April 10
Message from Dean Canning to Faculty and Staff Regarding Summer 2020
Dear Faculty and Staff,
We write to inform you about the decision of the Rice leadership to cancel all of the planned summer courses, since no in-person or study abroad courses can take place during summer 2020. This memo is aimed 1) at faculty and graduates who had been scheduled to teach a summer course and 2) to faculty and advanced graduate students who may wish to contribute a new course to the newly framed summer session. I would ask you all to read on because the School of Humanities has a new opportunity to make a significant contribution to the much wider-ranging and more ambitious online summer school program. I note that I have received no less that 5 memos in the last 3 days about this rapidly changing plan to launch a much expanded summer school: with this memo I am trying to cull the most important information you need instead of forwarding the successive memos sent to the deans.
Faculty and graduate students who had been scheduled to teach should have received information from the Registrar’s office as to how to resubmit a request to teach your planned course in an online format – if you wish to do that. The university has decided that online courses should not take place in compressed formats – five days per week, multiple hours per day.
Questions about any aspect of this memo should be directed to: Kathleen, Alex Byrd and Andew Stefl (kcanning@rice.edu, axb@rice.edu, stefl@rice.edu). We will figure out which of us should respond! Because this is a process that is moving very quickly, we do not have an established process set up in the School yet to field questions or to put our stamp on a new Humanities summer school curriculum.
Our Goals in the School of Humanities:
The School of Humanities should, ideally, have a significant and visible place in this expanded summer school curriculum and Pres. Leebron expressed his hope that signature and compelling Humanities courses will be featured, not least because of a growing interest and re-engagement with the Humanities in the face of the multiple crises we are currently facing (pandemic, climate, ethics, democracy and governance – the list is long!).
Given the rapidity of this process, the Dean’s office hopes to work with chairs on encouraging faculty who wish to teach an online summer course (no one should feel pressured to do so!) offer a) core courses at the D1 level that may help students meet some of their requirements during this unusual summer (intro courses, survey courses, language courses that are likely to receive robust enrollments) or b) courses that have high appeal because of the timeliness of the topic or relevance of the inquiry (a course on epidemics, anyone?). We should not put forward courses that are highly specialized and bound to enroll few students. Graduate students may propose courses as well, providing they have teaching experience and have the full endorsement of the department chair for the proposed course.
Crucial Information on Summer Teaching:
Remuneration for Summer Courses (3 credit course):
T/T Faculty: $ 7625; Lecturers: $ 6830; Graduate students: $ 5050
Summer Course Schedule: the following options were outlined by Justin Schilke:
Summer Block B1 - 1st 7 Weeks
Start: May 11
End: June 26
Total: 7 weeks
Summer Block C1 - 1st 6 Weeks
Start: May 18
End: June 26
Total: 6 weeks
Summer Block B2 - 2nd 7 Weeks
Start: June 29
End: August 14
Total: 7 weeks
Summer Block C2 - 2nd 6 Weeks
Start: July 6
End: August 14
Total: 6 weeks
Summer Block D1 - Additional Standalone Option 1
Start: June 1
End: August 7
Total: 10 weeks
Summer Block E1 – Additional Standalone Option 2
Start: June 15
End: July 31
Total: 7 weeks
Justin’s additional note: These are the only available session dates; no additional sessions will be created.
Low enrollment deadlines will still be enforced and are available at https://registrar.rice.edu/facstaff/summer_sessions_info/. These minimums and dates may change if it is determined by Rice Administration that it is necessary to increase the minimums or move the dates.
Elaboration from Caroline Levander: “The 15 week option is indeed gone this summer. Yes, payment is based on 42 instructional hours and payment for teaching a course is tied to instructional hours. However, I quote the registrar webpage: "Any requests for exceptions to use a date range other than any of these sessions, must provide a curricular justification to OTR prior to attempting to schedule the course in CLSS.”
Cost/Access of Summer Courses to Students (David Leebron): In a memo of this week to the deans about the new summer session, Pres. Leebron outlines the reduced tuition rates for Rice students, as well as the discounted rate for the general public/visiting students:
“…Online summer school allows us the opportunity to extend access to our students and support their educational goals in a time when summer plans have been widely disrupted. This summer instead of the usual $1,000 per credit hour (typically $3,000 or so per 3-credit hour course), we are offering our courses to the general public (who will register as visiting students) for $500 per credit hour, and offering a 50% discount for the third course (e.g., after 6 credit hours). Doing so enables us to support those in Houston at a difficult time and support our Houston community. As importantly, we are offering each current student at Rice, including those in the class of 2020, the opportunity to take summer school classes for the additionally reduced fee of $250 per credit hour. Our existing financial aid policy will also apply in that students who received need based aid are eligible for a 50% discount (on the $250) for 9 credit hours of summer school during their time at Rice.
Covid-19 is creating a spike in the need for education around the world, with 1.5 billion students (91.3% total enrolled learners) from 188 countries currently unable to attend school. As a member of the Global Education Coalition through our Coursera partnership, Rice also has an opportunity to help meet this need with not-for-credit Coursera courses, and I ask you to consider developing non-credit (but revenue producing) offerings in consultation with the Vice President of Digital and Global Strategy, who oversees our Coursera partnership.”
