To our U of T Engineering community
I hope everyone is doing well, taking time for breaks and staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. I know I’ve had a few hiccups in figuring out this new learning and working from home plan so I hope everyone has been coming up with some good strategies – do feel free to share.
As promised – I said I would keep you up to date with our plans for Convocation, since the University’s announcement that unfortunately we can’t host the big event in person in June.
Our graduating students received a message this afternoon from President Gertler, and I want to share some more details about how we’ll be celebrating:
- The University will host a ceremony via webcast in early June — stay tuned for the exact date and time. The Chancellor, who is the Chair of Convocation, will confer all degrees in absentia, and diploma parchments will be couriered to graduates on a rolling basis following the virtual ceremony.
- The University has also posted answers to some frequently asked questions around Convocation
- When the situation normalizes and it is possible to gather safely, Engineering will host its own in-person graduation ceremonies to celebrate this important milestone. These will not happen before September 1, 2020, and will take place over the course of 2020-21 as scheduling and space permits.
- Our in-person graduation ceremonies will have many of the core elements of the traditional Convocation ceremony – from the academic procession of all the graduates, to congratulatory remarks, a convocation speaker, and individual presentation of the graduates.
Convocation is perhaps THE highlight of the year for all of our faculty and staff, and a once-in-a-lifetime moment for all our graduating students. I know that we all want to be there with you to celebrate. I can’t wait to join you all in person – so stay tuned and I will keep you posted as we start to finalize the details.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto
To our U of T Engineering community
Hi everyone, today we all received the message from President Gertler about the cancellation of the in-person Convocation ceremonies for June 2020. I know that this is very disappointing news for all of us in Engineering, and particularly for our friends, family and extended community. I know how much this means to everyone, especially the class of 2T0 and 1T9+PEY, who were looking forward to walking across that stage, waving to friends and family — I was especially looking forward to the opportunity of shaking everyone’s hand and hearing what your plans are. It is a very special moment and one I remember from my own Convocation experience. This is also such an important day for faculty and staff who are so proud of all your accomplishments.
It is really important to know that the University made this decision based on the input and perspective of key public health experts, many of whom are drawn from right here at U of T.
I want you to know that I too am disappointed in this news — believe me, I want to be on that stage with you as well! We will find a way to celebrate your tremendous accomplishments and I’ll share those plans with you as soon as I can. I am proud of all that you have accomplished and look forward to celebrating this with you in person soon.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto
To our U of T Engineering graduate students
As I mentioned in my email on Friday, I want to share the plan for adjusted final assessments and grading that are specific to graduate courses. We have heard the concerns from students about timing of final assessments, worries over unreliable internet access, and questions around ensuring that accommodation and accessibility needs can still be met.
As always, our Faculty’s primary aim is to support our students to complete this term by providing you with the best possible learning and assessment experience that we can. Due to the advanced nature of the materials covered, graduate courses typically have significant flexibility in terms of modes of assessment and usually have a greater emphasis on projects. Consequently, we are asking instructors to develop alternatives to final exams, now called final assessments, that let students best reflect their learning in each course, using guidelines that include:
- In the development of these plans the Faculty expects that all course instructors will consult with students in their courses in appropriate ways.
- Instructors will then put the proposed option to a student vote. With the approval by a simple majority of those who vote, the course can move forward with the proposed plan.
- For consistency, the Faculty suggests that courses use one or a combination of the following approaches for the final assessment:
- Take-home exams,
- Assignments,
- Report, essay, project, presentations
- Quercus online quizzes
- In designing their plans, instructors will consider solutions that support Academic Accommodations and Academic Integrity.
For this Winter 2020, the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) has extended the deadline for students enrolled in graduate courses to drop their course (full year and winter courses) without penalty until April 25, 2020. Unlike in undergraduate programs where it was already an option in place, the option to include on transcripts a letter grade as normal, or opt for a Credit or No Credit (CR/NCR) does not currently exist in graduate programs at U of T and at most universities in Canada. SGS is currently investigating this option to make this available in some graduate courses in a retroactive manner as it cannot be implemented immediately in our systems due to regulatory issues and processes related to changing academic programs.
I’ll keep you updated should we get additional details from SGS.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto