previous years. Of course, this year’s elections include the standard opportunities to approve or disapprove ballot measures as well as to vote for candidates for local, state, and federal political offices—above all, for President and Vice President of the United States. But we are also living amid a devastating pandemic. Given the public health and safety protocols by which we must abide, voting in this year’s elections has been a process more complicated than usual, in fact.

On the eve of Election Day, I am writing to indicate, first of all, that you have a range of electoral and educational resources at your disposal in case you have not already voted. For example, you can consult the nonprofit, nonpartisan site Vote.org for basic information, including the very political details on your own ballot and the designated site of your polling place, based on your own residential address; the nature and implications of mailing your completed ballot by post; and the location of an authorized dropbox where you could deposit your completed ballot.

NYU Votes also represents New York University’s own website that distills general voting information while providing more specific and strategic details on how you can register to vote, select your voting method, and get reminders about the election. The NYU Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation is also planning a number of University-wide election programming and resources that you should consider as well.

But Election Day tomorrow is consequential for yet another reason. In many corners of mainstream and social media, highly partisan and polarized discourse has characterized this year’s elections as a crucial inflection point in the future of this country. Everyone is entitled to one’s own political opinions, and all eligible citizens are entitled to express those opinions on the ballot. Nonetheless, at NYU and particularly in the College of Arts and Science, we do have explicit points of reference about our educational mission and the kind of environment we are cultivating to advance it.

As President Andrew Hamilton noted in his letter a week ago to the NYU Community, “let us be guided by our community’s values: faith in the power of truth and facts, a commitment to free speech and dispassionate reason, belief in respect and inclusion, a longing for justice, and confidence in the democratic process.”

President Hamilton’s stated themes intersect with my own, which I have already communicated to you and our colleagues on two recent occasions: this past June, in recognition of the global protests against racial injustice and inequity; and this past September, in establishing a CAS council focused on conceiving and implementing lessons, practices, and strategies for advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the best interest of our students.

These are but two examples of a longer arc of stories I have told the CAS community. Each year, during our convocation and commencement ceremonies for our first-years and seniors, respectively, I remark on the legacy of CAS students who have acquired academic knowledge and developed the interpersonal skills to be civically engaged in their own communities. That legacy should inform and inspire our current and future students in the College.

In our intensely divided and divisive world, we should remember that, in the College, we form an academic community where every single member is valuable and belongs. When there are deep disagreements and strong opinions, we should gravitate toward curiosity rather than pass judgment. Even when uncomfortable to do so, we should intellectually commit ourselves to staying open-minded and considering all points of view. Higher education indeed empowers one with the analytical tools to elevate social awareness not only in oneself but in others; to accept and include people regardless of who they are; and to understand others who express themselves in ways familiar and unfamiliar. Now more than ever, these fundamental values of educational exchange and interpersonal respect within our community must be fostered and shared.

I appreciate in advance the empathy and compassion for others you are poised to show on Election Day itself and beyond. As part of the academic excellence and cultures of diversity and inclusion of which we are proud in the College, your support of one another contributes to the greater good of our community and, in due course, the broader world.

Please be safe and well as you vote, and congratulations to those of you who have already done so.

Sincerely,

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett (he/him/his)
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students, 

Under normal circumstances, at this time of the year, I would send you a letter along the lines of my standard welcome (back) message. But an urgent concern prompts me to talk with you about something else: our responsibility to one another during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Each of us must support one another during these challenging times. Each of us must accept a willingness to be held accountable by one another on matters of health and safety. More specifically, we all must follow the multilayered safety plan designed by NYU to ensure the health and safety of our entire community during the pandemic, including wearing face coverings, maintaining physical distance from others, and avoiding large social gatherings, which remain prohibited. 

By now you have received a stream of important messages from the University about how it developed new safety and health protocols, aligned our classrooms and wider facilities with health guidelines, and enhanced the infrastructure of educational technology and professional support for our faculty and staff, all to ensure your acquisition of the excellent and diverse education you are expecting this fall semester. 

Your professors and advisers in the CAS community have likewise sought to attend to your progress, by way of academic planning and co-curricular programs, so that your needs are met and you can still achieve your goals in the College. In our focus on delivering an outstanding education to all our students, we have achieved remarkable flexibility, ranging from diversifying how we teach our classes to expanding how we build our sense of community, which extends from Washington Square to other parts of New York City, the United States, and the broader world.

But these commitments by the University to your educational advancement aren’t enough. Your own responsibility to one another is crucial to our success as a community. Each of you must ensure not only your own well-being but also the well-being of your classmates.  

Our progress in higher education today—in either obtaining, imparting, or advancing knowledge—depends on our responsibility to one another. But I have faith that we, in CAS, will prevail because of it.  

I wish all of you a healthy, safe, and productive semester. 

Sincerely,

GJ

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Gene Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

“I know not whether it is owing to the tenderness of early associations, but this portion of New York appears to many persons the most delectable,” we learn in the third chapter of a novel, released in 1880, titled Washington Square. “It was here, as you might have been informed on good authority, that you had come into a world which appeared to offer a variety of sources of interest.”

Set in 1835, just three years after the College of Arts and Science became the founding school of New York University, this reference to the neighborhood we offhandedly call “the Square” emerged from the genius of Henry James.

One of the greatest writers in world history, James was born on April 15, 1843, in a house located at 21 Washington Place. We now associate the vicinity of his birthplace with the historic Brown Building, presently the site of faculty offices, classrooms, and laboratories for the Departments of Chemistry and Biology.

As a boy James strolled about Washington Square (for which our iconic park became a marker circa 1850), smelling the scent of ailanthus trees and marveling at the regularly muddy but all the while rustic streets delineating the growing neighborhood. As a teenager he studied abroad--in Switzerland, England, and France. Afterward he intermittently lived with his family in Cambridge, Massachusetts; but, by the time he reached his forties, he had found true solace in Europe, where he mostly resided and toured for the rest of his life.

Given that James penned the bulk of Washington Square in his 3 Bolton Street residence in London, he is a model of how one could still draw inspiration and intellectual energy from New York City even while far away—an idea which pertains, for example, to a number of our outstanding students today at NYU. But the implications do not end there.

