Letter From the Chair

This has been a very difficult semester for many of us, so I am very pleased to report that I have some good news to share with you. Although the majority of BECA's classes during the Spring 2021 semester will be taught online, we have been given tentative approval to include some face-to-face production activities in 7 courses. The courses are: 

• BECA 341: Aerial (Drone) Imagery Operation and Aesthetics (Khani) 
• BECA 430: Advanced Audio Production I (Naidu) 
• BECA 505: KSFS Radio and Podcasting II (Jacoby) 
• BECA 530: Advanced Audio Production II (Barsotti) 
• BECA 562: Television & Video Documentary Production (Hongo) 
• BECA 640: Television and Video Production Planning (Jacoby) 
• BECA 660: Television Center News (Larson) 

Because this isn't explained well in the online schedule, I need to highlight several important points: 

1. The majority of the instruction for these 7 classes will still be online. The face-to-face elements will be limited to a handful of students at a time and will take place occasionally throughout the semester. Details will be included in the syllabus for each course. 
2. Students enrolled in these classes will NOT be required to participate in these face-to-face activities. Distance learning alternatives will be available for all face-to-face activities. Students who participate in the face-to-face activities will not receive a grade advantage over students who are not face-to-face. 
3. All SFSU health and safety requirements will be observed during the face-to-face activities, including, but not limited to, wearing masks and maintaining social distance. After each face-to-face class, SFSU personnel will clean the spaces, clean the equipment (if used), and then leave any indoor spaces empty for a designated period of time before they can be occupied again.  
4. Students who choose to participate in face-to-face activities associated with these classes will need to take the CSU online training and complete the campus COVID survey before they can participate in face-to-face activities.  
5. The online schedule does not show assigned room numbers for these face-to-face activities. Some of them will be held outside, so a room number is not appropriate. The indoor activities will be held in the new building and the room numbers have not yet been entered in the scheduling software. Students will receive information about the location of face-to-face meetings in their syllabi.  
6. Please be aware that in the interest of public health, these approvals may be revoked by the city of San Francisco or by the CSU at any time. If this happens, students participating in face-to-face activities will fall back to the distance learning modality. 

This is not a full return to face-to-face education, but I am very pleased that BECA can offer some of you the opportunity to practice production. I hope we will all be returning to campus soon.  

The BECA faculty and staff miss you.

Sami Reist (she/her)
Chair, Broadcast & Electronic Communication Arts
San Francisco State University