Middlebury Fall 2020:

Mutual Information Database

PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTRIBUTING:

1. Please read the Official College Announcement and the official college FAQ page if you have preliminary questions
2. Add sources/links to all confirmed information included in major headings
3. Please try to add as little unconfirmed information as possible to minimize confusion or rumor-spreading as possible! If you add anything that is unconfirmed, please add it to the “Unconfirmed Information” page. 
4. On June 22, the Middlebury administration sent out their decision for the fall semester. Unfortunately, their statement left out a ton of vital information that was incomprehensive and left many questions unanswered. For example, many departments have announced that their classes will be universally remote, and almost all have speculated that Middlebury’s estimate of 175/530 remote classes is a massive lowball guess. We made this google document to crowdsource information that people have been hearing from faculty members so that everyone has a better understanding of what they are signing up for in the fall semester. Please add information as needed!
5. Note: A recording of the Student Town Hall, which was on Monday, June 29 from 7:00-8:30 PM EST can be found here and a transcript of the event can be found here.

Table of Contents

*Unconfirmed Information* ONLY        3

Information about Classes        4

Information about Social Life (pod size, meals, club orgs, etc.)        7

Information about Housing        8

Information about On-Campus/Off-Campus Jobs        9

Information about On-Campus Services (library, dining halls, gym)        10

Information about Emergency Plans (campus evacuation, financial aid)        11

Information about Faculty/Staff Job Safety (pay cuts, compensation, PPE, etc)        12

Information about Taking a Semester Off        13

Information about Financial Aid        15

*the go link for this page is go.middlebury.edu/fall2020*

*Unconfirmed Information* ONLY

Please put any rumors that you’ve heard about high circulation

• Staff are getting threatened with pay cuts, or furlough/firing if they decide not to go back for safety reasons. ^[a]
• According to someone quoted in this article, J-term is currently scheduled to be remote. ^[b]
• If the school inevitably has to go fully online, the semester is cut short and any other unforeseen circumstances halt the semester, it is highly likely that faculty & staff will face salary cuts. This could be fully avoided if senior leadership draws more $$ from the endowment. They seem unwilling to do so. If you are concerned about the treatment of our vital faculty/staff you should check out the following website: http://sites.middlebury.edu/aaup/. Students interested in getting involved in AAUP solidarity email cgottlieb@middlebury.edu to express interest.

Information about Classes

Faculty Announcement lo: June 24, 2020 (includes a lot of interesting information about the mode of course delivery)

Departmental Plans

Multiple departments have made the decision to be fully remote so far, and announced these decisions to their students and/or the administration. For professors in departments that have not announced, they must decide by July 8 if their classes will be online/remote.

Confirmed online departments (sourced from departmental announcements) include:

• Film and Media Culture
• Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies
• Neuroscience (though a few such as Behavioral Neuroscience may have occasional in person labs)
• AMST
• Dance

Confirmed hybrid/online departments

• Luso-Hispanic Studies (most professors are fully online, but some are hybrid according to the Department Chair)
• Physics

Confirmed hybrid/online/in-person departments

• Education Studies (shows what model individual professors plan to pursue)- even classes that are held in person will be available to students online if needed! Ed studies said they will make classes work for people no matter where they are.
• Chemistry/Biochemistry

Class Standards

Classes with a maximum enrollment of 36 or more students will need to be taught online. These classes may include some smaller in-person experiences such as discussion sections, labs, drills, etc. In the end, many courses will need to blend different formats. Registration will occur in early August, with no set date at this moment.

Registration details

1. The Registrar’s Office will share a course schedule that includes all details on the teaching modalities on July 27.
2. The Advising period will take place from July 27 through July 31.  
3. Students will register between August 3 and August 7.

Taxonomy of Courses (via Letter to Faculty Colleagues)

1. Fully online courses: Such courses will be available both to students on campus and to students who are remote. Generally speaking, we can think of these in two categories:

1. Scheduled online courses, where students will have a required synchronous component to their classes (along with asynchronous work, normally).
2. Flexible online courses. Much more of the work here will be asynchronous, and although there will often be synchronous activities in these courses, none of those synchronous activities will be required at a particular point in time.

