From: "James J. Valentini" Date: Monday, July 27, 2020 at 1:37 PM To: Lee Bollinger Ce: Amy Hungerford , Ira Katznelson Subject: Re: Dear Lee and Ira, I have been thinking a lot about this message and the objective you would like to achieve. You write that we should push towards as much in-person teaching of the Core as possible, and that we would have greater latitude to do so by prodding non-tenure-track instructors to agree to in-person instruction. I think it likely that the faculty who lead the Core, both those who are Chairs of the various components, and those who are tenured faculty teaching in it, would answer that the as much in-person teaching as possible objective has already been met, and that is what those faculty deem best. I believe that based on the many discussions I have had with them. But nonetheless I will convey to them your concerns and ask them to assess that once again, as I did so two weeks ago. The Core Chairs are responsible for the non-tenure-track faculty teaching in the Core, for the training and guidance and supervision of preceptors and lecturers, so any change in expectations for the non-tenure-track faculty will require effort on the part of the Core Chairs and can be implemented only through them. The Core Chairs have given a great deal of thought to that training and guidance, particularly this summer. There are several predicates in your message that I suspect will not be recognized by instructors in the Core. One is that decisions about the method of instruction have been determined by the fears of those instructors about their health and safety. Discussions in the meetings of the Committee on the Core about how to teach the Core this coming academic year were focused on pedagogical issues, and the success of our undergraduates was clearly the main concern of the Core Chairs in discussing various modalities. Another predicate is that in-person instruction, with physical distancing and face masks, provides a better experience than an online class. That is not accepted by all faculty at Columbia, or elsewhere, and I do not think it automatically correct. Many factors will influence the outcome of that comparison. The very special circumstances of the Core, its focus on interaction and discussion among the students, guided by, not dominated by, the instructor, suggests that the structure of the class should be chosen to optimize that student-student interaction, an interaction among all students for the benefit of all students. How to achieve that optimization under the challenging classroom constraints of the present moment is something the instructors themselves have to determine. And, there is also a predicate that students will both prefer and benefit more from an in-person class, again with masks and physical distancing, than from an online experience. I am not aware of any clear evidence of that. Do students and faculty prefer the kind of in-person class we normally have? Yes, most of them do, but we are nat offering that kind of in-person class now, so that preference is not significant, and some faculty—! am one of them—discovered some appealing opportunities in the online format. You asked that this be thought through with extreme care, and that is what I am trying to do here. Extreme care is indeed required, for if efforts are taken to move instructors away from their choice of modality, there is likely to be a widespread, and justified, feeling of the rules having been suddenly changed, and this feeling will not be limited to those whose choices are not being accepted. Faculty—of all ranks and titles—have read communications from the University and from Arts and Sciences to mean that they all have the right to make that choice. That is how I have read those communications. Faculty were given the choice, and to retract that now would be unethical. My ethical concerns are only compounded by the singling out of non-tenure-track instructors. Regards, Jim James J. Valentini Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education 208 Hamilton Hall Columbia University New York, NY 10027 Voice: 212-854-2441 Email: jiv1@columbia.edu