Happy Easter; the Lord is risen, alleluia!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend; I was glad we were able to enjoy a brief glimpse of spring.

The University has provided several updates recently about campus operations. You can find more information on the Notre Dame Covid-19 site, but here are a few highlights to answer questions I’ve received:

Returning to campus: At this time, the University plans to offer additional guidance about when the campus will resume normal operations by May 15. Note that this does not mean we will necessarily return to working on campus on that date; it means that the University will provide more information by then, as the state and federal safety and health guidelines related to Covid-19 develop.

Commencement: As was previously announced, the commencement celebration for the Class of 2020 is planned for Memorial Day weekend 2021. The University will host a virtual conferral of degrees in May 2020 for our graduates. The Provost’s Office has asked that the colleges hold off from making any individual plans to honor graduates until the full details of the University plan are announced later this month.

Summer sessions: The University will not hold in-person courses or programs through July 6. For Mendoza, we have decided that we will not be doing any in-person teaching in our main campus until the fall semester starts. This means that three of our graduate programs — MBA One-Year, MSM and Executive MNA (both new and returning students) are going to be fully online this summer, with the intention of resuming normal operations in the fall.

Annual budget planning: Last week, I emailed College budget managers reiterating EVP Shannon Cullinan’s statement about the need to curb expenses for the remainder of this fiscal year and to make provisional plans to reduce spending of unrestricted funds for fiscal year 2020-21. Doug Franson and I are working with the Provost’s Office to understand the specific directives involved. We will be providing more information to budget managers in the next week. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to think of innovative and effective ways to do your jobs that will help us trim costs. Any operational savings helps support the University’s commitment to serving students, caring for its employees and supporting our core functions of teaching and research.

Endeavor: I want to reiterate Kara Palmer’s email sent April 8 to staff asking everyone to complete their performance reviews in Endeavor. We are committed to prioritizing increases in salaries related to promotions for faculty and staff as soon as the budgetary situation has changed, and want to ensure that your hard work is recognized. At this time, all staff members should have finished their year-end comments and ratings and submitted them to their supervisors (Step 3). From now until early May, supervisors will meet with direct reports to discuss performance evaluations and final ratings. Endeavor closes on May 15 for fiscal year 2019-20.

As you start your week, I encourage you to watch the video of the Notre Dame Glee Club’s performance of Franz Biebl's “Ave Maria.” (Thanks, Chris Stevens, for sending it!) It’s a powerful and moving reminder that we can cooperate well together even during this difficult time of working remotely, and that we are still very much a strong community even while physically distant.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

Earlier today, Father John sent an announcement to 2020 graduates, faculty and staff that the University will host a virtual commencement on May 17 in lieu of in-person celebrations, and will host the in-person ceremony for 2020 grads on Memorial Day weekend 2021. I echo his sentiments that this is sad news, but regrettably it is necessary to safeguard everyone’s health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This news follows the announcement on Friday (March 27) by Provost Tom Burish about several important changes to the University’s academic policies. In addition, Mendoza’s College Council adopted similar policies for our graduate programs. Our objective is two-fold: 1) to best accommodate students who face particular difficulties in the new online teaching environment and 2) to provide equitable treatment to all students across our programs.

Briefly, here are highlights of the new grading policies for the 2020 spring semester:

UNDERGRADUATE: The University is adopting a temporary pass/no credit grading. Faculty submit letter grades as usual at the end of the semester. Students view their final grades and then choose whether to accept their letter grades or elect a pass/no credit option, with A through D warranting a pass (P) while an F translates to no credit (NC). Pass and no-credit grades will have no effect on a student’s grade point average and the students can make this choice for any or all of their courses.

