From Catherine Dauvergne | How we will approach the summer 2021 term

This message is sent on behalf of Catherine Dauvergne, vice-president academic and provost. It has been sent to all faculty, staff and students.

Colleagues,

As we plan for what our summer 2021 term will look like, we’re balancing some tolerance for in-person activities as a vaccine rolls out across the country, against the possibility that public health restrictions remain high.

The SFU COVID-19 impact scale is currently at H1, the second highest level of restrictions, consistent with public health orders in B.C. We’re also seeing more severe restrictions in other provinces and countries as cases of COVID-19 remain high.

We continue to put the health and safety of our students, faculty and staff first, while ensuring we are providing a high quality education. This approach is working. Given that it is not possible for anyone to predict the exact course the pandemic will take, we will continue to deliver mostly remote courses in the summer 2021 term, and consider in-person teaching under certain conditions.

• Most undergraduate courses will be delivered remotely. 
• We will consider in-person instruction for experiential courses or components of courses such as studios, labs, and seminars, where learning outcomes are substantially compromised by remote delivery.
• We will look especially at core courses and those required for graduation. 
• At the graduate level, we will consider in-person delivery of portions of seminar and lab courses that enhance community and learning outcomes.
• However, all courses must be able to shift back to remote delivery if needed.
• Students in these programs will hear directly from their faculties with lots of time to make arrangements.

We will follow up with academic leaders shortly to share more details about the process we will follow for centrally approving in-person courses, or portions of courses. We will finalize decisions on in-person instruction in early March and make that information available on sfu.ca.

We are also looking at what instruction will be like in the fall 2021 term and beyond. As always, we will share information as soon as we have it.

We continue to work with public health authorities to ensure the health and wellbeing of students, faculty and staff. If you have questions, please check theCOVID-19 FAQs on sfu.ca, which are continually updated with the latest information. If you have questions that are not answered there, please emailcovid19@sfu.ca.

Stay safe, and be well.

Sincerely,

Dr. Catherine Dauvergne, QC
Vice-President Academic and Provost
Simon Fraser University