Dear Faculty,

Teaching during the pandemic has reminded educators and students alike of the affective component of education and the relational care needed to have an effective and transformative classroom (Mehrotra, 2021). Many people are experiencing a higher level of burnout, stress, anxiety, and depression than before the pandemic (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine). In the classroom, faculty and students face challenges that carry over from their daily lives, and learning will suffer as a result. An EAB survey "of faculty with mental health concerns found that nearly 70 percent had limited or no familiarity with the resources available to meet their mental health needs, and only 13 percent used them due to fear of stigma and professional risk." In this issue, we propose a pedagogy of care that strives to ensure that all students will have the support needed to complete the course of study successfully.

Pedagogies of care

In How Humans Learn (2018), Joshua R. Eyler writes: "Perhaps one of the most important things we can do as teachers is to care for our students as learners. Caring pedagogies do not require us to lower standards or cross boundaries, but they require that we be present for our students as fellow human beings and invest ourselves in helping them succeed. We propose a pedagogy of care that strives to ensure that all students will have the support needed to complete the course successfully."

Here are some ways to enact a pedagogy of care.

Self-care tips for faculty

Most of us are probably familiar with the instruction given before a flight which says that we should put on our oxygen masks before helping someone put on theirs. Do we also consider this when it comes to self-care in our daily lives? To skillfully balance the numerous priorities in our lives, take care of others, and reach our optimal performance in everything we do, we should make self-care a priority.

Below are some recommended ways to take better care of yourself:

• Drink half your weight in water.
• "Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants"…and with sufficient variety.
• Stop standing and start walking.
• Get 7-9 hours of zzzzzzzz's
• Reduce stress through, for example, meditation, breathwork, journaling, and practicing gratitude.
• Identify and nourish your community.

We invite you to explore why self-care is so important and how making even small changes can positively impact your overall well-being.

Promote an environment of open communication in your class

• Students appreciate knowing that they can communicate with you if they have a concern about their learning in the course or their ability to complete tasks.
• Show compassion. Let students know you care  about their learning experience and well-being, and you are there to listen. Consider adding a statement in the syllabus about mental health and that you will prioritize your students' well-being.
• Share how you manage stress and ask students to do the same. Introduce an ice-breaker activity. Use a temperature check to gauge how everyone is doing and normalize feelings of fear, stress, isolation, and burnout.
• Reach out to students who appear in distress, whose performance has declined or remains low, or are often absent, late, or distracted and refer students to University/CBS resources (see section below).

Review your course design and expectations

Review your course design, addressing elements that may cause students undue stress. Do you need to revisit your objectives and focus on content that is essential? Is it possible to replace some of the assignments with more flexible options? Could you, for example, assign more frequent lower-stakes quizzes instead of a few high-stakes tests?

It is equally important for instructors to set clear expectations and ensure that course policies also do not add undue stress. Make it clear to students what communication will look like, how long it will take to respond to emails, how you will grade, etc.

Both students and instructors benefit from being explicit about boundaries; students will appreciate knowing how they should communicate and when to expect responses, while instructors can balance caring for students, committing to their disciplines, and caring for themselves (Columbia CTL).

Resources for CBS faculty and students

• CU COVID-19  Resource Guide
• If you have academic concerns about an MBA student, please email osa@gsb.columbia.edu and you’ll be directed to the right person. For EMBA students, email EMBA-ASA@gsb.columbia.edu. For PhD or MS students, email Dan Spacher or Elizabeth Elam.
• If a student contacts you in an emergency, please direct them to Public Safety at 212-854-5555.
• Students can speak to a member of the Counseling and Psychological Services staff 24/7 at 212-854-2878 and find info about available services on the CU Counseling and Psychological Services site.
• ULifeline is a confidential online mental health screening tool that provides information about mental health conditions.
• For non-emergency health and wellness concerns, students should contact Columbia Health at 212-854-2284. Their site provides information about various resources related to topics such as physical and mental health, finances, relationships, nutrition, sleep, violence prevention, and more.
• Go Ask Alice! has helpful answers to health-related FAQs and anyone may submit questions if they don’t find the information they seek. The site is supported by a team of CU health promotion specialists, researchers and health care professionals.
• Office of Work Life Well-Being Resources and Programs are offered to all CU faculty and staff; watch recordings from workshops, sign up for live workshops, find wellness-related discounts and explore lots of great resources.
• The Office of University Life works to keep faculty, staff and students connected with the Columbia community. Resources for faculty and staff are found here and for students here.
  University Life also provides information about initiatives and resources focused on improving Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Policy Updates

• Beginning this Summer, instructors will not use Zoom for class sessions or recordings. Instructors can use zoom for activities and to support remote guest speakers. We will return to Echo360 to record all class sessions. Echo360 has a new live stream feature that allows absent students to view a classroom live without participating.
• We will no longer allow remote attendance except under rare circumstances (ODS & Title IX). In general, students should attend in person and be marked absent if they are not present.
• For MBA Core Classes, students with an excused absence should submit the Core Absence Form on the course Canvas home page. If a student has questions, they should contact their Academic Advisor in OSA. For MBA Elective Classes, students should review the syllabus for the attendance policy and contact the instructor to discuss it. Click here to read the MBA Attendance policy. To ask a question about an EMBA class, contact Jessica Soursourian.