Despite the birth of multiple schools and buildings at NYU over time, for more than a century Washington Square had been NYU’s iconic campus. By the turn of the twenty-first century, this urban neighborhood had become only one of many sites—across New York City, the United States, and the broader world--where our students could enjoy an NYU education. Now, we have reached yet another phenomenal inflection point: educational technology consummates our global reach, impact, and sense of connection with each other.

In the blink of an eye, information and interaction can achieve transmission through the internet. Various software platforms can flatten the world such that education, like Wi-Fi, can transcend the disciplinary walls separating offices, classrooms, and laboratories. Tech-enhanced education has unlocked new means of interpersonal learning and engagement in our academic communities. Our bold, dynamic students are more diverse and excellent, more cosmopolitan and transnational and cutting-edge, than ever before, so our modes of education must evolve and innovate as well. We are poised to take this next step.

Although the pandemic certainly has constrained our lives, it cannot restrain our progress. The “world which appeared to offer a variety of sources of interest,” as James put it in 1880, still describes the Square almost a century and a half later. Yet these words also characterize the future of how technology, not only geography, entwines and advances our educational lives in the College.

In this spirit of looking and moving forward, I write to welcome you back, apropos of Fall 2020, for yet another compelling semester of higher education in the College. Despite the global circumstances under which we live and work, ranging from the pandemic to the needed protests against systemic injustice and inequity, you continue to maintain professional focus and generate the academic energy our school needs to persevere by teaching and supporting our students. I thank you for your efforts.

Onward and upward, dear colleagues,

GJ

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Gene Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS International Students,

Over the past couple of days, many of you have expressed outrage over the new guidance for the Fall 2020 semester issued by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on behalf of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP). Regarded by leaders across US higher education as arbitrary and capricious, the new policy states that any international student holding an F-1 visa but studying only remotely delivered courses must leave the United States. Great burden now has been placed on colleges and universities across the country to ensure that in-person educational experiences exist for such students to retain their F-1 visa eligibility.

Fellow colleagues at New York University and I have been the recipients of many petitions from you and others in the NYU community seeking immediate redress. With our ongoing work to mitigate the academic challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the new ICE policy indeed has further roiled our preparation for the Fall 2020 semester, which is certainly only months away and for which we have been working hard to finalize the topics, number, and modality of the courses available in the College of Arts and Science.

Without a doubt, the unexpected and unsystematic nature of the new ICE guidance does a disservice to the deliberative and strategic progress we have been making toward delivering to you an excellent and diverse education in the Fall. While grappling with a public health crisis, we have also been seeking to guide international students facing the added uncertainty of whether they would have their visa applications processed in a timely way; or whether they could travel uninhibited to and from the United States. For the new ICE guidance to be handed down in this disruptive way only exacerbates our major task in helping you advance your education and achieve your future goals. Like many of you, I reject any new policy that undercuts the contribution of our international students to the energy, quality, and diversity of our CAS community.

From a practical point, however, the action steps that we can take to alleviate or remedy our newfound challenges must be taken carefully. Given that the hallmark of our academic environment is the free exchange of ideas, I appreciate and welcome the collective willingness of faculty and students instantly to propose potential solutions to solve the problem. But any information we state and circulate about the new policy and its potential solutions must be clear, verifiable, consistent, sensitive, and legally compliant. Our goal in CAS is to abide by this principle at all times, even as the petitions continue. By the same token, the University has publicized its opposition to the new ICE policy and plans to file an amicus brief in support of current litigation against the new rules.

By now, you likely have read NYU President Andrew Hamilton’s recently released public statement on the new ICE policy regarding international students. You also likely have read the July 7, 2020, letter from the Office of Global Services providing a preliminary and general sense of the slate of curricular solutions.

My goal here is to be more concrete about the advising process and curricular priorities for CAS students.

1. Categories of Academic Advising
   

CAS international students affected by the new ICE rules fall into two main categories of academic advising: (1) incoming and current students who have not yet formally declared their department majors; and (2) advanced students who have already done so.

If you are in the first category and want to learn about the possible academic ways you can retain your F-1 visa eligibility, please be sure to contact your assigned academic adviser located in CAS Advising Center.

If you are in the second category and have this same desire, please contact the appropriate academic adviser in the department of your primary major.

2. Potential Curricular Opportunities
   

Below are verified curricular ways in which CAS international students could seek to retain their F-1 visa eligibility and study in the United States.

1. Go Local

Go Local is an important program for which international students may apply to retain their F-1 visa eligibility. The application portal remains open for this program.

2. CAS Courses

International students who enroll in at least one in-person or blended course (whether a standalone course or a lab/recitation attached to a standalone course) in the Fall 2020 semester may improve their ability to retain their F-1 visa eligibility. Although Albert currently indicates the modality of most CAS courses, faculty are working over the next week to confirm the in-person or blended modality of their existing courses, and to finalize the availability of in-person labs/recitations for existing courses that may otherwise not have initially featured in-person or blended engagements with students. Given that classroom scheduling will be completed to the best of our ability, students next week should monitor the corrections to their course schedules and academic planning.

For CAS courses, academic departments continue to have the ability to update the following information: Instructor Information, School Scheduled Space, Class Notes, Class Topics, Locations, Instruction Modes, Wait List Capacities, as well as New Sections. Faculty colleagues are working around the clock to finalize their courses or to amend existing courses normally appropriate for the CAS curriculum but also, in this case, attentive to the current circumstances of the new ICE policy.

Thanks for your cooperation and patience during these challenging times,

GJ

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Gene Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear Colleagues,

In all walks of life, we, as faculty, have had to become more flexible to adjust to our uncertain times. Our plans within an institution of higher education—just like the plans of fellow colleagues within any other college or university—have been subject to change, relative to government health directives focused on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Nonetheless, our core principle in the College of Arts and Science has never wavered: namely, of academically preparing our students for a fast-changing and increasingly complex world. Our collective hard work has not diminished in ensuring that all of our students are in the best position to succeed during and after they graduate from New York University.

