Newsletter May 2020
President’s Message
Acienit id quatust ibustrum esequi dem pro teinque nis niYears ago velles while living Hong Kong, I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel, Love maxim illaborae in et resectat in the Time of Cholera, which I et happened to find in the library of the university es as endus que esti ut omnienwhere I was teaching. There were only a couple shelves of English language books, and I'm sure READING I read all of FINISH ONthose PG. 2books while there. At the time of reading it, I remember thinking how lucky I was to live in a time with advanced medicine. When my parents were growing up, they had occasional quarantines when polio would sweep through a region. The development of vaccines gave my generation freedom from fear of incurable infectious diseases. And yet, decades later, here we are. This has been a most unusual semester. As a faculty and as a university, we have accomplished a great deal. Switching, in a matter of days, more than 1,000 courses from traditional face-to-face to online learning has been a Herculean task. Advising our thousands of students online, too, has been an incredible feat. Normally, at the end of the spring semester, I look forward to getting away to New England for a few days. This is not a normal time. Many of you have also had to scuttle travel plans, whether for family visits or for KU Study Abroad programs. It's challenging for all of us. Looking ahead there is uncertainty, too. Will we be back in person for the fall semester? Will we have to go online at some point in the fall? APSCUF-KU is working--and will continue to work all summer--with KU's management to get answers on this as soon as possible. We are also ensuring that faculty have a voice in the decision-making process as those decisions affect all of us and our students. Seeing how much we've accomplished this semester makes me grateful to work with such a dedicated group of colleagues.
I hope you all have a safe and healthy summer,
Tom Stewart President, APSCUF-KU