By Casey Roepke ’21 with additional reporting by Anna Kane ’20 and Lily Reavis ’21
After weeks of planning, consulting and researching options, college administrators have put forward a proposal for fall semester contingency planning to faculty and small student focus groups. Following a virtual town hall in which administrators presented the College’s proposal on Thursday, April 30, multiple professors confirmed that a module plan was in the works.
“The module system is really like a semester system, but rather than taking four classes over the course of a semester, the semester is divided into two, and so students will take two four-credit classes in the first module and two four-credit classes in the second module,” said Amy Martin, the director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and a professor of English. If this proposal is passed by the administration, the class schedule and course offerings will be re-organized and students will undergo a second advising and registration period. Faculty is expected to vote on this proposition within the next week.
The courses offered in this module system would also likely include online components to accommodate international students who may not be able to return to the U.S., as the federal government has temporarily stopped visa applications. This sets up the possibility for hybrid classes, where the extra time spent in class per week would be partially online and asynchronous work.
This proposal mirrors that of Beloit College, which announced a similar plan on March 31 in a letter to students. Beloit’s plan includes the module structure, with the two half-semesters split by fall break, in an effort to “maximize flexibility and minimize the disruption of the collegiate experience,” according to the College’s website. Martin and Elizabeth Markovits, a professor of politics and the director of the First-Year Seminar Program, say the goal of the system is to allow for flexibility whether or not remote learning continues into the fall. This four-module system would allow for continued physical distancing as needed and to account for students who may be unable or unwilling to return to campus in the fall, if Mount Holyoke is able to do residential learning, the professors say.
“Given the high level of uncertainty around the fall, I think the two seven-week period plan makes sense for either case,” Markovits said. “It’s easier to do physical distancing when you’re doing two courses at a time, and, if it happens to be that we have to be remote, it’s easier to manage the two classes.”
This module system would allow more flexibility for further contingencies surrounding the progression and potential second wave of COVID-19. Module-style learning would permit the College to have one seven-week module of online classes instead of sending students home for the remainder of a semester if the situation demands remote learning.
“The flexibility of that quarter system means that, for the students that can’t get a visa to come back in September, they might be able to come back in November,” Martin said. “If we all come back and we have to shelter in place at some point, finishing up a quarter means that we all get to start all over again, dealing with the reality that we have, sooner than just waiting through an entire semester.”
Martin explained that, under this four-module system, every class would be hybridized to have synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences. Some of the course activities would take place in-person — in the case that residential learning is able to occur — and other pieces would be available online. Many students may be unable to return to campus in the fall because of travel restrictions or personal safety, and the four-module system would operate to include them in all learning opportunities. For this reason, Martin said that she believes every course will have to be hybrid, meaning that they would be able to be completed entirely online whether or not residential campus is opened in the fall.
This proposal, while not yet officially approved, may have already caused an alleged tension between the faculty and administration. One Mount Holyoke Department Chair, who requested anonymity, said that the administration’s virtual town hall did not clarify the plan or address faculty concerns.
“The administration’s presentation was essentially incoherent,” the anonymous professor said. “My guess is that any benefit of the new model will be undone by all the scrambling to put it into place and adjusting to the changes.”
Martin and Markovits each had a different perception of the faculty reaction.
“Every single person I know — faculty, staff, students, friends — we are all in a huge amount of turmoil. We’ve all had loss,” Martin said. “We are trying to anticipate situations that are not predictable, and to prepare for every contingency in the way that’s best for our community. In that process, we’re going to propose things that some faculty find concerning, some faculty have important questions, and some faculty understandably want more time to work through the details of how to implement this plan. All of those reactions are legitimate and actually helpful as we move forward. Faculty are like any group of people, and so we have had different reactions to the reality of what we’re all facing as a community. A lot of what we’re doing right now is talking to each other, and the Academic Planning Group is taking time to explain why 25 faculty, students and staff members agreed that this is the best possible way forward.”
“If my commitment is to inclusion and equity and intellectual excellence for our students, I need to plan around that,” Markovits said. “And I am very confident that’s what we’ve been doing. I am not okay with jeopardizing someone’s health, saying, ‘You have to come to campus or else we’re leaving you out.’”
The proposal and other academic contingency planning came from the Academic Planning Group (APG), an ad hoc committee consisting of administrators, faculty and students. Ananya Singh ’22, a member of APG, said that the student representatives are trying to represent student voices and concerns.
“As student representatives, it is our number-one priority to ensure that all students have the most fruitful experience they can through their time at Mount Holyoke, and especially this upcoming year,” Singh said. “As we discuss different options available, we spend a large amount of time thinking about how it will impact all of our peers. We are in the process of working with the College, student groups and faculty to find ways to gain more insight into student needs and desires.”
APG also held two focus groups for student questions and feedback during Mount Holyoke’s finals period on May 3 and 4. During these focus groups, students heard the proposal for the module system for the first time. On May 6, the faculty held a meeting to discuss the module proposal further, with a vote set for next week. If the faculty votes to pass this proposal, then it will progress to the Board of Trustees for a vote.