• A survey conducted last week by Student Success revealed that roughly 60% of the students who responded felt overwhelmed and were having a difficult time engaging with their academic work; another 11% felt they would benefit from additional support. Only 30% said they were doing well. While these results were obtained from 400 primarily first-year students, they provide an important window into how many of our students are feeling and why the supports below are necessary. 

• One way to help is by making a donation to the Pace Cares fund.

• Thank you for your patience and support as we implement the Pass/Fail grading option. Your primary responsibility is to provide students with a clear understanding of where they stand in your course so that they can make an informed decision by April 27. Procedurally, at the end of the semester, you will receive a list by class of who has elected the Pass/Fail option. (It will look like the usual notices that you receive about withdrawal and additions to your course roster.) At that point, you will simply enter students’ letter grades or their Pass/Fail grade. If you want to know more about the Pass/Fail option, you can go to Academic Continuity. This site is updated as additional information becomes available. We realize that there are many different opinions on this issue; however, rather than mandating a decision for all students, we wanted to put the choice of a letter grade or Pass/Fail into the hands of students. 

• During this extraordinary semester, our traditional model of final exams is not possible. Many students are in different time zones or have only intermittent access to computers and the internet. These factors affect administration of timed, synchronous examinations.
• We urge you to consider using alternate forms of assessment more frequently across the remainder of the semester rather than standard, high-stakes exams. 
• If you are giving a final exam, we strongly encourage you to open the exam for at least a 24-hour period (with the window to encompass an open time at 12:00 a.m. ET and a close time at 11:59 p.m. ET). If you must give a timed exam within a single class session, be sure that it can be completed within that time frame. Students are taking many classes and need to stick to their course schedule.
• Remember to accommodate students with accessibility issues. If you have questions about how to do this, contact our Student Accessibility Services staff. An information session is being held on April 20 from 12:10 p.m.–1:10 p.m. Click here to register.

• Tenure Clock Extension. The pandemic has created circumstances that prevent or interrupt faculty progress toward professional and scholarly achievement. Therefore, we are offering the option to extend the tenure clock by one year for any current tenure-track faculty member whose tenure case is to be reviewed by their department, school/college, and the University in the 2020–21 and 2021–22 academic years. Faculty who opt in will be granted a single one-year extension to their probationary period (i.e., tenure clock). Click here for more details on the extension.  
• June Academic Portfolio Workshop. Registration is now open for faculty seeking to use the June 1–4 workshop to develop their tenure and promotion dossiers and executive summary statements. Click here to register for the Academic Portfolio Workshop.
• Faculty Recognition Ceremony. Despite difficult circumstances, our community has continued to make important contributions in teaching, scholarship, and service. We invite you to join us for a celebration of faculty accomplishments at this year’s remote Faculty Recognition Ceremony on Thursday, May 7, from 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
• We are disappointed to announce that our annual Faculty Institute is cancelled; however, please know that we are considering other ways to support our community. If you have ideas for events that would advance everyone’s abilities to teach online and/or maintain their scholarship, please include them in the survey linked above or send them to the facultycenter@pace.edu. 

• We differentiate between “remote” and “online” to acknowledge that some of the summer courses we are offering were always designed as online learning experiences whereas others will require a rapid revision to accommodate distance learning and, thus, student retention and academic momentum. 
• If you are scheduled to teach summer courses, the staff of Pace Online, the Faculty Center, and Academic Technologies will continue to support you as you develop your online teaching skills. Please help us to develop appropriate supports by completing this survey by April 27.  
• In turn, we ask for your help to maintain enrollment and recruitment. In your current classes, mention that summer courses are available at the standard discounted summer rate.