Dear UWest Community:
Another week has gone by very quickly. We hope this email finds you well, safe and sound. As you are aware, the goal post has been moved once again. “Safer at Home” in LA County has been extended to May 15, 2020. There is a bit more requirements added to the current ordinance – postings around the campus to remind us to wear masks, wash hands, and keep social distances for all employees and persons on campus.
If you have kept up with the news around town, LAUSD Superintendent among many other school leaders have made a decision to close K-12 schools through the end of the school year. Therefore, working remotely will need to be extend to that end to support those with children at home. As you are all aware, we will continue with the same instructional delivery through the end of the spring semester. I hope all of you have received the grading policy and guidelines yesterday for spring semester, 2020 via email. This is a one-time only change. We are still discussing the instructional delivery for summer and fall course offerings.
The University remains open to serve our students. We are moving forward with our preparation to include some type of “distance learning” in the event we must continue with the same social distancing order. We will need to follow the directives from both the state and federal governments. We will certainly keep you posted. Registration will begin next week. Jeanette Anderson will have sent out notifications to the students by now. We have notified our sister universities in Taiwan regarding both grading policy and guidelines for spring semester as well as upcoming spring and fall registration.
Selection process for the next UWest President is moving forward. We will notify you of the way all of you can participate via Zoom in the candidates’ presentations and campus-wide interviews. It will begin the week of April 27, 2020. Thank you all for submitting interview questions. The e-Team has reviewed and streamlined them for the Board to review and consent. We will be sending you another notification regarding the step by step process including the Board’s process to gather your feedback. The ultimate decision rests with the Board; however, the members of the Board of Trustees welcome our campus constituents’ feedback.
What’s new?
We have a new Residence Hall Coordinator, Mr. Eduardo Bernal! He is scheduled join us on Monday, April 20, 2020. Welcome!
Finally, we are blessed to be able to work each day and we are grateful to those frontline workers around the country during this very challenging time. We are forever indebted to our own General Services, Business Services, IT Services, and Residential Services staff members who are on campus regularly and those others who come in from time to time in order to provide needed services to our faculty, staff, and students.
I came across this article and I thought I’d share it with you. I am sure we will all be smarter after this pandemic. https://www.nicktasler.com/is-the-pandemic-making-you-smarter/ Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Dr. Chou
Chiung-Sally Chou, Ph.D.
Interim President