Bergamo, March 31st 2020
Dear all,
I hope everything is going well.
I am writing to you about the many messages I received after last Thursday’s communication, many of which still reveal concerns and doubts.
I had foreseen that the innovations introduced could be disorienting for some people and that is why I had explicitly suggested to consult the page of our website dedicated to the topics in question (2020 Spring Session: what will change) or the University structures that could be of help to you. I am reporting you, for the sake of fairness, the excerpt from Thursday's note, because I am afraid it was not taken into due consideration:
Another suggestion that I feel like giving you, also in order to have more precise and quicker answers - the work of my staff these days, as you can imagine, is very intense -, is to always contact the university structure that is most competent for your questions, such as for example the Department to which your Degree Course belongs for lessons, degrees and examinations or the Internship Office for questions concerning curricular internships or the Placement Office for extracurricular and professionalising ones.
To dispel any other possible doubt, I also suggested to your representatives in the Academic Bodies, sharing with all of them my advice, to activate the representative bodies within your Departments and Courses of Study.
I wanted to repeat these indications to give you all the necessary tools to find the appropriate answers to your questions and thus try to reassure you as much as possible, especially with regards to the particular cases that you informed me about.
In this regard, I would like to point out that, even more so since there are almost 24,000 of you, it is not really possible to enter into the specificity and individual objectives of each of your university careers when, as a result of an emergency, it is essential to implement punctual and timely measures that must be taken at a general level.
Indeed, I would like to remind you that any decision made must take into account scientific and teaching activities that you, understandably, may not know because you only experience those concerning you personally: I assure you that, with the greatest commitment and great effort on our part, we have come to these measures because we believe they are the most appropriate, that is, the 'best' we can adopt at this time, taking into account all, without neglecting anyone. Also taking into account, which sometimes does not unfortunately emerge from some of your answers, that some solutions may not be implemented, for reasons of timetable (both internal and ministerial), logistics, and common sense.
In this spirit of attention to the main and shared needs of all of you, we have therefore drawn up proposals that would give you the opportunity not to miss the special session, neither of theses nor of examinations.
We worked to try not to alter too much the calendar already set, so as not to create inconvenience and overlap (even for the exams taken by different departments), moving, for example, in the end the exams of the Departments of Letters, Philosophy, Communication and Human and Social Sciences – originally scheduled in the week from 23rd to 27th March –, and still ensuring that students may finish their careers on time.
In this perspective, we also completely rescheduled the exam session of the Department of Law, giving priority to graduating students' exams for obvious reasons.
We asked our lecturers to ensure that the oral exams are held and, where possible, to turn written exams into oral ones.
In addition, registrations will be reopened for all examinations, so that those who did not register – because they did not know the date of the exam itself – will be able to do so.
Considering the difficulty of finding the examination texts, we also asked the teachers to consider the possibility of providing you with an alternative bibliography or substitute preparation materials.
Furthermore, I would like to underline that all teachers will take appropriate measures to carry out the distance examinations in an inclusive way, taking into account the needs of students with disabilities and DSA, organising the spring session tests according to the IEPs and PDPs shared with the students themselves.
We also published on our website a series of FAQs dedicated to distance examinations, in order to offer you the basic indications.
In the sessions of the Academic Senate and the Board of Directors held today, March 31st , we finally approved a Co-responsibility Pact (IT) to clarify and regulate the behaviour that the student is called to adopt during the distance exam: I kindly ask you to read it and, of course, to abide by the established rules. However, I am sure there is no need for recommendations: I trust you and your mature and responsible attitude.
To sum up, these measures will enable you to take most of the examinations scheduled, with the exception of written examinations which may not be converted into oral examinations and for which we are planning the most appropriate measures that we will inform you about as soon as possible. You must necessarily be patient about this as well.
However, we are unable, for legislative reasons, to change the timetable and postpone the examination sessions further as requested by some of you, complaining about the short notice and the impossibility to prepare, even psychologically, for the respective oral examinations. I understand your discomfort very well, but I am sure that you too can understand the inescapable limitations I mentioned. For this reason, I ask for your understanding and also a little more confidence in yourselves: you have resources inside you that you do not even know you possess, this is the right opportunity to discover them! Come on!
Yesterday, the first exams took place in some departments and I heard from one of your representatives and several colleagues that everything went well, with clear explanations on the procedures to follow by the teachers: it is a good start and we all trust that you can continue in this direction.
As regards, more specifically, distance learning, we introduced specific measures precisely on the basis of your indications, as proof that, when we have the right to do so, we will gladly and without delay meet you. Indeed, we asked the teachers to:
In today's Academic Senate and Board of Directors we also decided to modify the Easter holiday calendar:
With regards to online lessons, I would like to take this opportunity to share with you what clearly emerges from the results of the questionnaire on the first four weeks of online teaching.
You replied in a great number (more than 3,800) and I thank you for that because such a large sample allows us to take a representative picture of the progress of this experiment, especially taking your point of view.