I am pleased to say that we have been making steady progress in CAS toward completing our curricular planning for the Fall 2020 semester. I have been in regular communication with Chairs, Directors of Undergraduate Studies, and other faculty leaders of academic departments as well as of various disciplinary strata within the CAS curriculum, ranging from language acquisition courses to laboratory science courses. Separately, I likewise am proactively communicating with CAS students and their families to update them on Fall 2020.

While building on past communications of mine and the University, my message below seeks to clarify or resolve issues that arose during recent faculty conversations with me and with Dean Armanda Lewis in the CAS Office of Academic Affairs. To do so, I confirmed curricular details with the Provost’s Office, the University Registrar, and the Faculty of Arts and Science Office of the Dean. As ever, you should continue to consult the updates to our Fall 2020 CAS Curricular Planning Guide.

The main topics of my message below are the following:

1. Mounting the Full Curriculum
2. Technical Definitions of Instructional Delivery
3. Toward a More Holistic View of the In-Person Component of Blended Courses
4. Our Need to Accommodate Remote Students
5. Educational Technology and Recording Classes

Please note that these topics do not deal with, and are separate from, the specific concerns related to faculty requests for accommodations or modifications during the Fall 2020 semester as a result of COVID-19; for questions or concerns, please contact the NYU Office of Equal Opportunity, the Office of Dean of FAS Antonio Merlo, or your Department Chair.

1. Mounting the Full Curriculum

As I have stated more than once before, one of our fundamental professional responsibilities as faculty is to mount a full undergraduate curriculum in the College. Toward that end, we must certify the instructional delivery of undergraduate education with proper institutional and legal compliance. We must improve the instructional efficiency and intellectual enrichment of the curriculum. We must confirm that students, regardless of their location in the University or the world, can access and navigate the curriculum properly. And we must confirm that the requirements of all accredited academic concentrations can be completed by students in a timely fashion, so that they can earn their baccalaureate degrees. The flexibility required in mounting the full CAS curriculum should be mutually exhibited by both you and your students to mitigate the disruption that could be caused by health risks and travel restrictions, among other major concerns.

2. Technical Definitions of Instructional Delivery

In Albert/SIS, the instructional delivery of our CAS courses has been categorized, among other things, as either “in person,” “blended,” or “online.” Technically, a course is deemed “in person” if it is meeting 100% of the time in person; standard courses with an enrollment cap of 15 or fewer students have this designation. A course is defined as “remote” if it is meeting 100% of the time remotely; courses with a cap of 31 students or higher fit this category. And a course is called “blended” if it is neither 100% in person nor 100% remote—that is, it has a combination of these two modalities, regardless of proportion—and normally it is a course whose enrollment ranges from 16 to 30 students. The Albert interface thus displays the following:

• IN PERSON: -UA courses offered in person, with access to physical classroom space for all scheduled sessions, with required physical distancing measures in place.
• BLENDED: -UA courses that will need some access to physical classroom space—the course will be partially in-person and partially online.
• ONLINE: -UA courses that will be offered entirely online, and may be offered in real time for all sessions, or a combination of real time and offline work.
• INDEPENDENT STUDY: the same as usual.

In accordance with New York State health guidelines, the University has stated that all Fall 2020 courses with in-person components must adhere to physical distancing rules. In some cases, an entire class may have to meet in a room larger than usual so that all participants can meet regularly in person but remain physically distanced. In others, a mix of in-person and remote interactions could exist. Any classroom assigned to a course with in-person components should allow for safe physical distancing and other safety precautions.

3. Toward a More Holistic View of the In-Person Component of Blended Courses

From a technical standpoint, a “blended” course pertains to the distinction between remote and in-person interactions within the specific context of classroom instruction. But instruction within an assigned classroom is not the only index of describing a blended class. A blended course could also refer to the broader realm of educational engagement and experience that students enjoy outside of the classroom.

Indeed, it is important not to define too narrowly the content and context of a blended course. “Blended learning refers to delivering some portion of course content online, meaning a mixture of in-person and offline interactions,” according to the FAS Office of Educational Technology. Furthermore, according to a report referenced at this site, in a blended course, “[s]ubstantial proportion of the content is delivered online, typically uses online discussions, and typically has some face-to-face meetings.”

The content of a course, of course, includes the curriculum delivered during its scheduled instructional time in a classroom. But this content can also include “co-curricular” opportunities for faculty-student engagements and experiences, ranging from small groups and tutorials to office hours, excursions, and events. In their totality, these curricular and co-curricular activities could still operate within a course per se. Instructors have wide discretion to specify how extramural activities with students pertain to specific academic assignments within courses. As long as you seek to have any set of substantive or meaningful in-person educational experiences for students within a course, “blended” remains the appropriate category for it.

You should use the “Notes” section of Albert—a free, open textual space—to explain the pedagogical and interactive nuances intrinsic to courses. For now, students entering Albert seeking to register for classes will encounter a “pop up” window saying that the details of the course have not yet been finalized. By mid July this restriction will be lifted so that students could reconfirm their registration preferences. During this period, changes to the Registrar’s system of courses will be managed closely. You also should lean on your wide discretion and wisdom as instructors, as stipulated in your course syllabi and your setting of course expectations at the outset of the semester, to explain the nature of a blended course to enrolled students and the degree to which the course will establish in-person opportunities in practice.

4. Our Need to Accommodate Remote Students

You must accommodate any student attending a Fall 2020 course remotely. Some students continuing their studies will face travel restrictions or other difficulties. Many of them, participating in the Go Local initiative, may have to confront time zone complications. Even courses with meetings in person must make sure that remote students have access to lectures and materials, receive regular feedback and assessment, and are able to interact with their classes in some way. So that you could plan for multiple scenarios, over the next two months we will share with academic departments the available course data on the estimated remote-versus-in-person student enrollment breakdown. In the meantime, I strongly encourage all of you to prepare for having to deliver curricular materials to students who may be remote, including those who also may be residing in different time zones.

5. Educational Technology and Recording Classes

NYU Zoom is the main software platform for real-time remote interactions between faculty and students, and should be the minimum technology used for all CAS courses. NYU Instructional Technology (NYU IT) has confirmed that all sites of NYU Classes will have NYU Zoom (web conferencing) and NYU Stream (platform for recording, storing, and sharing video) enabled for the Fall 2020 semester. We continue to work with NYU IT and the FAS Office of Educational Technology on specific strategies to support in-person courses that may have remote participants. Soon we will offer a First-Year Seminar-specific event over the summer on instructional strategies.

