Thinking of us all, and so thankful for my fantastic colleagues, friends, and neighbors. Earlier this week, I was in a call with the amazing LibraryPress@UF team (Tracy MacKay-Ratliff, Perry Collins, and Chelsea Johnston) and amazing Twanna Hodge (DEI Librarian) discussing how we work together. This meeting was scheduled a good while ago, to discuss DEI and the LibraryPress@UF, and foster collaboration in general. While things have changed so much from the time the meeting was scheduled to when it happened, the heart of the meeting, focusing on how we come together to support compassion and kindness to make a better world possible. I am heartened by the collective work by so many great people!
In thinking about how we all support each other, the “Adjusted Syllabus” offers fantastic principles for all of us at work, and for thinking through of kindess, grace, and compassion in our adjusted lives:
Principles
- Nobody signed up for this.
- Not for the sickness, not for the social distancing, not for the sudden end of our collective lives together on campus
- Not for an online class, not for teaching remotely, not for learning from home, not for mastering new technologies, not for varied access to learning materials
- The humane option is the best option.
- We are going to prioritize supporting each other as humans
- We are going to prioritize simple solutions that make sense for the most
- We are going to prioritize sharing resources and communicating clearly
- We cannot just do the same thing online.
- Some assignments are no longer possible
- Some expectations are no longer reasonable
- Some objectives are no longer valuable
- We will foster intellectual nourishment, social connection, and personal accommodation.
- Accessible asynchronous content for diverse access, time zones, and contexts
- Optional synchronous discussion to learn together and combat isolation
- We will remain flexible and adjust to the situation.
- Nobody knows where this is going and what we’ll need to adapt
- Everybody needs support and understanding in this unprecedented moment