Dear Physics Community,

I am posting these messages in my blog roll here and I have been accumulating useful links that have gone by here. In particular, I am trying to keep a list of MIT policy communications.

Physics Department

Tomorrow will be our first day working largely remotely and we will have to be patient as we learn to use zoom, slack and other new things.  I would adjust overall expectations to 25% operations by the end of the week.  We can build from there.

One element we need to pay attention to from the start is isolation.  Some will be alone for long periods or with the same few people.  Please reach out to each other via phone calls or skype, i.e. where we can hear each other.  Please do not be afraid to reach out for help.

Academic Continuity Committee

Undergraduates – DSL reported that 60% of our undergraduates have left and all should be out by Monday, except about 350 who have exemptions.

Graduate students – MIT posted “What graduate students need to know” here.  Following several comments I received yesterday, it does say, “…graduate residents are not required to depart campus, however, we strongly encourage you to seek alternate housing.”  My guidance to Physics graduates students is that you should locate yourself where you are safest as a first priority and able to pursue your studies as a second priority.

Research – with the departure of the undergraduates coming to the end, this is out next big focus.  A draft statement is circulating right now and will go out later today.  Main points:

• The goal is to minimize density on campus AND minimize T trips by winding down research.
• Some equipment, computers and animals will need tending
• MIT will remain open, but at the lowest possible density.  MIT is winding down on-campus work, not stopping.  The distinction has to do with how money can be spent and who can be paid.
• Extensions of tenure clocks and thesis deadlines for those effected by the wind-down is “on the table”, according to the Provost.
• ISO will continue processing visas for new faculty.
• Please make wind-down plans by end of the day Monday and carry them out as soon as possible, end of the week at the latest.

Several PI’s have been in touch with me about their needs for access during the wind-down.  Please assume your plans are okay and carry them out.  If you feel they conflict with the guidance Marty and Maria send out later today, please let me know.

The spirit of the situation is to get as many off campus as possible as a public good.  In that spirit, it is okay if you need someone in a lab 5% of the time to keep an expensive piece of equipment from breaking, but not okay to have someone in the lab starting a new experiment, no matter how exciting.

Maria Zuber (VPR) has been in contact with federal agencies about grants and spending in the coming months.  She reported that the NIH has posted guidance that is very favorable.  She reports and I have observed that the federal agencies see the NIH and NSF as policy leaders, so this is good news.  You can see their guidance here.

Emergency Academic Regulations are posted here.  Some highlights:

• No exams or assignments before March 30 (end of Spring break)
• Classes may be synchronous (live streamed) as scheduled now
• Classes may be also/or asynchronous (recorded).  Synchronous classes should also be asynchronous
• Emergency grading is in effect – PE/NE/IE
• Remote final exams will be held on the current schedule
• Thesis defense (and Part II orals) will be done remotely

Special Note to Graduate Students

What does the scale-down mean in the context of the other communications with graduate students? At the top level, our we expect our Physics graduates student will continue to work toward their degrees, help teach our classes and receive their tuition and stipends. As much as possible, we would like graduate student life to continue as much as it was before.

However, access to campus will be limited to only to most critical maintenance of equipment and care of animals.  The only experimental work that will be continue will be for experiments whose disruption would cause the loss of irreplaceable data.  This means that, like faculty and staff (which includes post docs and post doctoral fellows) at MIT, graduate students may only come to campus to perform essential functions.  This includes offices, labs and common areas.

This goes into effect over the next week.  You should make as few trips as possible early in the week to get what you need from your office or lab.  After that, plan to work from where you are living.  I do not know for how long, but the guess is 6-8 weeks.

This will be extremely disruptive to our research enterprise, including the progress of our graduate students.  This will be true of graduate students across the world.  Many will put the time to good use writing thesis chapters, reading papers or planning new experiments, but these cannot replace the work that can only be done in our labs with experiments built up over years or by the personal interactions with colleague that will now be mostly electronic and remote.

However, you will be critical to keeping the research enterprise going in the coming weeks.  We will have to learn how to learn from each other online and, while we cannot do the things we really want to do, we can still make progress, learn from each other, and maybe make some discoveries.

I will reach out to your faculty advisors for help.  Please look to them or me for guidance, information and comfort.

For our graduate TA’s, you will be very important in the coming weeks.  Online education has floated along for fifteen years with a few first steps here and there.  Now, the entire US university system will dive into in two weeks.  Will all these things work? Will there be enough bandwidth? Will we be reduced to soup cans connected by string?  Will it work great and everyone will realize we do not need courses in universities anymore? We are going to find out and you will be in the vanguard.

Tomorrow we start coping with the new world we are in.

Peter