Future Planning Task Force

From an email circulated yesterday:

To the Campus Community:

As we navigate these unprecedented times, our decisions will continue to be guided by the safety and welfare of our Bruin community. UCLA remains committed to providing the best possible experience to our students. We know there are many important questions about the coming academic year and we are dedicated to proactively sharing the latest information about our plans as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds.

Like universities across the nation and the world, UCLA is working to develop plans despite rapidly evolving data and shifting circumstances. We understand these plans will impact all of you and we are committed to a thoughtful approach that is inclusive of the broader campus community. To that end, we have established a Future Planning Task Force that will explore and submit recommendations to us regarding academic planning, student experience, how we continue research and work, our approach to on-campus housing, our policies for events and gatherings and how physical distancing, as one key consideration, will impact these plans.

The task force, chaired by UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Dean Ron Brookmeyer, includes representation from our community of students, faculty and staff, and will take numerous internal and external factors into account. We will share information about key decisions based on those recommendations as soon as we are able.*

As the work of this task force progresses, we wanted to share the latest information available in some key areas.

Decisions on remote versus in-person instruction

While we are all eager to see UCLA return to normal operations, the health and safety of our entire campus community must continue to guide our decisions.

We are weighing various factors and scenarios for the 2020–21 academic year, gathering data and working closely with public health officials before making any decisions. At a minimum, since we know it might not be possible for some students to safely travel to campus, we plan to offer the option of remote learning at least for fall quarter, even if some classes are held in person. As previously announced, remote instruction will continue through the end of this year’s Summer Session A, and we will announce plans for Summer Session C soon.

Tuition and mandatory fees

The UC Office of the President has previously announced that “tuition and mandatory fees have been set regardless of the method of instruction, and will not be refunded in the event instruction occurs remotely for any part of the academic year.”

Recognizing that we need to maintain campus operations, full tuition and mandatory fees will be necessary to cover many ongoing operations related to COVID-19 such as remote instruction and services such as registration, financial aid and remote academic advising.

Housing

In normal times, UCLA is able to offer housing to a majority of incoming and returning students. At this point, it is unclear how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact our operations in student housing and residential life during the 2020–21 academic year and therefore we are unfortunately unable to provide a housing guarantee.

We remain absolutely committed to offering housing to as many students as possible, while adhering to the latest recommendations from public health officials and our commitment to the safety of our students. Because circumstances around the pandemic are rapidly changing, it is not yet possible to know how many students we will be able to accommodate in residential halls and apartments. Please be assured that if we are unable to fulfill housing requests, we plan to offer remote learning as an alternative. We will continue to share information as soon as we are able.

In closing, we thank you all once again for your continued resilience and consideration as we navigate these challenging and unprecedented times. As a world-class public institution, we remain dedicated to sustaining UCLA’s missions of teaching, research and service. All of you and our broader communities locally and globally deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,

Gene D. Block

Chancellor

Emily A. Carter

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost

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*Note: There is no link in the message that would provide more information on the task force. Who is on it? How do you make contact with it? Time frame? Agenda?