Linguistics and Cognitive Science Q&A Zoom
July 14th 2020
What follows are notes taken by Derrick Nguyen (edited slightly by Michael Diercks). Questions were posed by students in attendance, answers from Lise Abrams and Michael Diercks.
Important Information
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- As of July 14th, by the end of the week there will be a General Website update regarding broad structures in the department and classroom that will be announced. Please take a look and reach out if you have any questions. (update: the site is live, lgcs.us)
- The current official policy under Pomona College is that we are not allowed to employ non full time students in Fall 2020.
- For the Fall semester since it is remote, we will be looking at Liaisons for guidance on how to build community through the web. But if anyone has any ideas please reach out!
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Should I reach out to individual professors to see how the classes will be structured?
Still in the process of finalizing details; structure of each class will be up to each individual professor and so class structures will vary a lot between classes. There will be a broad structure guideline released at the end of the week on a general website update, so after receiving that if you have any more questions you may want to reach out to your professor? Otherwise there is no need.
Will most LGCS classes have more or less students per class?
Short answer is that we don’t know. There will be variation, and honestly dependent on professors, and on whether students decide to come back. LGCS has not as a department discussed reducing class sizes in any kind of systematic way, though some individual classes are doing so. Faculty are deeply curious about who is taking a leave, bc this would help us plan a lot better. So it would be helpful if students tell us if they are taking a leave since otherwise we can’t have a definitive answer about class sizes until when the semester starts; we would plan a very different design if the class size was 5 vs 15, for example. There is no obligation to inform us, but if you happen to know you’re not coming back and don’t mind telling us, it is helpful to us.
Which classes will most likely be switched out this semester if any? And if so, will there be any new courses?
Aside from the shifts in the times of courses that was implemented by the registrar, there is only one scheduling shift in the department. LGCS 183 (Topics in Syntax) is going to move to another time. But we are not proposing new courses, and not canceling any existing courses (as of present).
Will the workload be the same as if we were on campus for LGCS courses?
We’re aiming for the same kind of workload as is normal for an on-campus scenario, though it may be distributed with a different balance of in-class and out-of-class work. However, we still are trying to be aware of everyone’s situation, and if you have circumstances that are affecting your ability to complete coursework please talk to your professor, your advisor, or the coordinator for your major.
Will P/NC courses count towards my major this semester?
There hasn’t been any department discussion about it yet. We will announce that decision when we make it.
I’m a rising senior and I think I’ll be taking this semester off. Will my graduation/required courses scheduling be affected?
Talk to Mike or Lise, there may be a way to accommodate but get in touch to see what can be done. We’ll work with you on it based on the details of your situation.
Are professors still willing to work with me on a thesis if I take a leave?
The college policy is that faculty do not work with students who are on leave, and you should not expect that they will. There may be exceptions, but this is generally only in instances of collaborating on the professor’s research. But our main goal is similar to yours: that you can finish senior exercise in a timely fashion. So depending on the circumstances there may be strategies for accomplishing this without you being actively advised during a leave semester. Talk to Mike and Lise for more information and options.
What is Linguistics/Cog Sci mentors scheduling looking like?
We are currently in process of sorting this out. The current thinking is that it would be similar to spring semester but not limited to 7-9PM PDT (to accommodate different time zones). We are considering a new way of structuring Ling Mentors for Intro specifically, integrating mentors into intro classes more directly with each assigned to a small working group of students. We’re trying to find ways to increase community and address student anxieties (especially incoming first-year students who may feel less comfortable approaching mentors and professors alike).
How has the department been affected by the hiring freeze?
Not affected at all for this year; all of our positions are filled and under contract for the year.
In terms of research, do you have any ideas about research assistant positions for students this semester?
Honestly, this depends on the specifically nature of the research and whether it is viable in our distanced context. But this is pretty much unknown at the moment. RA positions that become available will be advertised to the department listserv. Students are also encouraged to reach out to specific faculty and ask if they are interested in doing research. Keep in mind, current Pomona College policy (as of the date of this discussion) only allows us to hire full-time enrolled students in Fall 2020.