You should record your classes if you have any students attending remotely. Recording classes ensures that all students, especially those requiring increased temporal flexibility and personal accommodation, have at least asynchronous access to the lesson material according to the way in which you delivered it. Please be assured that, for security purposes, the recordings are exclusively linked to NYU Classes and require your own manual authorization for any broad dissemination. Despite the potential drawbacks of technical glitches as well as the loss of synchronous, or simultaneous, interaction, we need to assure our students during these uncertain times that your instruction will be readily and consistently retrievable. Your cooperation here is greatly appreciated.

Do not hesitate to reach out to cas-academic-continuity@nyu.edu if you want to discuss ideas or have any questions. I thank you for your patience in reading this long, detailed message.

Best,

GJ

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Gene Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students,

Like many people at New York University, I have been appalled over the past several weeks at the publicly circulated videos of the killings of African Americans—most recently, at the video of the arrest of George Floyd, who visibly suffered for several minutes beneath the knee of a Minneapolis, Minnesota, police officer and died shortly afterward. These videos circulated—and still circulate—against the historical backdrop of graphic and fatal violence consistently experienced by African Americans at hands of police officers. The racial tension resulting from this history has exploded in recent days, manifested by protests increasing in number and intensity across the country. 

During this time, I know that we are already grappling with the ongoing personal and societal challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. I also could imagine that the rise of these nationwide protests—which may be geographically far away for some of you, yet closer to home for others—could compound your difficulty in accomplishing several things: such as in maintaining social connections with one another; in sustaining your focus on educational goals; and in envisioning opportunities that can exist for you during your time in the College of Arts and Science and after you graduate.

I am writing all of you on short notice and directly to provide words of support and encouragement during these stressful times—indeed, when our challenges appear to be growing more harrowing and complicated by the day. By way of your focus and resilience, you have gotten this far and succeeded, despite and because of the various problems that afflict our world and affect you either directly or indirectly. I am confident in your ability to persevere, to use whatever societal evidence of inequity and injustice, so that you can bring people together in the common purpose of advancing humanity and making the world a better place. 

This common purpose reflects the recent statement by NYU President Andrew Hamilton and NYU Senior Vice President for Global Inclusion and Strategic Innovation Lisa Coleman: “We stand in solidarity and support with those who oppose hate, ignorance, and divisiveness.”  All of us in our CAS community should share this collective vision and action.

All of us, as part of the CAS community, indeed should continue to offer support and encouragement to one another during this moment of great uncertainty and volatility. Though practicing physical distancing, please remember that we must remain socially connected in positive and productive ways. Do know that members of our CAS community are here for you to achieve this goal. Many of the resources you have used during the Fall and Spring semesters are still available to you, wherever you are currently located across the world.  

Our Center for Health and Wellness and our Office of Global Spiritual Life, for example, are offering weekly events and general counsel and support throughout the summer. Candace Sumner-Robinson (csrobinson@nyu.edu), CAS Assistant Dean of Diversity and International Student Advising and the Director of the Academic Achievement Program, is also available in case you need additional support and resources at this time. 

As we continue to grapple with the magnitude and complexity of the Minneapolis incident and protests today, we are nonetheless stronger when we stand together, as one CAS community. 

Best, 

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS First-Year Students, 

Welcome to the College of Arts and Science at New York University! 

We are honored that you are joining our diverse and inspired community. There is a breadth of backgrounds and interests, and I am buoyed that you will be a unique part of the Class of 2024! Even during these extraordinary and unprecedented times, I am confident that the next four years will be a wonderful journey for you. The excitement and discovery begin with your selection of courses, your orientation, and your engagement of a special book that commences our first year together. 

Each student in the College of Arts and Science has a unique experience. But there are many elements that bring us all together as members of a community of thinkers—our deep academic curiosity, our drive for success, our dynamic relationship with New York City, and our desire to seize opportunities. There is another communal relationship: the College Cohort Program. The cohorts foster academic and cultural networks in the College; they are designed to help you acclimate during your first year. You will build strong communities that can last not only throughout your time at NYU. These communities can last a lifetime. 

Your cohort experience starts with our traditional “common read” program, an intellectual exercise that has contributed to the life of the mind in the College for over 30 years. The exercise now spans the entire university in a program called NYU Reads. Over the summer, all incoming NYU students will read the same book; afterward, they will participate in a number of common activities that will bring the different schools at NYU together. 

This year’s book, chosen by a committee of faculty, students, and staff is Exit West by the Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid. Published in 2017, this novel tells the story of a young couple who flee their war-ravaged home in the Middle East and embark on a global odyssey to build a new life together. Hamid employs magic realism to illuminate a migrant experience quite different from what we see on the news: the focus is not on the refugee’s journey, but on what happens before and after it, including the issues of borders, belonging, globalization, and identity in a changing world. Widely acclaimed, Exit West won the L.A. Times Book Prize for Fiction, earned selection by The New York Times Book Review as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017, and was long-listed for the Booker Prize. 

As you prepare for your first semester, we are also preparing for you! CAS staff are working diligently to outline course registration and orientation processes that will support your success and provide flexibility in our quickly changing environment. For now, we ask you to complete a few important steps over the summer that will best position you for a successful start: 

• Watch the Cohort Program video. (Certain elements of the program may look slightly different this year, but your cohort will remain an essential part of your CAS community.)

• Complete the CAS Advising Portal by Tuesday, May 19 to select your First-Year Seminar. (Trust us, the classes look great!) Please note—you must complete the portal to be able to register for upcoming classes, and seminars will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Students interested in science or the prehealth path are encouraged to consider taking a “Writing the Essay: Science” course as an alternative to the First-Year Seminar.

• Expect to hear from CAS Advising by the last week of May alerting you to your assigned advising wave (Wave A: June 3-12/Wave B: June 17-26). You will not be cleared to register for your upcoming courses until you have communicated with your advisor.

