Dear Global Studies majors,
Welcome back online to Spring quarter! I hope you have had a bit of a break, despite disruptions caused by the COVID-19 lockdown. And I sincerely hope that you, your family, and friends are in good health. Minimally, this is what we want for everyone in our Global Studies community. It will be strange not to come to campus. We will miss seeing you fill the classrooms and corridors. But as a major, you have a virtual home in the Global Studies Department. That will not change despite uncertain times.
We all know this quarter will be anomalous: it is not what you signed up for, it is not what we were trained to do as your teachers. Online instruction is a very different kind of education, one requiring extensive training, planning, and infrastructure. We are thinking of the courses that you will take on gauchospace and zoom as remote-mediated instruction. Your professors have taken instructional development workshops, revamped courses, rethought assessments over spring break to ensure a remote-mediated version of the original course. We'll all make it with your participation, your patience, and your remarkable ability to understand the new.
Those graduating in June, I'm saddened at the loss of the final quarter of learning and festivities at UCSB. But we'll figure out a way to celebrate you.
Welcome back everyone!
Professor Ghosh
Chair, Department of Global Studies
March 30, 2020 - 9:58am