On July 30, President Burwell released a message describing the changes to AU’s Fall Plan. While we understand and support the decision to move all of our courses to a virtual format for Fall, we feel and share your disappointment. We cherish the face to face interactions we have with you and it is heartbreaking to think of the semester without you on campus.

We are also grateful for your willingness to share your COVID-related financial concerns with us. We heard you and used your experiences to advocate for and wholeheartedly support the discount on Fall tuition to meet the financial needs of this moment.

I also want to let you know that SPA faculty have been working tirelessly to prepare for their courses this Fall. Many of us became students again, taking courses on how to teach online. We have also held weekly “Show and Tell” sessions for faculty where they have talked about what works well in their online classes. In some of these sessions, we listened to SPA students, both undergraduate and graduate, who made presentations from the student perspective about what works well and what does not work in their online classes. We also understand the need for support services to support your educational experience, these critical services will be provided virtually. We are grateful for the feedback we have received from all of you – we are better because of it.

We hope you will join the student Q&A sessions that we will soon schedule for next week, and I also want you to feel free to reach out to me (spadean@american.edu) for any reason. We want to hear from you!

Please keep an eye out for these additional ways to engage:

1. Information on student Q&A sessions.
2. Announcement of exciting SPA Fall lecture series.
3. Invitations to join me for “SPA Welcome Zooms.”
4. Follow us on social media (@AU_SPA) for messages and updates.

Even though this is not the semester we planned or hoped for, I am confident that we will come away from this stronger because while we are physically distanced, we remain together!

Please take good care of yourself.

My best,
Vicky

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SPA Courses

SPA courses will be taught in one or a blend of the following:

• Live Online/Synchronous class time: Courses will be designed with a significant portion dedicated to live online meetings with faculty and students. These sessions will be recorded when possible, for students unable to attend. Synchronous class time will occur during scheduled class time.
• Asynchronous class time: Faculty will post individual- and group-activities that students will complete on their own schedule.

How will students know what a Fall course will look like?

Based on faculty feedback, all Fall 2020 SPA courses received a “tag,” to describe to the student what to expect in terms of interaction for that course. The tags explain which modalities (listed above) will be used for this course. Students can find specific information on their course here.