• Read Exit West and be ready to discuss it together when we finally meet! You will receive more information on the book and the NYU Reads program later in the summer.

Please explore the CAS New Student Center for more information regarding the Cohort Program, including bios on the College Leaders, highlights of CAS Orientation, and much more! Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns throughout the summer at cas.newstudents@nyu.edu or (212) 998-8130. I also invite you to start connecting with life in the College through our CAS Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Most importantly, I wish you, your loved ones, and your friends lives of health, safety, and comfort during this time of remarkable challenge and uncertainty. I look forward to meeting you soon! Congratulations again! 

Sincerely,

Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English

Dear Colleagues,

One month ago, I wrote our students in the College of Arts and Science at New York University that the annals of history would admire their academic perseverance, and that their success would be an extraordinary lesson for the generations of students who would follow in their wake. I wish to extend that belief of mine to you, my colleagues. Many of you, too, have persevered in teaching our students with customary rigor and dexterity despite the daunting societal challenges we have been facing together. I necessarily begin this message with my gratitude for all that you have done thus far as we proceed toward semester’s end. 

This message seeks to update you on two key administrative efforts in the College. The first effort pertains to our implementation of CAS academic continuity for the current semester, with new developments in the areas of remote proctoring for final exams, the CAS Pass/Fail policy, and recording your classes. With an eye toward providing our students the full and excellent curriculum for which we are renowned, the second effort refers to our academic contingency planning. Here, I provide guidance on the strategies and scenarios of remote instruction that you, as teachers, should reflect on as you complete the current semester and prepare for the upcoming Summer and Fall semesters.

CAS Academic Continuity Update

I am following up on an email I sent you one month ago, on March 23. In that email, I touched on the major academic concerns we have been addressing in the College. Thereafter, Dean Armanda Lewis of the CAS Office of Academic Affairs has been engaging Department Chairs and Directors of Undergraduate Studies. Below I am reporting the latest news on our academic continuity: 

• Remote Proctoring for Final Exams. The draft located on this landing page (please click here) outlines the approval step in order for you to use the University’s licensed remote proctoring tool. Please do not change the scheduled day and time of your final exam. Doing so may create scheduling conflicts within the final exam calendar this semester.  You may offer a range of times in which a student may take an exam, but this range should comply with the schedule as specified by the Registrar.

• CAS Pass/Fail Policy. Please recall that the application of the CAS Pass/Fail policy had been enhanced this Spring 2020 semester to address the circumstances of remote instruction. Students may elect to Pass/Fail their courses by submitting a petition to the Academic Standards Committee. I implore all of you, as instructors, to be as flexible and understanding as possible while students seek the proper academic advice on their grading options. During our transition to remote instruction, a variety of concerns have arisen across the country, including the cases of students, now away from campus, having unreliable internet connections and unstable environments for concentrating on academic studies. These and other realities are indeed being accounted for in our short-term adjustments to our academic policies and procedures for the current semester.

• Recording Your Classes. For the purpose of remote instruction, I encourage you to record your class for students upon their request. Recording classes at this time ensures that all students have at least asynchronous access to the lesson material according to the way in which you delivered it.  Although the drawbacks may include technical glitches as well as the loss of synchronous, or simultaneous, interaction, the assurance we can provide our students that your instruction will be readily retrievable should outweigh these potential drawbacks.

CAS Academic Contingency Planning

The last portion of this message explains important ideas for CAS academic contingency planning for the future. Two major educational principles frame our strategy for academic contingency planning. The first is our high priority to mount a full curriculum, so that our students can fulfill their requirements in a timely way, enjoy a complete education, and graduate with an eye toward fulfilling their professional goals. And the second is our plan, with the help of the CAS Technology-Enhanced Education Committee, to make our curriculum more flexible, in accordance with our sustained connection of best pedagogical practices with new educational technologies. 

By now you have learned that both sessions of Summer 2020--starting May 26 and July 6, respectively--will be held remotely. Our goal is to work actively with our departments and individual faculty to offer a robust summer curriculum.  Please consult the remote instruction section of our CAS Summer 2020 course guide if you are teaching during the summer.  Our Washington Square courses are being redesigned for remote instruction. Nonetheless, students are motivated to continue their summer study in a flexible educational mode.  

We are also pleased to announce that global study away courses will be offered as well, thanks to the dedicated and creative work of our Department Chairs and Directors of Undergraduate Studies; our Study Away Program Directors; and the staff of the Office of Global Programs.  These courses will lean on technologies to facilitate collaborative and experiential learning opportunities focused on our study away locations.  We encourage you to alert your students to the first summer in which they can advance their studies without having to reside in New York City.

We are learning much from our collective experience with remote instruction this current semester, and I thank you for your patience and commitment. While we have been advised to prepare for in-person instruction, we will also prepare for a host of contingency scenarios. For example, despite our hopes for in-person interaction and instruction in the near future, we may encounter scenarios in which a host of factors, whether internal or external to NYU, related to mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic may constrain our delivery of curricular and co-curricular opportunities for our students. Thus we are developing the following strategies so that we can unwaveringly advance an excellent curriculum while supporting your teaching:

• Reflect on your Spring 2020 Teaching Experience. For those of you teaching in Spring 2020 and are scheduled to teach in Fall 2020, please reflect on your experience of remote instruction, and let us know if there are specific ways that we can further support your teaching.  This feedback will be essential to our reflective assessment of how Spring 2020 went.  Please email Dean Armanda Lewis at cas-academiccontinuity@nyu.edu with any feedback or requests. 

• Make Your Large, Multi-Section Courses More Flexible.  We will work with departments to identify a small or minimal subset of such sections to be offered remotely or “flipped” in Fall semester. Faculty of these sections will have time to prepare for remote instruction and be able to move forward with these select sections.  We will be able to offer these sections to students who must remain outside of New York City.

• Modularize Your Courses. We encourage all of you teaching in Summer and Fall 2020 to take steps toward “modularizing” your courses, an instructional flexibility that will ensure that the content of your courses can adjust to various real-world contingency scenarios. This means that you should outline the pieces of curricular content and engagement that you would like to cover by session; then, identify and create content which could be delivered remotely and therefore accessible throughout the semester. Understandably, this process may be abbreviated due to time constraints and your faculty commitments, but any proactive steps you can take would be beneficial.

