Dear faculty colleagues,
Robust testing and contact tracing will play an important role in our ability to identify and minimize exposure risk in our community this fall. At the recommendation of our health and wellness committee, we are asking instructors to establish a chart for fixed seating, where feasible. Documenting seating assignments, even when not fully capturing all in-class interactions, will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the contact tracing process, if needed.
We recognize a fixed seating chart is imperfect and that creating them may be difficult for some classes and instructional arrangements. Our goal is to provide the most complete information possible in order to help facilitate contact tracing should it be needed.
Please review the request outlined below and participate if possible.
- Decide how you will document seating in your class. We developed, and are updating, seating chart templates for all General Purpose Classrooms (GPC) to assist instructors with fixed seating assignments, which may be effective in small to medium size courses. For non-GPC rooms, you may document seating in the way that works best. Julie Schell, from Fine Arts, created this helpful website to share with instructors about how this may be done.
- Share your plan with your students. On the first day of in-person class, let students know that you will be creating a seating chart based on their seating preference to help maintain health and safety should contact tracing be needed. Ask students to sit in their preferred seat during the next class period and maintain that seat throughout the semester.
- Ask students to identify their seat for the semester. Share the seating chart with students during class, and ask them to identify their seat number on that chart. We recommend creating a simple survey in Canvas or Qualtrics to collect this information from the students — EID, row, seat number, for example.
- Instructors teaching at full density should assign seats for the full semester.
- Instructors teaching at reduced density should assign seats for each cohort and then re-assign when returning to full density.
- Instructors who have temporarily switched their teaching modality should assign seats when returning to in-person instruction.
- Upload your seating charts. Instructors are asked to submit seating assignments by September 10.
We recognize a fixed seating chart is imperfect. It does not capture all interactions between students in class, and students who arrive late may choose a different seat. Our goal is to produce the most complete information possible to help facilitate contact tracing should it be needed.
Finally, please be mindful that we wish to reduce student density during high traffic periods. Please conclude class with enough time for students to leave in an orderly manner so the next class can enter with a minimum of overlap.
Again, I recognize the seating charts will not be an easy task in many cases. We appreciate your effort in doing what you can by September 10.
Thank you for all you are doing.
Sincerely,
Sharon L. Wood
Executive Vice President and Provost