Due to continued uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, all Ferris State University
Summer 2020 semester courses, including those beginning after June 1, will be delivered
remotely, said Paul Blake, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, on Wednesday,
April 22.
Besides the continued remote delivery of courses, the university will not reopen residence
halls or dining facilities this summer. In making this decision now, the university
community will continue planning to ensure everyone’s health and safety and the integrity
of academic instruction and student learning, Provost Blake said.
In his message to the university community, Blake wrote, “There will be nowhere to
bring students and no way to safely provide for them with appropriate cleaning and
sanitizing efforts even if we were allowed to reconvene. Of utmost concern are the
continued challenges with the virus in closed environments like classrooms and laboratories
that create great difficulty in keeping people safe.”
Ferris’ ELearning group, its Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, and collaborative
faculty and staff members have already provided resources for converting and delivering
face-to-face courses in remote modes. Blake said that those resources will be continued
and enhanced for both summer delivery and in anticipation and preparation for the
potential need for full-scale conversion and delivery of Fall 2020 semester courses
in remote or mixed delivery modes.
The provost added, “These enhanced resource services also anticipate providing alternative
delivery modes for faculty and students who will not feel comfortable or do not want
to return to a physical classroom in the fall even in the event of approval to return
to face-to-face instruction.”
The university plans to announce more information in the weeks to come that will outline
resource availability and delivery possibilities.