• Improve Your Grasp and Design of Tech-Enhanced Coursework. We encourage you to participate early in available programming to support the design of remote and hybrid instructional experiences offered by the FAS Office of Educational Technology, the Office of the Provost, and NYU IT.

• The FAS Office of Educational Technology has just launched its Teaching By Design online course design training and support site. There is an online course for which you can sign up and prepare for a summer or fall course containing flipped or remote elements.  The course can be adapted and customized to complement other departmental orientation and development programming. The FAS Office of Ed TEch is always available for individual and departmental consultations and support. Contact them at fas-edtech-group@nyu.edu. 

• The Center for Faculty Advancement, in partnership with the NYU IT's Teaching, Learning, and Technology division, is offering general online resources and customized programming on the Virtual Teaching Communities site.  If you are interested in department-based programming or arranging for a Virtual Teaching Conversation around specific topics, please reach out to teaching@nyu.edu.

• Numerous student support offices provide virtual consultations at flexible hours to accommodate students in various time zones. Our University Learning Center offers tutoring services and the Expository Writing Program's Writing Center offers virtual writing consultations (both synchronous and asynchronous) to all students, as well as writing partners for multilingual students, writing groups for senior honors thesis writers, and in-class tutors for faculty who want such support for students in their classes. The Expository Writing Program's Writing in the Disciplines has also developed robust faculty and student support, including syllabi consultations, workshops for faculty, workshops for students, and opportunities to design discipline-specific writing intensive courses. 

I thank you for your time and patience in reading this longer-than-usual message of mine. My goal has been to inform you of the overall strategic planning we are conducting to preserve the integrity and value of the education we deliver to our CAS students.

Yours, 

GJ

------

Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students,

I hope this letter finds you and your families safe and well during these challenging times. Please know that we in the College of Arts and Science are thinking of you each and every day. We are sending our best wishes your way. 

This letter seeks to clarify and update the CAS Pass/Fail Policy I announced in a letter to you a week ago, on March 23, 2020. At that time, I stated that the application of the CAS Pass/Fail policy had been enhanced this Spring 2020 semester to address the circumstances of remote instruction. The policy said that you may elect to Pass/Fail (“P/F”) up to two courses during this current semester by submitting a petition to the Academic Standards Committee. 

Since the moment I sent that email, there have been a series of developments that compel me to clarify and update the policy: If you wish to convert the grades of more than two classes to P/F this semester, please consult with your academic advisor to discuss your options. You can then petition Academic Standards, which plans to be flexible in handling such instances. The Academic Standards website will be updated soon to reflect this change. 

Please allow me to explain why we have updated the CAS P/F policy in this specific way.  

First, we have monitored the nature and rate of CAS Academic Standards petitions very closely over the past week. Only a small fraction of students, it turned out, inquired into or acted on the policy change, and the responses varied widely: they ranged from students who wished to have the flexibility to convert all of their course grades this semester to P/F, to those who did not want to convert their grades at all. Despite student opinions running the gamut, we appreciated everyone’s feedback. 

Second, I spoke last week with the leadership of CAS Student Council, who advocated for clarification of the CAS P/F policy. I indicated that students were always able to petition for more than 2 courses, but I regret that this point did not come across as clearly as it should have in my email a week ago. Under normal circumstances, students indeed may petition to convert the regular grade of one course to P/F, but they also may seek to convert more under special circumstances. The consistent application of this policy and procedure should occur even under our special circumstances today. 

Finally, I have been examining the nationwide debate over whether shifting grades to P/F is the right or wise thing to do today. During the period of our transition to remote instruction, a variety of concerns have arisen across the country, including the cases of students, now away from campus, having unreliable internet connections and unstable environments for concentrating on academic studies. These and other realities indeed should be accounted for in short-term adjustments to academic policies in higher education.  

The CAS P/F policy, as it is now stated in this message, is most appropriate for us. I am keenly aware of the autonomy, perseverance, and ambition of CAS students in wanting not only to retain evidence of their academic success on their transcripts, but also to exercise their own agency in pursuing their post-baccalaureate careers. The option to choose among a variety of grading models--to be not merely either A-F or P/F, but both--accommodates the excellence and diversity, but also the sheer size and complexity, of our CAS student population. 

Professional schools (in medicine, public health, law, and business, for example) and graduate schools have not yet reached consensus across the country on how they wish to assess the academic performance and credentials of undergraduate students today. Keeping as much flexibility in how you are being assessed this semester remains an important advantage for you at this moment in time. The requirements and expectations of your intended or current department major/minor, along with the educational and professional goals you may have after graduating from NYU, thus mean that converting the grades of your courses to P/F is a pivotal decision for you. We seek to provide you as much academic guidance as we can, so that ultimately you can have a successful semester.  

As I mentioned in my email to you a week ago, our goal remains to offer you a world-class education--at once rigorous and comprehensive, inspiring and compelling--regardless of our circumstances. But our goal also remains to ensure that you are as successful as possible in CAS and in your life after you graduate. Our deep commitment to your success is always at the heart of everything we say and do, even when what we say and do may not initially be perfect. For your patience and cooperation during these difficult times, I thank you.  

Sincerely,

GJ

------ 

Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students,

As you all know, New York University has been heeding the warnings of public health authorities as well as city and state officials by restricting in-person gatherings and protecting the health and safety of our community from the COVID-19 pandemic. The result so far has been our need to conduct remotely the academic engagements among faculty, students, and staff. Given the health hazard and ongoing prohibition of large gatherings, the 188th All-University Commencement Exercises, scheduled for Wednesday, May 20, 2020, at Yankee Stadium, have been postponed until further notice. 

I express profound regret announcing that the College of Arts and Science Baccalaureate Ceremony for the Class of 2020, due to take place the day prior, on May 19, at Radio City Music Hall, likewise must be postponed. While we continue to prepare for the day when we will be permitted to hold a traditional in-person, physical ceremony for you, we are working to create for you, for this same original date, a unique virtual tribute of which we hope that you, along with your families and friends, will be proud. 