2. Fully in-person courses: These classes are likely to be on the smaller side, if they are to be exclusively in person, given social distancing requirements. Our classrooms will hold many fewer students (generally one-third to one-quarter of their normal capacity) when we have social distancing requirements in place. We are also in the process of adding nontraditional classroom spaces for use for in-person classes, to expand our capacity for such meetings. Obviously, all of these courses will be available only to students who are on campus in Vermont.
3. Hybrid courses: We expect that many courses will fall into this broad category and imagine that there may be a great deal of creativity and innovation from colleagues as they reimagine their courses in our altered environment. In general, we imagine such courses in three broad formats:

1. Blended courses. These courses will have some in-person and some online meetings. One can imagine such courses having an online lecture and in-person discussion sections (or other non-lecture components). These courses will be available only to students who are on campus in Vermont.
2. Online lecture/multimodal section courses. These courses will have a larger section (normally a lecture) that will be online. These courses will also have smaller meetings, some of which will be in person, and some remote (labs, discussions, drills, etc.). Students who are on campus and those who are remote can take such classes.
3. Hyflex courses. These courses will be offered simultaneously to students on campus and off campus. These are probably the most challenging to manage, in terms of technology (and we have limited capacity for offering such classes), and are most difficult to make inclusive. They are probably the most challenging to teach, as well, given the need to pay attention to and include students in multiple places simultaneously. Students both on campus and off can take such classes.

Education Affairs Committee is deciding on:

• Grading policy
• Teaching load guidelines
• CRFs
• experiential learning components

Information from individual professors:

• From Gary Winslett (PSCI and IPEC): Both of my classes (The Politics of Taxes) and (International Law) will be in-person in the fall. I'm putting together a video of what my classes will be like and will email it to you all next week (and will put it on Twitter as well so that students who aren't my advisees can see it). But I need to make sure that my plans actually will actually get approved first before I do that. My basic idea is to use restaurant-style plexiglass dividers and have people in groups of 4 (divided by the plexiglass) and have the groups more than 6 feet apart. Everyone including myself will have clear plastic face shields, so we all should be able to see each other pretty well. I'm going to disinfect the dividers before and after each class. So hopefully that is what my classes will look like, but I need to get clearance before I can make any hard promises on that. Office hours are going to be held outside in camping chairs that I'm bringing from home- so that'll be fun! And yes I will disinfect those as well between each visitor.
• Erin Eggleston(Bio) plans on teaching her courses remotely, but she plans to have information on what that will look like available to any interested students before course registration. She stressed that remote courses will NOT look like what they did this past spring, when teachers were coming up with a plan in an emergency situation. Rather, professors (speaking for herself at least) teaching remote courses want to have an enriching and robust learning experience for students taking their courses.
• Pete Nelson (Geography): hybrid outdoor classroom when weather permits
• Jamie McCallum (Sociology) is hosting a zoom meeting this Sunday (June 28) to outline some plans for the fall semester. Students of all majors are welcome to join:

• Topic: Jamie McCallum's Fall Updates Meeting

Time: Jun 28, 2020 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://middlebury.zoom.us/j/8960147790?pwd=UGduNHZZbGpzSlg3UkhrdkV3TnRsQT09 

    Password: 735126

Or iPhone one-tap :

    US: +13017158592,,8960147790#  or +13126266799,,8960147790#

Or Telephone:

    Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

        US: +1 301 715 8592  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 646 876 9923  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833

    Meeting ID: 896 014 7790

    Password: 735126

    International numbers available: https://middlebury.zoom.us/u/ad6GrTnrmF

Or an H.323/SIP room system:

    See here for info: http://go.middlebury.edu/zoomconnect

    If meeting is password protected, use the numeric password in the telephone join section of the invitation for H.323 & SIP connections

