Flood Update: Most UFV classes to remain remote with limited exceptions

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The past three weeks have been extraordinarily challenging for many across the Fraser Valley – including members of the UFV community.

Over the past two and a half weeks, UFV decision making has focused on the health and safety of everyone: students, faculty, and staff. Responding to this dynamic situation has meant we have all had to be flexible and patient in order to get  get through this crisis. Thank you for your understanding and for your continued perseverance.

Primarily remote learning for remainder of the fall term:

To support the successful completion of the academic term, UFV is announcing the following measures:

  • All courses and programs will continue to be delivered remotely for the remainder of the academic term except for a limited number of courses and programs listed here. 
  • These listed courses will begin face-to-face instruction on Monday, December 6 and have been approved by the appropriate Dean in order to achieve requisite learning outcomes.
  • Faculty and programs will provide students in these courses with the logistics of participating in face-to-face components safely. Students who are not able to access UFV safely will be provided with appropriate accommodations and/or alternative options.

Final exams:

At this point, UFV is still optimistic that final exams scheduled in a face-to-face format will be offered on our campuses at their scheduled times and locations. A final decision regarding the location and delivery mode of final exams will be announced by December 9.

This plan is based on current information, if conditions worsen, additional measures or changes to this plan may be adopted and will be communicated promptly.

Academic Concessions:

We recognize the challenges that completing the Fall 2021 term presents. Please note:

  • Students who receive a final grade of C- or D can request to have their grade converted to credit (CR). Students still receive credit for the course, but a CR grade is not calculated in the GPA. The form and further instructions will be available December 10.
  • Students who receive a final grade of F will automatically have their grade converted to an NCR (no credit). No application is required. The NCR grade is not calculated in the GPA.
  • Students who have spoken with their professors and have exhausted other options for course completion, such as an Incomplete grade, can choose to withdraw from a course. Information and the needed form are now available. Note that students cannot withdraw if they have completed the final assignment for their course or if they have written the final exam.

If you are opting to withdraw from a course AND you are on student loan, please connect with our Financial Aid team.

UFV campuses are open:

All buildings will resume normal hours of operation in Abbotsford, Clearbrook, Chilliwack, Hope Centre, and Mission, with limited services being offered. Libraries at both the Abbotsford and Chilliwack campuses will resume operations according to this schedule. The Office of the Registrar will be open its usual hours on all three campuses.

Campus Shuttle:

For the week of December 6 – 10, SUS will be operating the Campus Shuttle according to this posted schedule.

Events:

With a few exceptions, on-campus events and activities are also cancelled during this period. Event and activity organizers will inform participants if an on-campus activity has been approved to continue.

Staff and academic support faculty:

Staff and Academic Support Faculty are asked to coordinate with their supervisor or manager where they will work:

1) on campus if safe to travel to campus

2) at a remote work location

3) or if you require a leave and are unable to work due to the state of emergency caused by flooding.

Special leave:

Please remember staff and faculty members impacted by the flood can use special paid leave through their manager, supervisor, or UFV Human Resources.

Support for students:

If you know students who need support, please refer them through the Priority Access to Student Supports (PASS) system. UFV has increased the number of people dedicated to PASS right now and activated a triage system to prioritize response to those with greatest need.

Employee support:

UFV employees have access to Employee and Family Assistance Program. EFAP is a confidential service available to you at no cost, 24 hours a day, seven (7) days a week. Toll-free: 1-800-663-1142

International (call collect): 604-689-1717. You may also sign up/log in to your Homeweb account for advice, counselling or treatment.

Thank you for your flexibility, compassion, and ability to persevere through difficult times.

 

 

18 thoughts on “Flood Update: Most UFV classes to remain remote with limited exceptions”

  1. This is unclear. My prof just sent us an email saying we are set to be in class Monday dec 6. Are ALL classes remote or what?

