University Senate’s Collaborations Help Students and Faculty Navigate Pandemic

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 10, 2021) — This past year, the University Senate and its executive body, the Senate Council, worked hard to balance the needs of instructors and students, who have been caught up in a whirlwind of unanticipated, life-changing shifts.

Aaron Cramer, chair of the University Senate Council and faculty member in the College of Engineering, explains that “because the Senate is comprised of about 100 elected faculty senators, plus 18 students and various administrators, the University Senate is always poised to provide input and present solutions, even more so during these challenging times.”

Jennifer Bird-Pollan, former Senate Council chair and faculty member in the Rosenberg College of Law, recalls the beginning of the pandemic.

“March 13, 2020, looms large in my mind, not just because that was the last day of in-person classes at UK and in K-12 schools across the Commonwealth, but also because that was the day the Senate Council and several of our academic partners from across the campus met for four hours to strategize and plan a response to a crisis whose particulars were still largely unknown,” Bird-Pollan said. “We thought about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on grading, absences, course modalities, and accreditation concerns for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester and beyond. So much was still uncertain that day, and I am incredibly proud of the creativity and dedication of the Senate Council and the entire UK faculty, both in the work we did on March 13, and all the hours people have put in to move our educational mission forward in the 14 months since that day.” 

As the pandemic continued, the University Senate and Senate Council discussed ways to have profound, positive impacts on instructors and students. The solutions identified by the Senate Council and Senate involved modifying the University Calendar and proposing changes to (and waivers of) the University Senate Rules (SRs). Activities included:

• Clarifying that if instructors have an attendance policy, they must accept health-related excuses for both physical and mental health-related absences.
• Renaming the week prior to finals week from “Dead Week” to “Prep Week” to better describe the period before finals week when students should be preparing for the end of the semester.
• Instituting Reading Day, comprised of the last two days of Prep Week, which give students two full days without instruction of new material, to help them better prepare for finals week.
• Changing several aspects of the Academic Calendar to support students and instructors. For instance, in the Spring 2020 semester, the Senate Council reopened the period during which students could change their grading option from a letter grade to Pass/Fail and also postponed the last day for students to withdraw from classes by a month. “Students were extremely excited to see they had a longer time to drop a course as the COVID-19 pandemic brought a higher level of uncertainty and stressors for our students,” explained Student Government Association President Courtney Wheeler. “Many students had extra responsibilities when they went home and more challenges.”
• Working in conjunction with the provost’s area to develop a 2020-2021 calendar that provided a much needed and longer than usual break between the fall and spring semesters.

In Fall 2021, the Senate Council worked with the Student Government Association (SGA) to survey faculty senators and SGA senators, to learn more about the specific support mechanisms that could help them manage during the pandemic.

Student Government President Wheeler describes the survey as a way “for elected student senators to see what was challenging their constituents the most. There were many challenges that faced students during the pandemic, and this allowed for a place for the concerns to be heard.”

Although personal exposure to COVID was a common concern, faculty respondents were worried about workload and evaluation. Senate Council analyzed the survey responses and provided advice to the administration on how to address the concerns raised by students and faculty. University Senate Council Vice Chair DeShana Collett, a faculty member in the College of Health Sciences, expressed appreciation for the collaborative nature of Senate work.

"I have been amazed at the diligence of our senators to ensure that we continued to work towards creating an environment that fosters shared governance with administration, securing the best interests of students, and enabling a policy structure supportive of faculty. I am incredibly proud to be a member of this educational-policy-making body," she said.

According to recent newsletters sent out by Senate Council Chair Aaron Cramer, students and faculty can look forward to Fall 2021 for more improvements. The Senate just approved a three-year pilot for test-optional undergraduate admissions, which removes some barriers to enrolling at UK, knowing that current high school students are experiencing the same limitations and restrictions that UK college students have. In regard to this and other proposals, Cramer noted his “appreciation for meaningful collaborations with Enrollment Management” and other campus offices.

An additional initiative to standardize information in course syllabi across campus will kick off in Fall 2021. One aspect of this will be URLs with standard language for instructors to link to, as well as clear language in the University Senate Rules about what information course syllabi must include, to help students manage expectations in their courses.

“The University Senate and Senate Council have worked tirelessly over the past year to provide instructors and students with support mechanisms to help mitigate some of the pandemic’s trials,” Cramer said.  He went on to commend employees and students for the myriad ways in which the university responded to this crisis.

“From a faculty member teaching online with a toddler at their feet (or maybe on-screen), to a student asked to continue their education with an unreliable internet connection, this past year has been challenging for all of us,” Cramer said. “The Senate Council and University Senate are grateful for our colleagues throughout the university who engage with us in shared governance and work to implement the Senate’s educational policies.”

To stay up to date on everything happening in the Senate, follow the University Senate on Facebook and Twitter. To learn more about serving on the University Senate, visit the Senate’s site for senators. For topical help, reach out to a member of the Senate Council office staff.