April 3, 2020 - Backup Contingency Planning

Dear Colleagues,

In this time of extraordinary challenges and uncertainty, we would like to suggest the following to ensure continuity in our academic programs.

• We urge you to identify a backup person or persons to cover the responsibilities of key individuals in your department in the event that someone is unable to work for a time due to illness.
• If possible, each instructor of undergraduate and graduate courses should arrange for a colleague to be prepared to cover their classes should they be required to miss time due to illness.
• Stellar class websites provide an efficient vehicle to communicate with all students registered in a class via email.  Instructors should ensure that one or more colleagues have administrator-level access to their Stellar websites. 
• In the event that later in the semester a subject cannot continue (e.g., the instructor becomes ill and backup is not possible), a department or program head may make a request to the Chair of the Faculty that full credit for the subject be awarded, with PE/NE grades submitted based on work completed to that point.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at facultychair-reply@mit.edu with any comments or questions.

Rick

Rick Danheiser
A. C. Cope Professor

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Chemistry
Room 18-298
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel 617 253 1842
Cell 617 480 3948