    • Hi Claire,
      Should be pretty clear. Are you in one of the classes listed here? If so, and your prof sent you info about a face-to-face class, then it sounds like you are in one of the courses that needs face-to-face time next week to achieve certain learning outcomes. If you do not see your class on the list linked above then I suggest you may want to clarify with your prof if you are remote rather than in person. let me know how it goes.

  2. I think we should just have the exams online, for me personally the floods have affected our situation immensely and right now my top priority is helping out my parents and grandparents. Instead of worrying about whether or not exams will be online or in person, I think the school should just make a definitive decision soon instead of giving weekly updates as it is very stressful having to check the school website every day for any update

    • Hi Aaron,
      Sounds like you have your hands full. Sorry its very stressful I’m sure. Did you happen to see some options you may want to consider listed on this page under “academic concessions”? Those might give you some breathing room.
      As you know, predicting the weather and flooding was very difficult for everyone and as a university we made decisions based on the best information we had in order to 1) keep everyone safe, and 2) keep everyone learning. Week by week was the longest time frame we felt we could comfortably predict in order to give people some stability but at the same time not over-committing in a natural disaster. I appreciate it has meant monitoring the situation from week to week.

    • I agree. This is so stressful and going back in person next week will really trigger our stress levels.

      • Hi there, please note that most classes ARE STAYING REMOTE for the remainder of the term, unless your class is on this list. Please check to see if your class needs face to face time in order to achieve course learning objectives.

  3. Are students who received a grade that is above a c- also allowed to apply for the final grade to be converted to credit (CR)? Why do we have to wait for our final marks to come out to request the conversion?

    If someone is impacted by the current circumstances and performes worse than usual (an A+ student gets a B), their GPA will suffer because they didn’t get a C- or D …… shouldn’t UFV be offering a credit option for all students? One that student can request before exams?

    • Hi there,
      I suggest checking to see if there is an option that applies to your situation and that you find suitable on the Registrar’s site here.An academic advisor may also be able to assist you with information or choices you may have. They are available through this page.

  4. Thanks for update Dave, from behalf of the students we appreciate your ongoing support during this rough time! If the weather switches up and snows will classes still be in person? I know a lot of students including myself are commuting from areas other than chillwack and abbostford and driving on the highways and roads can be quite dangerous even with moderate snow levels. Please remember that not everyone has 4X4 vehicles if classes are in person during those weather conditions.

    • Yep, we are watching those latest conditions and will do so all weekend. We are aware some classes need hands on or face to face learning to reach learning objectives, but we are ALWAYS aware of safety as the number one concern. Hopefully this snow amounts to nothing. I wish all of you who have commented here and on other posts good luck on your exams – remember: the weather comes and goes but knowledge is here to stay! (Deep thought I know).

  5. Hi Dave,

    I also agree with a previous comment. I am a bit unsure as to why UFV is only offering the credit option to students who receive a grade of C- or D. I have definitely been impacted by the flooding situation and I was fortunate enough to have a high enough grade before the flooding occurred that will prevent me from getting a C- but my grade has certainly dropped due to the flooding. How come this option cannot be offered to everyone? If an A+ or A student drops to a B+ or B- , it should certainly be offered to them as well.

    • Quite honestly, I am not sure of the answer – not my area of expertise and I don’t want to steer you astray. I’ll forward your question to a person who can explain.

  6. Exams should 100% be online, the flood isn’t going away anytime soon, and everyone is already stressed with exams coming up as it is. On Top of that I can’t imagine commuting to school right now under these conditions.

  7. Thank you for the update! I was just wondering, if a student receives a C- or D for a course that is a prerequisite for other courses, and requests to have their grade converted to credit, does that mean they would be able to take further courses without having to repeat the C- course? My apologies for my confusion, I’m new to UFV and still figuring stuff out.

  8. So are final exams on for sure? It’s pretty harsh that we are expected to come in person to do our finals when the rain is supposed to get worse this week and some of us have to commute from chillwack. We’re all already pretty stressed as it is, I just don’t think this is fair.

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