Revenue for the Schools/Departments:
- There will be a minimum enrollment of 5 students required for a course to run. If a course drops below 5 students after the “add/drop” deadline, the course will continue.
- The University will calculate net tuition revenue generated by each course and return two-thirds of the net revenue to the School/department. The remaining one-third stays with central. The distribution of net revenue from summer sessions will occur in September/October. If net revenue for a course is negative, the department will be required to cover the deficit.
- Please note that in summer 2020, students will be able to withdraw from courses and receive 100%, 80%, or 50% refunds after the deadline for departments to cancel courses. This means that departments will need to consider the possibility of such withdrawals as they make decisions on whether or not to offer courses based on enrollments at the cancellation deadline. If net revenue for a course is negative because of course drops, the department will be required to cover the deficit.
- Net tuition revenue is defined as adjusted gross revenue (gross tuition, less athletic tuition waivers charged) less an adjustment factor (where applicable) and standard expenses for the course.
How to Propose a Summer School Course: (from Pres. Leebron/Caroline Levander):
“In terms of finalizing the summer school catalogue, we need to implement additional steps in our course review and approval process to ensure that instructors, teaching assistants, and students have received sufficient preparation and guidance for developing and taking courses through 100% remote delivery. As has been the case for all online courses we have offered for credit thus far, under University Policy 846 on online education, the departments and deans will recommend the courses for online summer school; these should be discussed collaboratively with Interim Provost Matsuda and the Vice President for Digital and Global Strategy, Caroline Levander. In sum, both the schools and Caroline’s office will need to approve the inclusion of courses based on expected student demand, instructor availability and the ability to achieve the standards established for online course offerings and programs. As provided by Policy 846, once courses are approved, the execution of the summer school offerings will be under the aegis of Rice Online.
In each of the sessions, courses may vary in number and frequency of meetings, length of meeting, and may be held during the day or in the evening. As with fall and spring semesters, all summer courses must meet Rice semester credit hour requirements, meaning that a typical three semester credit hour course requires a minimum of 42 classroom contact hours and 84 student preparation hours. The contact hours page on the Registrar’s site provides additional information: https://registrar.rice.edu/facstaff/contact_hours/
Hands-on Instructions from "Justin Schilke" <jschilke@rice.edu>
Subject: Summer 2020 Schedule
Date: April 9, 2020 at 3:11:36 PM CDT
To: <jschilke@rice.edu>
Cc: "'John.R.Martinez@rice.edu'" <jrm7@rice.edu>, "'Debra Roberts'" <djr1@rice.edu>
How to Offer a Course This Summer
In order to offer a course online in Summer 2020 (or any semester), you will need to have the course updated at the Course Catalog level before placing it on the Course Schedule.
Course Catalog
In order to offer a course this summer, it must be offered online. This means that Rice Policy 846 (https://policy.rice.edu/846) must be followed for all courses, and that includes approval through the appropriate curriculum committees and Rice Online.
The current steps are as follows:
- Complete a Rice Online “Request for Online Course” proposal (https://riceuniversity.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bmi3uyKzQGlOVJr)
- Work with Rice Online to formulate a plan for course development
- Submit a course change in CourseLeaf CIM (https://courseleaf.rice.edu/courseadmin/)
Note: If you have already gone through the above steps for a specific course, you do not need to go through them again; rather, you can move on to the Course Schedule component below. If you have questions on whether or not you have gone through them for a specific course, please inquire with Caroline Levander (clevande@rice.edu).
Course Schedule
Once it has been approved through the CourseLeaf CIM workflow steps, it will be available to schedule online for a summer session. Your department scheduler can place the course on the Course Schedule into one of the following sessions by submitting the request through CourseLeaf CLSS (https://courseleaf.rice.edu/wen/202030/):
I had to change a number of rules in CLSS to allow scheduling to occur. If you run into anything strange, please let me know so that we can work through this together. I appreciate your cooperation and patience as we try to set this up efficiently.
If you need assistance or have questions, please let me know.
Best,
Justin
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Justin Schilke
Senior Associate Registrar
Office of the Registrar / Rice University
ph: 713-348-3157 / fax: 713-348-5921
http://registrar.rice.edu/
Longer Term Significance of the New Summer School:
As David Leebron noted in his recent memo to the Deans: “We also have the opportunity to undertake this effort with our longer term goals in mind. While I have no doubt that we and other universities will be changed by the spring experience of moving everything online, the prospect of launching an online summer school from the outset presents a different kind of opportunity. If we move quickly and boldly, we can position ourselves to be a leader in summer school generally and in particular in online offerings. Others will not be able to move as quickly as we can for a variety of reasons. Thus as we think about summer school offerings, I ask deans and the faculty to consider adding summer offerings that will be strategic and in high demand.”
Sincerely,
Kathleen Canning
Dean, School of Humanities
Rice University
(713) 348-4810
kcanning@rice.edu