• Jamie McCallum (Sociology): SOCI 305 will be fully online, asynchronous v. synchronous learning will be decided based on who enrolls in his courses
• Bert Johnson: PSCI 104 (Intro to American Politics) and PSCI 210 (Frontiers in Political Science Research) will be fully online in the fall. He is leaning in the direction of asynchronous lecture components and synchronous discussion sections, with enough discussion options to accommodate students in other time zones.
• BIOL145 will be all online (both lecture and lab sections).
• BIOL140 lectures will be online and there will be separate online versus in-person lab sections.
• BIOL203 will be taught fully online lecture but flex in person labs; However, Dr. coe may be  willing to work with students who feel they would prefer to take it fully remote
• BIOL211 lectures will be online, and there will be 1 lab section online, and 2 lab sections for students on campus. In-person labs will be entirely outside.
• BIOL365 lecture and lab sections will be scheduled remote (although there are possible plans for students to carry out microbial observations at "home" and to complement bioinformatics-based lab work).
• PHYS110 will have synchronous lectures online; lab updates to come (see linked sheet above)
• Murray Dry (Political Science — Constitutional Law and Ancient Political Philosophy (?)) will do classes completely remote.
• Computer science information below based on email from Prof. Dickerson on July 3
• CSCI200 (Prof. Caplan) will be using a flipped classroom model, in which lecture materials will be delivered asynchronously in the form of 20-25 minute videos, posted to either Panopto or YouTube, so students may watch these lectures at any time. Synchronous class time will be entirely devoted to solving daily (MWF) worksheet problems in groups of 3-4 students, where each worksheet relates to the topic of a particular lecture video. When solving daily worksheets, students may work together in person or remotely (via Zoom breakout rooms). The instructor will be available (remotely via Zoom), to answer any questions related to the worksheets. Notes will also be provided to accompany the lecture videos.
• CSCI202 (Prof. Vaccari) I am offering two sections: one in-person and one online. For both sections, the interaction will be synchronous with lecture/group problem solving sessions. My goal is to offer as similar a learning experience as possible to both online and in-person students.
• CSCI301 (Prof. Briggs) will use a flipped classroom model, with lecture materials delivered asynchronously via notes and short videos. Discussion sections will meet once a week for problem solving and discussion; both in-person and online discussion sections will be available.
• CSCI302 (Prof. Christman) will have scheduled online lectures and both in-person and remote discussion sessions. The discussion sessions will be used primarily for reviewing topics discussed in lecture and solving homework problems in small groups of students.
• CSCI312 (Prof. Andrews) will be using a “flipped classroom” model, with video lectures and notes available online. In-person class time will be used for discussion of the material, working on practicals and assignments, and, later in the semester, for groups to work together on their projects.
• CSCI313, 315 (Prof. Scharstein): Both CS 313 (Programming Languages) and CS 315 (Systems Programming) will be taught as hybrid online lecture / multimodal section courses.  This means they will use a flipped classroom model, where the lecture content will be delivered online (typically assigned readings and/or videos, as will as online quizzes).  In addition, to allow in-person interaction, there will be small (6-9 students) lab/discussion sections that meet for 50 minutes.  In CS 313 there will be one such session per week, and in CS 315 there will be two.  For both courses, three discussion sections will be offered (X, Y, Z), two in-person for students on campus, and one online for students off-campus.
• CSCI401 (Prof. Kimmel): There will be synchronous lecture/group problem solving sessions that most students will participate in over Zoom, with a smaller (possibly rotating) group of students participating in person. I will simultaneously project to students in the room while screen sharing to students not in the room. There will be a similar format for a once a week writing workshop for those in the CW section.
• CSCI701 (Prof. Caplan and Prof. Dickerson): We have two planned sections of CSCI 701. Prof. Caplan will teach Section A, and Prof. Dickerson will teach Section B.  Both sections will be taught with a scheduled online seminar, but will also allow in-person interaction between students (either in-person or online). Note the following:

• Students who prefer an entirely online modality for CSCI 701 should enroll in Section A.  
• Students who plan in-person interactions, may sign up for section A or B.  
• For those in Section A, additional in-person and online interactions for the final term project will be scheduled at the beginning of the semester.
• Students in Section B must sign up for one of the lab sections X,Y,Z.  As the semester progresses, and as health and safety permit, Section B will make more use of the in-person smaller lab sections.

• Info about all Psychology Courses for the Fall

• Psychology Department Fall, 2020 Supplemental Course Information
•  Information below is accurate as of July 23, 2020

• **IMPORTANT!! The information below indicates a professor’s current thinking about how these courses will be structured and taught in Fall, 2020. Please keep in mind that faculty have had less than 1 month to envision how they will design and teach courses this Fall. Thus, it is possible some of the information below will change with additional time to design and plan courses. As was noted in the email sent to Psychology majors earlier this month, faculty are working very hard this summer to design and teach excellent, engaging courses, in order to ensure we all have a successful semester.**

•  PSYC 105 (Introduction to Psychology)

• PSYC 105A (Collaer): For LECTURE, we will meet in person occasionally (3-5 times during the semester) with other lectures delivered asynchronously online; however, DISCUSSION sections will meet in person weekly.
• PSYC 105B (Parker): Asynchronous online
• PSYC 105C (Thomas): Lectures will mostly be delivered asynchronously online (we may meet a couple of times in person for orientation to the course and exams). Discussion sections will meet in person weekly.

• PSYC 201 (Statistics)

• PSYC 201A (Collaer): We will meet in person for lectures and lab.  You will likely need to bring your laptop (or check one out) for our computer labs.
• PSYC 201B (Parker):  Asynchronous online

• PSYC 202 (Research Methods)

• PSYC 202A (Kimble): This course will be taught in person with an occasional class or lab taught remotely.
• PSYC 202B (McCauley): This class will be in person for lectures while the lab work will be completed online.  Given the project focus of research methods, there will be many one-on-one meetings with the professor and the peer writing tutors as well as group activities throughout the semester (these are likely to be on Zoom) .

