JOHN JAY COLLEGE–The COVID-19 pandemic prompted John Jay to offer more online classes, a trend that has continued since the return to campus. Students have grown accustomed to a large number of asynchronous and hybrid course options but that might change under a new mandate released in early February.
In a memorandum sent on Feb. 3 to all full-time faculty at the college, Provost Allison Pease wrote that starting fall 2025, “all full-time Lecturer and Tenure-Track faculty members […] must teach a minimum of two, fully in-person (not hybrid) courses each fall and spring semester on the John Jay campus.”
The memorandum also states that if the faculty member is only teaching one class per semester the course must be taught fully in-person.
The memorandum begins by explaining that this move resulted from the department chairs’ concerns and urgings, which originated back in the fall of 2024. Yet in a recent interview, Pease said the move was also spurred by the college’s goal to maintain the highest level of quality in its course and degree offerings, the fact that John Jay does not offer nor is it authorized for online undergraduate degree programs (except for one), and the need for students to have access to their professors as well as staff to have access to their colleagues and department members.
“I think I am doing it for the right reasons, which is the quality of the education that we are giving to our students,” Pease said.