Indeed, what we have come simply to call “Baccalaureate” is a graduation ceremony which we customarily have held at Radio City Music Hall over the past several years. Ranging from speeches and handshakes to cheers and picture-taking, the activities of this event constitute the kind of academic tradition that many of us, at some point in our lives, have experienced before and may wish to enjoy again. 

Yet Baccalaureate is more than an event beneath the bright lights of Radio City Music Hall, just as Commencement is more than the thousands of people roaring inside Yankee Stadium. Graduation is the moment of transition in your life. You are growing from being a student, the brief period of your higher education, to being an alumnus, the lifetime responsibility of imparting knowledge to others and making the world a better place. You are embarking on that consequential transition to intellectual and professional maturity. You are reaping the reward of consummated academic work, conveyed in your letters of faculty recommendations, transcribed across the resume or curriculum vita bearing your name, and symbolized by your CAS diploma. Despite our inability to assemble in person, your baccalaureate degree will still be conferred. Your life will still be launched. And you will still lead yet another generation of NYU students poised to advance knowledge in society.  

Between now and when we are permitted to assemble in large numbers, we still plan to honor your unique place in the history of CAS and recognize the meaning of your graduation, Class of 2020. All eligible graduating students should mark the date May 19, 2020, when we will publicly release a remarkable virtual ceremony. In this web-based experience, we will make sure that the story of your graduation is told with the significance you have come to expect at NYU, and that your social connections with your classmates will thrive. 

We will provide you more information about our virtual event as soon as we are able, so stay tuned. I am sure that many of you will have a series of questions to which we will not have exact answers. We plan to consult the leadership of CAS Student Council for ideas, so do relay yours to them. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep you informed over the upcoming weeks and months about our plans.

I realize that this news follows the unsettling spate of communications you may have been receiving both inside and outside the University. Writing this letter has been unsettling for me as well. Ever since I arrived in Fall 2017, Baccalaureate has been an event I always looked forward to. Nonetheless, I anticipate a day when we will enjoy celebrating your graduation together.  

Until then, I thank you in advance for your resiliency and cooperation. Together, we continue to endure one of the greatest societal challenges of our time. The annals of history, however, will look especially upon your perseverance with admiration. Your success will be an extraordinary lesson for the generations of students who will follow in your wake.

If you have questions, please consult the CAS Senior Class page or email cas.baccalaureate@nyu.edu.

Sincerely,           

GJ 

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Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear Faculty of CAS Courses, 

Now that remote instruction must remain in place at NYU to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, I am writing you with key reminders and updates regarding our CAS academic continuity plan for the rest of the semester. I conclude this message with a word of gratitude for your remarkable efforts, which attest to the high quality of our liberal arts education.

A series of communications have come from the CAS Dean’s Office to Chairs, Directors, and  Directors of Undergraduate Studies about implementing remote instruction. If you have not yet done so, you should consult the leadership of your departments or programs for the various details associated with this implementation. 

With Spring Break now over, I wish to bring to your attention a handful of recent updates. Please click the following hyperlinks if you wish learn more about:  

1. Strategies for addressing the impact of time zones on scheduling class sessions.

2. Strategies for how to conduct remote proctoring of exams. A CAS Guide and NYU Guide exist. 

3. The Spring 2020 enhancement of the Pass/Fail Policy in CAS, upon recommendation by the Provost’s Office.

4. The postponement of the Registrar’s deadline to enter midterm grades until April 3, 2020, along with two new categories of grades. 

5. The hardware purchasing guidelines for remote instruction.

The foregoing information should be sufficient to enable you to complete remote instruction for the rest of the semester. For any remaining questions you may have, please email CAS Office of Academic Affairs at cas-academic-continuity@nyu.edu. 

In closing, I wish to thank all of you who have worked together in the unprecedented effort to transition our delivery of undergraduate education into a remote environment. Within mere weeks we had to transition over 2,500 undergraduate courses across approximately 40 departments and programs in the the humanities, social sciences, and laboratory and computational sciences. The types of courses range from lectures and labs to seminars and recitations. The extraordinary size and complexity of our curriculum mean that our feat is likely among the most extraordinary in higher education today. 

I also wish to say a word about our ongoing need to preserve the excellence and diversity of our liberal arts curriculum even during these challenging times. A high priority of ours has always been to mount a full curriculum, so that our students can fulfill their requirements in a timely way, enjoy a complete education, and graduate with an eye toward fulfilling their professional goals. We have always delivered a world-class undergraduate education to our students--at once rigorous and comprehensive, inspiring and compelling. This fact was true before our transition into remote instruction; it remains true afterward. This advantage will always distinguish the higher education we offer to our students from what may be offered by any of our institutional peers. Regardless of the circumstances, the value proposition of our baccalaureate degree in the College of Arts and Science at New York University remains as strong as ever.  

Your versatility and thoughtfulness in adjusting to our newfound conditions, so that we can still advance the intellectual lives of our students and prepare them to have a positive impact on the world, only reaffirm the undiminished strength of our liberal arts curriculum and the faculty who teach it. For your unwavering sense of responsibility and resilience in teaching our students, I thank you deeply.   

Best,

GJ

------ 

Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students, 

I have written to you recently about the resiliency I have witnessed in all of you, coupled with my faith in the ability of our faculty and staff to sustain the educational connections among us. I have also told you that our embrace of higher education should bolster our faith in one another and our common effort to overcome even the most daunting challenges before us. My high opinion of your perseverance and flexibility as we have transitioned into remote instruction remains, and I thank you for your cooperation as we proceed toward the rest of the semester. 

I am writing you here to share important news now that remote instruction must remain in place at NYU to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have created a page of resources for you with key contacts for any range of concerns or needs you may have. And I have been in touch with your professors, who have worked together in an unprecedented capacity to transition our delivery of your education into a remote environment.  

Together, we have accomplished an extraordinary feat. Within mere weeks we had to transition over 2,500 of your courses across approximately 40 departments and programs in the humanities, social sciences, and laboratory and computational sciences. I want to assure you that we still seek to preserve the excellence and diversity of our liberal arts curriculum even during these challenging times. Our high priority has always been to mount a full curriculum so that you can fulfill your requirements in a timely way, enjoy a complete education, and graduate with an eye toward fulfilling your professional goals. 