• PSYC 205 (Emotions): This course will be “scheduled online”, meaning that there is a required meeting time for lecture.  However, the course will include both synchronous and asynchronous meetings.  This means that we will not always use the scheduled lecture time, but it will be available to us when/if we need it.  I anticipate that we will meet synchronously at least once per week throughout the semester.  Please note that these projections are subject to change and may depend on the needs of the class as the semester proceeds.  Given the undivided pace of the Fall 2020 semester at Midd, the course will build some break(s) into the semester.  During the break, lecture times will not be used so that we can catch-up, contemplate, or relax. The lecture will be comprised of various multi-media components.  There will be opportunities for engagement via break-out group discussions and/or via activities such as interactive computer simulations of anxiety and stress physiology (e.g.,heart rate variability, respiration rates, and galvanic skin responses). Exams will consist of application and objective questions.  **All activities contingent up Middlebury College funding of these educational tools**

• PSYC 216 (Adolescence): In this course there will be one synchronous meeting per week held via Zoom. Students will complete textbook, article and other readings prior to Zoom class sessions. Additionally, short videos, quizzes and other assignments will be due before each session. The synchronous sessions will allow for discussion, activities, and group work associated with the topic. Students will be expected to attend the Zoom sessions, it will not be possible to participate in this course without attending the set synchronous session each week.

• PSYC 224 (Psychological Disorders): This course will have synchronous online lectures that will be recorded.  Students who can not make the class synchronously are always welcome (either regularly or because of illness) to watch the lecture later online.  Two of the three discussion sections will be in person.   Remote students should sign up for the TBD section.  We will find a time that works for all the students who sign up for that discussion.  The TBD discussion will also be recorded and students who can not make their discussion section for any reason would be expected to watch the recorded TBD discussion.  If you can take the course in person, but the only slots left are TBD, you should sign up for the TBD discussion.   It is possible (but not guaranteed) that we might be able to move a student into an in person discussion if there is enough physical space in the room.

• PSYC 226 (Brain & Behavior): This course will be “scheduled online”, meaning there is a required meeting time for both lecture and lab.  However, both lecture and lab will include synchronous and asynchronous meetings.  This means we will not always use the scheduled lecture or the lab times, but it will be available to us when/if we need it.  I anticipate we will meet synchronously for lecture at least once per week throughout the semester.  I also anticipate that labs will meet synchronously during the first ½ of the semester, but will be a mix of synchronous and asynchronous meetings during the 2nd ½ of the semester. Please note that these projections are subject to change and may depend on the needs of the class as the semester proceeds.  Given the undivided pace of the Fall 2020 semester at Midd, the course will build some break(s) into the semester.  During the break, we will not use lecture or lab times to allow time for catch-up, contemplation, or relaxation.  The lecture will consist of various multi-media components with opportunities for engagement via discussions and/or activities during break-out groups.  The lab component will consist of at home activities such as at home sheep brain dissections (that’s right! Right in your living room—home-school style); interactive lab practicums that are either live or via interactive videos; interactive computer simulations of psychophysiological measures including EEG and polygraph tests; brain fact escape rooms; and, interactive story making videos that allow you to build chains of “talking neurons” with alternate “story” endings!  You will be guided through activities during lab sessions so that you can explore them further on your own.  **All activities contingent up Middlebury College funding of these educational tools**

• PSYC 227 (Cognitive Psychology): In this course, we will hold two synchronous meetings per week via Zoom. The lab portion of this course will be conducted asynchronously (details below). Students will prepare for synchronous class meetings by completing text and primary literature readings, viewing short (5-6 minute) video lectures that provide background information for each class, completing lab exercises (usually participating in a computerized experiment), and completing preparatory thinking exercises. Synchronous meetings will be devoted to discussing evidence, readings, and applications of cognitive theory and phenomena. Synchronous meetings will benefit from active participation of all class members, and will be set up to facilitate this active engagement.
• NSCI/PSYC 317 (Biobehavioral Addictions): The modality of the course will be synchronous online. In this course, we will meet twice per week synchronously via Zoom. Students will prepare for class meetings by completing a variety of readings from the textbook, primary literature, case studies, writing assignments, and listen to short podcasts. Class meetings will include small teams work on case studies and primary literature. Synchronous lectures will focus on discussing readings and applying their concepts to understand drugs and addiction. Class meetings will be set up to facilitate active engagement, and encourage all class members to contribute their thoughts.