94% of you indicated that they consider online teaching to be generally positive, that they find it as effective as classroom teaching (especially if the teacher alternates speech with slides presentation) and that they are comfortable using the proposed technological platforms, in particular Microsoft Teams (the same that will be adopted for the proclamations of Bachelor Degrees and for part of the oral exams of these days).
You also highlighted some issues on which we will reflect further, but that we already addressed in part: these include, in fact, the length of the lessons and the total hours of daily teaching. As I already pointed out before, we asked the teachers to reduce the duration of each lesson and to put online pre-recorded lessons, so that you can better organise your study time. I recognise that, sometimes, it can be complicated to "fit" distance learning into your family's routine: sometimes you do not have adequate space or a sufficiently powerful Internet connection, especially in the not infrequent case where you are not the only one who has to connect to the same network. In this regard, I would like to point out again the website solidarietadigitale.agid.gov.it arranged by the Italian Government, which brings together many offers from various companies to implement data connectivity of our homes.
Another important aspect of attention to you and your families is that of fees.
We are aware of the fact that, in this delicate moment, some families are experiencing economic difficulties resulting from the total suspension of many work activities; therefore we decided to review the deadline for the second instalment of student contributions, scheduled for next 15th May. In today's online meeting, the Board of Directors decided to reschedule the timing of payment in a facilitated manner:
- The deadline for the second instalment is postponed to May 31st, 2020;
- All students will be able to opt for the instalment of the second tranche, paying 50% with deadline on May 31st, 2020 and the remaining 50% by July 15th, 2020. Each student through the Student Internet Point may manage the option;
- The possibility of a personalised instalment payment remains valid, as provided for in the article dedicated to "Methods of payment of instalments" in the Guide to student contribution regulations.
With this decision, that postpones and/or divides in instalments the payment of the second fee, we hope to be of some help for now.
Our University, perhaps more than others, reacted immediately and with commitment to the emergency in progress, bringing from the physical classrooms to the virtual ones almost all the teachings of the academic period (with all the possible and appropriate adjustments), maintaining the examination and degree session scheduled in these months and ensuring, in fact, the progress of the semester.
To try to compensate for this necessary absence from classrooms, we also created, in a perspective of "playful" attention, virtual visits to all our locations, so that Engineering students may, for example, discover the Rectorate of via Salvecchio or those of Law and the terraced classrooms of via Pignolo: Unibg - The backbone of culture is a journey that connects our places, waiting for them to be soon reanimated by all of us.
Therefore, we are doing our best to maintain our mission, that of guaranteeing a shared and relational knowledge, we are discussing and talking, although remotely, and we have, all together, understood and rediscovered that we are a community, capable, with our own means and limits, of filling this sense of emptiness that dismays us, this "Apocalypse" that leaves us all stunned and powerless.
For this reason, I will not hide it, I am very disappointed and saddened by some of your emails, that sometimes show individualistic and self-referential attitudes, that I would have never wanted to belong to you and that made me question your ability to 'think together' in such a difficult and complicated moment.
Fortunately, these are sporadic cases, in comparison with many messages of encouragement, gratitude and helpfulness, that I have always wanted to share with my colleagues and the Unibg staff and that show, above all, how most of you understood from the beginning the reason for the decisions made and decided, certainly not without difficulty, to 'make good use of them', for yourselves and for the whole University.
Last Saturday I received a phone call from the President of the Senate, Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, who, besides promising her commitment to have more oxygen for patients in the homes and health facilities of Bergamo – I really hope so –, encouraged all of us (students, teachers and technical-administrative staff) to take courage together, so as not to 'get lost' in the dramatic reality of these times: I also embrace this message and pass it on to you in a heartfelt way, so that we can rediscover ourselves even more united, despite the misunderstandings or different points of view that we are inevitably forced to face.
Likewise, many Deans and colleagues from Italian and foreign universities sent me their messages of solidarity, as further testimony of how 'making a group' is crucial to be able to overcome difficulties. You may read some of these letters in the Hall of Friends that we published on the website, in a spirit of genuine gratitude.
Professor Ivano Dionigi, a sincere friend of our University, recently reminded us of the need, in this period, to read the classics again, because: "even if their answers seem out-dated, their questions remain intact, current, urgent: silence and listening, care and friendship, distance and proximity, life and limits, falls and hope". Dionysius spurs us to abandon the selfish ego to open ourselves to an us who will be the only reasonable and feasible way of salvation: "we must recover the polar stars that Aristotle indicated to us: reason and community. By conviction or necessity this will keep us afloat! The language will necessarily change, the word "I" will no longer be usable, the "we" will be the way out".
I send you again my one-metre distance embrace, a little saddened – I must say – but still determined to give you the best that we can now offer you as a University that moves all together, with the complexity that this movement implies.
Always your Rector,
Professor Remo Morzenti Pellegrini