What is your plan for Fall 2020?
To start, we will be limiting student-to-teacher, and student-to-student exposure. We have moved all lecture-based courses to a blended or remote format. Lecture-based courses that have a blended format will allow for some contact. In-person meetings will be limited, will be in smaller groups to allow for NYU physical distancing requirements, and at the discretion of each individual instructor. Lecture-based courses primarily fall within the curricular areas of Business & Technology, and Writing, History, & Emerging Media. Students will hear directly from their instructors by mid-August in regard to expectations and intentions for each course’s meeting pattern and modality.
We have moved some sections of our lab-based courses to a remote format. Lab-based courses fall in the curricular areas of Production, and Musicianship & Performance. Students will be able to utilize the lab facilities to attend remote sections if they so choose.
Some lab-based courses will be offered in a blended format. We understand that calling a course blended is somewhat confusing. Blended courses combine both in-person and remote instruction. The mix of the two methods varies from course to course. Some instructors will deliver lecture materials remotely, and will periodically meet with small groups of students in-person; some instructors will alternate meetings of the course between in-person and remote from week to week, for example; a section of 12 students may alternate week to week - 6 in-person / 6 remote. Some courses will deliver large group lectures and peer review sessions remote, and regularly meet with students in-person during the semester. The main purpose of the blended format is to limit overall exposure within a particular cohort, as well as allow students the ability to go remote if they feel it is best for their personal situation.
In person lab-based courses will have a class size of no more than 6 students per lab. Labs normally include 12 workstations. We are removing 6 of the 12 workstations in each lab. The keyboard and mouse will be switched out in between sections. Spacing in between in-person lab courses will be 30 minutes. We are also working on converting our very large multi-media conference room (658) into an additional lab space for student and class use, to make up for the 12 workstations we have removed.
Studio-based courses will be divided into smaller sections to accommodate the NYU spacing directives, and to allow for air refresh rates to be effective within the studio spaces. There will be a one-hour spacing in between all studio classes. We measured each studio space on site in June, accounting for the irregular geometry and presence of equipment. We have come up with class sizes for each space that will allow us to follow the NYU spacing directives. We are changing the order in which material is presented in some of these courses; front loading all studio courses with lecture-based and music analysis-based lessons.This will facilitate easy remote access to the first few class meetings; allowing for our self-quarantined students to ease into in-person attendance, as well as reduce the population on the floor as we work through the logistics of the initial reopening. We have reduced the longer duration studio courses, making up the time difference with asynchronous posted content. When we have guests in the studio performance spaces, we will be able to maintain safe distances given the size of the live rooms, and we will use cameras and portable screens, whenever possible, to reduce exposure time.
We are planning on allowing students to book and use the studios, practice rooms, edit suites, and shared gear for production class assignments and projects. Booked use of the facilities will be modified to allow for tracking who is where, what they are doing, etc. We have to control the flow of people and activities in order to keep our community safe. We also need to allow for more time in between studio use for proper cleaning and disinfection. Please understand that the restrictions and safeguards we put in place will be strictly enforced, and that they will be non-negotiable. If students habitually do not follow protocol, the facilities will be forced to shut down. If protocol is blatantly and/or repeatedly ignored, NYU Public Safety will be called in to enforce the rules, and ask students and their guest musicians to vacate the spaces.