• PSYC 333 (Environmental Psychology): This class is designed in a flipped manner such that students will read materials, listen to podcasts, watch video lectures, and complete writing assignments ahead of a weekly in person discussion session (which I hope will be outside as often as possible). There is a synchronous Zoom remote section offered as well for students who wish this option instead of meeting in person.

• PSYC 414 (Rhythms of the Brain): Given the small class size of this senior seminar, I’m optimistic that we will be able to effectively hold all classes in person (2, 75 min meetings a week).  Should 1) the social distancing requirements prove too large of an impediment to foster effective class discourse or 2) Vermont coronavirus infection rates increase such that the associated health risks are no longer offset by the benefits of in-person instruction, we will switch formats to rely on remote interactions.  Here, we will likely have one synchronous remote lecture/discussion each week to introduce that week’s topic and one small group discussion each week in which we can directly explore relevant scientific literature.  Any shift to remote instruction would be done in consultation with the class.
• PSYC 423 (Nature, Technology, and the Self): Given our small class size, and given the topic of this seminar, we will meet in-person once per week in an outdoor classroom (in the case of inclement weather we will either meet in our assigned classroom or meet via Zoom, whichever seems preferable). Our face to face weekly meetings will be used to discuss the course readings and develop your independent projects. The rest of the week you will be responsible for completing readings, viewing online lectures, listening to podcasts, completing writing assignments, and doing independent applied activities -- all of which will culminate in a final portfolio.

Information about Social Life (pod size, meals, club orgs, etc.)

Information about Housing

Some information on fall housing on the Middlebury website: http://www.middlebury.edu/student-life/community-living/residential-life/housing-information/housing-assignments/room-draw

“We have updated the room selection process to provide as much time as possible for students to plan and make informed decisions before the leave of absence deadline on July 6.

A full list of available spaces will be made available prior to the room selection process in July.

All applications need to be completed by July 6. After July 6 you will not be able to change your application or group membership.”

Room draw calendar: http://www.middlebury.edu/student-life/community-living/residential-life/housing-information/housing-assignments/room-draw/calendar

• Housing is converting Middlebury offices (Forest, Voter) into more housing space.^[c][d]

International students won’t be able to participate in the July housing draw. If this upsets you, sign this petition:^[e]

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdku3YGudEZq5Z-9qnZNUcnmIIsyOQnQordrD5kzvhBVVmChg/alreadyresponded

Information about On-Campus/Off-Campus Jobs

Information about On-Campus Services (library, dining halls, gym)

Music Department Services

• All private music lessons will be taught remotely via Zoom. (The Music Dept. has yet to announce plans regarding lesson room availability.)

Information about Emergency Plans (campus evacuation, financial aid)

• The tuition/fees refund insurance plan from Dewar, in case a student has to withdraw for certain medical reasons, has been updated and is on offer for 2020-21.  http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/support/sfs/payment/tuition-insurance/node/552805 AND https://collegerefund.com/apps/details1.asp?Id=1587&DIV=1 

Information about Faculty/Staff Job Safety (pay cuts, compensation, PPE, etc)

Middlebury AAUP (American Association of University Professors): alumni letter of support, meeting notes, subcommittees, BLM solidarity statement, etc.

• Faculty members take a 15% pay cut if students must be evacuated mid-semester
• On the student life/support staff side, staff can work remotely and are encouraged to do so. Staff (in student-support side) can volunteer to be part-time if they choose to.

Letter from Sujata Moorti & Jeff Cason:

• “Junior colleagues should not feel compelled to teach in one modality over another. We understand as well that if your circumstances or external conditions change significantly in the coming weeks, you may need to alter your teaching modality.”

Information about Taking a Semester Off

• The July 6 deadline is supposed to be non-binding^[f]; Middlebury just wants to get a rough estimate of numbers before moving forward with class registration and housing. (heard from faculty who heard from administration)
• 
• Students will be able to choose to continue classes remotely; you are not required to return to campus.

If you take the fall off, you cannot come back for J term. You need to send and email to your dean explaining your intent (ie. “I plan to withdraw this fall but will return for the spring”). If you want to return in the spring you need to confirm with your dean by Nov 1. You do not need to reapply to Middlebury. You need to inform your dean so they can help make arrangements for housing, you can register for classes (after Nov 1) and they can generally help you “prepare for the transition back to Midd”. Contact SFS to see if your aid will be affected if you take the semester off (confirmed in conversation with Emily VanMistri)

Information about Financial Aid

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