Town Hall for undergraduate students and families outlines plans for the academic year - and the rationale behind key decisions.
MIT Stata Center
Photo: Christopher Harting
How are instructors planning for remote learning in the fall? Why do on-campus students have to be on a meal plan? What will happen if there is a Covid-19 breakout in a residence hall? These and many other questions were on the minds of undergraduate students and their families at the Fall Reopening Virtual Town Hall sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor and the MIT Parents Association.
Thousands of participants tuned in on July 15 as 16 members of MIT's administration and faculty fielded crowdsourced questions from the audience, along with several from student leaders. More than 600 questions were submitted during the 75-minute event, which was moderated by Matthew Bauer, senior director of communications in the Division of Student Life.
The forum fleshed out the plans described in the July 7 fall decision letter to the community from President L. Rafael Reif. Panelists also offered a window into how MIT arrived at its decisions and the core principles that were considered, such as protecting the community's health, enabling students to stay on track to their degrees, and, as a matter of equity, giving every student the opportunity to spend at least one semester on campus.
Living on campus
Several panelists addressed what life will be like in the residences. Vice President and Dean for Student Life Suzy Nelson noted that several issues related to policies and community expectations were still being ironed out, such as the common space usage and guest policies. Judy Robinson, senior associate dean in the Residential Education Office, explained that the goal of the policies is to ensure "students have a real clear understanding of not just what the expectations are, but the responsibility to each other to minimize the spread of the virus."
Professor of architecture and head of house for Baker House John Fernandez fielded a question about communal gathering. "We do know that there is the need for seeking out and developing alternative ways to socialize," he said. To that end, a group of students, faculty, and staff are exploring ways to use outdoor spaces as much as possible and are developing a process to form self-organized social "pods" made up of small groups of residents in each house.
Students will play a vital role in ensuring these policies succeed, Fernandez noted - even simple gestures such as one student reminding another to wear a mask. "We can talk about compliance, and we can try to figure out ways to monitor student behavior, but what we're most interested in is developing a new culture in which students are partnering with us and doing the right thing," he said.
MIT is well-positioned for a potential Covid-19 breakout in the residence halls, Nelson said. There will be only one student per room, so students could effectively shelter in place, if needed. MIT Medical can provide increased testing, and there are isolation spaces available for students who test positive. "We certainly feel prepared, from full-scale breakout to a single case, and hopefully zero cases," added Shawn Ferullo, associate medical director and chief of student health at MIT Medical.
Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart addressed one of the most upvoted topics: how the Institute is helping seniors who have signed off-campus leases but have decided to break them, to be able to live in MIT housing and access the campus. In addition to guidance about subletting, reassigning, or canceling a lease, MIT is offering a $5,000 Covid-era grant. "We knew that students and their families are facing new situations this year, situations that we couldn't even begin to imagine," she said. "And this is one of those situations where the additional grant that we're providing will be able to provide families with some financial flexibility." Barnhart suggested that students who need additional help reach out to staff in Student Support Services or Student Financial Services, who will work with them to address their concerns.
Following the town hall, the Division of Student Life launched the Student Housing Assistance Review Process (SHARP) on July 17. SHARP is designed to assist two categories of students: rising sophomores and juniors who wish to request on-campus housing during the fall 2020 semester; and students, including seniors, who are experiencing significant hardship and who believe they absolutely cannot live at home and cannot live on campus.
New ways of teaching and learning
The audience had several questions related to academics, including plans for remote instruction and experiential learning. "There's a lot of work happening across MIT to make it a very rich remote and, for those on campus, in-person learning experience," said Ian A. Waitz, vice chancellor for undergraduate and graduate education. He cited several examples: developing hands-on kits to send to remote students; shifting the timing of recitations to cover multiple time zones; making iPads available for teaching assistants and all undergraduates to replace "pencil and paper" work; implementing a new learning management system, called Canvas; and focusing on balancing synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning.
In a similar vein, much effort has gone into ensuring that students can access hands-on learning experiences, explained Associate Dean of Engineering Peko Hosoi. "There are tremendous resources online now under Project Manus
