On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 10:12 AM James J. Valentini wrote: Dear Ira, I have no general preference for the modality of any course, and I have expressed none. We offer thousands of courses of many different types in many different academic fields—in a given year there are about 4,700 different courses that Columbia undergraduates register for, in 120 different departments and programs. I cannot imagine that there is one single right modality for all those courses. It is impossible for me to have influenced the instructional choices of hundreds of Arts and Sciences faculty to whom I have not spoken. I have no opinion about their choices, nor the choices of any other faculty, since I have insufficient information and certainly insufficient wisdom to make an assessment. And I doubt that the Committee on the Core is so prominent that it could have influenced these choices. I do not know why the language course instructors have chosen in-person for only 25 of the 355 language course sections being offered in the Fall, nor why Physics is teaching the introductory lab that normally has an enrollment of about 300 undergraduates entirely online, nor why in the English department there are 69 classes listed as "only online" and none in-person. I will assume that they have good reasons. All I have done is report the decision of the faculty Committee on the Core, a decision that was endorsed by the faculty Committee on Instruction, and I have presented the reasons that the faculty gave for their choice, in particular in a phone conversation with Lee when that decision was first made. When Amy expressed exception to that decision, I right away reported that objection to those faculty Committees, and asked them to consider her concerns and re-assess their decision. When you instructed me to tell the Committee on the Core and the Committee on Instruction that their decision did not in your view comply with University policy, I did so, forwarding your message of July 9 so as to clearly represent your view, and arranging Committee on the Core and Committee on Instruction meetings for the very next day. As I reported to you, they accepted your expressed constraint. I have no personal preference about the modality of Core courses this year. I do have confidence in the faculty Committee on the Core to make decisions about the modality. I should, for those faculty Chairs carry a very large responsibility. They organize and convene the weekly course-wide instructors’ meetings. They recruit speakers, both Columbia and non-Columbia, for these weekly meetings. They lead the selection of graduate student preceptors, Core Lecturers, Core Visiting Teaching Fellows and adjunct instructors. This involves hundreds of interviews of applicants for these positions. They teach the pedagogy seminar for the new cohort of graduate student preceptors, which is equivalent to teaching a large undergraduate or graduate class. They lead the periodic syllabus reviews, which requires balancing the preferences of hundreds of instructors and charting a path to consensus. They are the resource for pedagogical questions from all other instructors. They observe non-tenure-track faculty in the classroom and advise on teaching strategies and methods. There is no one better prepared to know how to teach the Core than these Chairs. Their concern for the success of the courses and their concern for the success of our students is demonstrated day after day. And when the Committee on the Core expresses a view on how to teach the Core, it is the consensus view of the instructors as a group, not the preferences of the Chairs individually. As I have already indicated, I will once again convey your expectations—that there should be far more in-person Core course offerings, including your expectation that it would be desirable that there be similar numbers of in-person and online offerings—to the Committee on the Core, at a meeting now being arranged for some time today. The members of the Committee have all received the message sent yesterday by Amy, so they all have her perspective on this. I know no better way to proceed now than to rely on their judgment. I am offering advice to you, and that advice is not to pressure any instructor into changing their now chosen and already recorded mode of instruction. I believe that what we need more than anything else this coming semester is the enthusiasm of the faculty for instruction. By my observation the faculty are deeply upset now. They feel poorly supported and inadequately informed and lack confidence in their institution, an observation I have offered multiple times. They are uncertain how to proceed into the new academic year. Whether you view those feelings as justified or not, they are present. I am advising against taking an action that faculty will resent and oppose, and that I fear will worsen our current situation, and cause significant damage, and long-lasting damage, to Columbia. 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: jjv1@columbia.edu