I am pleased to report that the application of the PASS/FAIL policy has been enhanced in the College to address the special circumstances of remote instruction this current semester. You may elect to Pass/Fail up to two courses during the current Spring 2020 semester. The deadline for you to declare this option is Tuesday, May 12, 2020 (Reading Day). You should consult your academic advisor for guidance on whether to choose this option. Those of you wishing to elect or rescind the Pass/Fail option must petition the Academic Standards Committee by Tuesday, May 12, 2020 (Reading Day).

Please note that the Pass/Fail option can apply toward fulfilling the requirements of the Core Curriculum or a department elective.  Your request to apply Pass/Fail toward a major or minor requirement must have approval from the originating department. Finally, you may withdraw from a course online through Albert until Tuesday, May 12, 2020 (Reading Day).

In closing, I wish to reiterate that our goal remains to offer you a world-class education--at once rigorous and comprehensive, inspiring and compelling. This fact was true before our transition into remote instruction; it remains true afterward. This advantage will always distinguish the higher education we give you from what may be given by any other college or university. Regardless of the circumstances, the baccalaureate degree you can earn from the College of Arts and Science at New York University remains as strong and valuable as ever. The versatility and thoughtfulness of your professors in adjusting to our newfound conditions, so that we can still advance your intellectual lives and prepare you to have a positive impact on the world, only reaffirm the undiminished strength of our liberal arts curriculum. As a result, I believe you will continue to have a remarkable education for the remainder of this semester.

Sincerely,

GJ

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Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Community,

Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 illness outbreak months ago, I have been monitoring the evolving situation at our University, both in New York City and across the global network. During this period, I have been working closely with faculty and staff to maintain the continuity of the academic coursework of our students, academic advising, co-curricular engagement, and wellness support, even under the current conditions of the remote instruction and interaction of students to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Many of our students have begun to depart campus ever since the last day of in-person classes this past Tuesday, thereafter participating remotely in their classes and preparing to pivot toward spring break.

I could well imagine that CAS families--like many families at various universities around the globe--are having concerns about what the future holds for us all. I have concerns, too.

Yet I have been buoyed by the resiliency I have witnessed in many of our students thus far. If there is a time for all of us to demonstrate the qualities of leadership and perseverance for which NYU has been renowned, now is that time. I have confidence that all of us in the College will continue to rise to the occasion and achieve our goals, despite the uncertainties of our time.

I have faith that we all will rise to the occasion.

Today, our goals in the College focus on maintaining and, in some cases, improving the connections that unite us as a CAS community. We still seek (1) to advance the intellectual engagement of students across our curriculum; (2) to double down on the strategy of our co-curricular outreach to students; (3) to innovate social engagement in virtual spaces as creatively as we have in physical spaces; (4) to lean even more on the influence of social media to build bridges between and among us; (5) to discover new ways of building CAS experiences that could lead to positive memories of our University and higher education; and (6) to welcome, eventually, the next generation of admitted CAS students to our community. 

I have faith in our faculty and staff to achieve these goals on behalf of our students. 

Our learning curve to accomplish these goals may be steep on short notice and under such complex conditions. But the new ideas that we imagine and implement during this process will make us appreciate even more that higher education can always improve the lives of others and the world around us. Our common embrace of higher education not only should bolster our common effort to overcome even the most daunting challenges before us; it should strengthen our common faith in one another.

I have faith in all of us.

Please continue to pay attention to the important communications by New York University. Also know that CAS has its own landing page to provide the CAS community specific resources and information on how to continue with academic studies during this time.

Yours, 

GJ

------ 

Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University

Dear CAS Students,

Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 illness outbreak months ago, I have been monitoring the evolving situation at our University, both in New York City and across the global network. During this period, I have been working closely with faculty and staff to maintain the continuity of your academic coursework, academic advising, co-curricular engagement, and wellness support, even under the current conditions of your remote instruction and interaction to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Many of you have begun to depart campus ever since the last day of in-person classes this past Tuesday, thereafter participating remotely in your classes and preparing to pivot toward spring break. 

I could well imagine that you and your families--like many students and their families at various universities around the globe--are having concerns about what the future holds for us all. I have concerns, too.

Yet I have been buoyed by the resiliency I have witnessed in many of you thus far. If there is a time for all of you--or, more precisely, for all of us--to demonstrate the qualities of leadership and perseverance for which NYU has been renowned, now is that time. I have confidence that you will continue to rise to the occasion and achieve your goals, despite the uncertainties of our time.

I have faith that we all will rise to the occasion.

Today, our goals focus on maintaining and, in some cases, improving the connections that unite us as a CAS community. We still seek (1) to advance your intellectual engagement across our curriculum; (2) to double down on the strategy of our co-curricular outreach to you; (3) to innovate social engagement in virtual spaces as creatively as we have in physical spaces; (4) to lean even more on the influence of social media to build bridges between and among us; (5) to discover new ways of building CAS experiences that could lead to positive memories of our University and higher education; and (6) to welcome, eventually, the next generation of admitted CAS students to our community.  

I have faith in our faculty and staff to achieve these goals on your behalf. 

Our learning curve to accomplish these goals may be steep on short notice and under such complex conditions. But the new ideas that we imagine and implement during this process will make us appreciate even more that higher education can always improve the lives of others and the world around us. Our common embrace of higher education not only should bolster our common effort to overcome even the most daunting challenges before us; it should strengthen our common faith in one another. 

I have faith in you.      

Please remember that the CAS Advising Office staff is available to answer any questions or address any concerns you may have. Please email your advisor directly at casvirtualadvisor@nyu.edu. The Dean of Students Office is also available to assist you at cas.deanforstudents@nyu.edu. The Wellness Exchange is also available for you 24 hours/7 days a week at (212) 443-9999.

Please continue to pay attention to the important communications by New York University. Also know that CAS has its own landing page to provide you specific resources and information on how to continue with your studies during this time.

I hope you have a good spring break and, ultimately, a productive semester.  

Yours, 

GJ

------ 

Gene Andrew Jarrett
Seryl Kushner Dean of the College of Arts and Science
Professor of English
New York University