Dear Majors and Pre-majors,
I am sure that you have all heard that we will work entirely online for the rest of the Spring 2020 semester and that graduation is canceled. The faculty and staff are very disappointed, but we need to be safe.
The Journalism Department is working as hard as it can to make sure that everything goes as smoothly as possible for the rest of the semester. That’s a big job. Although nothing seems normal, there are a great many things that have not changed. These are worth noting:
• REGISTRATION will go on as planned, beginning March 23. Some of you have already been advised or have made arrangements to be advised online. If so, go ahead with your plans as scheduled. For the rest of you, please make a list of the courses that you plan to take and email them to your advisor as soon as possible. Write COURSE SELECTIONS in the subject line and include any questions that you have. Faculty schedules are chaotic at the moment as we convert to online teaching and deal with the virus ourselves, so please allow plenty of time for a response. We want you to be able to register on time, so the sooner you get your selections to us, the better.
• AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS will be given out, even though we won’t have a physical award ceremony. The deadline for submitting applications is Friday, March 27. Applications are available online at https://journalism.uconn.edu/awards-and-scholarships/. They may be submitted to Lisa Caruso at Lisa.Caruso@uconn.edu. Please send one email for each award application and put the name of the scholarship or award in the subject line. (No application is required for the Barbara K Hill Award.) We will be giving out $16,300 in awards and scholarships, so make sure that you apply.
• I will be contacting GRADUATING SENIORS to let them know about a private Facebook group that we are creating for them (and us!). This is a purely social group so that grads, faculty and staff can have a chance to say goodbye, at least for now. We always miss our graduates. That’s hard enough when we’ve had a chance to visit, have a party and share graduation. We don’t want to lose touch with you.
I’ll be in touch as new information is available. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your instructors or your advisor. We’ll get though this together. Stay safe.
Professor Maureen Croteau
UConn Journalism Department Head
