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3/16/2020 4:42 PM

TO: Fayette Campus Students
SUBJECT:
 Message from the President: Session 4 Announcement

Dear Fayette Campus Students,

The purpose of this email is to provide an update on UIU’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Key takeaways:

  • Face-to-face classes going online during Session 4.
  • Many resources are available to assist in this transition.
  • Fayette students, while encouraged to go to their permanent home, can stay at Fayette Campus if needed but must make arrangements with Student Life.

SESSION 4 ONLINE TRANSITION

Specifically, a decision was made this morning to move all Session 4 courses originally scheduled to be taught face-to-face to the Online format, with a start date of Monday, March 23 and an end date of Thursday, May 7 (a seven-week session). As a reminder, all courses originally scheduled in the online format did begin today, Monday, March 16 (full eight-week session). Students must follow attendance and participation policies as described on page 45 of the UIU Catalog.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES

Your success is important to us as higher education makes this temporary transition to online education. UIU has been offering excellent and innovative academic programs online since 1999. We aim to make the transition as easy as possible, and know that many of you already study online or take a combination of online and face-to-face courses. For those of you who are new to the online format, our exceptional online learning management system, uiuLearn, is easy to navigate and use (for more info, review this document). uiuLearn is mobile friendly and you simply use your network username and password. An app is also available. Here are a number of resources that will help you quickly adapt and achieve success:

HOUSING

As there are advantages to social distancing, we encourage those of you who are able and comfortable with returning to your permanent homes to do so. For students who are unable to return home or elect to stay on campus, we will continue to fully support you. UIU’s residential, dining, academic success, tutoring, and disability and library services will be open and operational to provide for your needs. All buildings are open for now, but this is a very fluid situation. If there are changes to services or building access, we will inform you immediately.

In order to be consistent with CDC recommendations, students remaining in the residence halls are strongly encouraged to practice excellent hygiene as well as social distancing. This includes avoids mass gatherings and maintaining distance of approximately 6 feet from others when possible.

We recognize that students who live on Fayette Campus but who opt not to return to campus may have left critical personal items in their residential housing. Housing staff will assist students with recovering and mailing Session 4 textbooks and medicine as needed. Please monitor your UIU email for further detailed instructions, which will include the process for move-out. Additionally, those who live off campus are reminded to contact landlords regarding their obligations.

UPDATES AND CONTACTS

The President’s Council and other campus leadership continue to meet and take action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Your well-being and peace of mind as a valued member of our Peacock Family is important and we are currently considering actions designed to help lessen your concerns during this tumultuous time. We thank you for your continued patience as we work to address questions. Should you have questions about this transition, do not hesitate to reach out to your faculty member, Student Life or advisor via phone or email.

As a reminder, you can find information on all university updates and actions at https://uiu.edu/coronavirus/. We will continue to update this regularly as we communicate with UIU stakeholders.

Thank you,

William R. Duffy II, Ed.D., Ed.S.
President
Upper Iowa University