MENDOZA’S GRADUATE PROGRAMS: Mendoza also is adopting a pass/no credit option for any graduate student enrolled in the Notre Dame MBA, MSM, MSBA (South Bend and Chicago), MSA, MNA, Executive MNA, and Executive MBA (South Bend and Chicago) programs. (MSF is not currently in session.) The protocol is the same as for the undergraduate students; however, the grade ranges for a passing grade are A through C-. Likewise, Pass and no-credit grades will have no effect on a graduate student’s grade point average and the graduate students can make this choice for any or all of their courses.

Dr. Burish’s message included additional information about changes to student leave of absence policies and extending the faculty tenure and promotion clock by one full year. I encourage you to check the coronavirus.nd.edu website frequently for updates.

As we start another week of online classes, I again want to thank our faculty and staff members who have made the transition go so well. I’ve had a number of student messages passed along to me about the great efforts that faculty members have put into their teaching. Here’s just one example from business analytics major Keagan McLaughlin who wrote a note of thanks to Chad Harms about his “Tiki Time” approach:

“I just wanted to say that was the best thing I have ever seen. You have outdone yourself, and the episode definitely brightened my day during this troubling quarantine.”

Thanks to all of you for your very hard work, creativity and grace.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn

For many of us, this has been our first week of alternative working arrangements, as the pandemic seems more challenging, uncertain, and disruptive every day. There’s still a lot of activity going on, and I’m grateful to all of you for the many ways you have risen above to meet the current challenges.

Three special kudos go to our IT group for helping faculty switch to online teaching, to our Faculty Support group for scanning thousands of pages of course materials for students, and to our Communications group for the many messages conveying the latest news.

Since we are working remotely, it is easy to feel disconnected from your colleagues and the College in general. This is our new normal for the time being, unfortunately. I encourage you to continue to reach out and check on each other, by email, Google hangouts, text or Zoom session — or a phone call — also to just say hello.

We will continue to share information as fully and expediently as possible. The University distributes announcements and updates on coronavirus.nd.edu as decisions are made. I will update you via email if there is information specific to Mendoza that you should know. We also will highlight important news in Mendoza Exchange. And hopefully you received our new College newsletter, Morning Brew, that sends out some lighter side Mendoza “news” on Wednesdays and Fridays.

I want to emphasize that as needs arise, there is help available. Please contact me, Kara Palmer or your direct supervisor to let us know about any concerns or needs.

In Notre Dame,

Martijn 

I have often talked about the three Cs as the pillars of our mission: Contribute, Cooperate, Compete.

In these past days as disruption, uncertainty and social-distancing have overtaken all parts of our lives – personal and professional – three different Cs have been much in evidence: Community, Connection and Compassion.

Despite the challenges we have faced in figuring out how to totally change the way we do our jobs, we have pulled together as a community to share information and learning, and to treat each other with patience and grace while still endeavoring to do our best to serve our students amidst difficult circumstances.

This is what it truly means to compete as the business school of the University of Notre Dame; to serve the most vulnerable among us through contributing and collaborating, even at a time when we ourselves might be the most vulnerable.

To be sure, everything hasn’t gone perfectly and there’s been a lot of stress. But we can draw a measure of comfort in knowing that although we’re “socially distant,” we’re still a community.

I’m thankful to so many of you who have gone above and beyond. Just to name a few: Our IT team led by Chris Fruehwirth has done an amazing job quickly bringing resources online while supporting each one of us with our individual tech questions and needs. Kristen Collett-Schmitt has reached out to coach faculty members (including me) about teaching online, even as she had to teach her own EMBA class online for the first time.

The Chicago EMBA students who participated in their residency online (rather than the campus experience they expected) reacted by organizing a fundraising effort for the Greater Chicago Food Depository to ensure underprivileged school children don’t go hungry.

These are real life examples of how we Grow the Good in Business. They are humbling reminders that we share a meaningful mission and that we can make a difference.

Please continue to share these stories. We will highlight them in Mendoza Exchange.

Please also share your needs. Even though we need to observe the critical social distancing policy, we also should remember that many people in our community stand ready to help each other.