MESSAGE TO MATH 467-900 ON 19 FEB 2021 Howdy! I have not forgotten you! The Provost has sent the faculty guidelines for what rescheduling is required and what is permitted. I am still working out the details. [some obsolete sentences deleted] Here are the major things that have been settled: The midterm test will be postponed by a week, to Thursday, March 11. The first term paper will be postponed by a week, to Monday, March 1. The next day is still a holiday, and I will count on using it to grade the papers. So there WILL be a slight penalty if the paper is turned in late. The H3 and W3 assignments will be postponed by a week, to Wednesday, March 3. I consider the W2 rewrite to be ancient history, because the material was covered long before the disruption began and the formal deadline for submission has already passed. I'll slightly delay the date after which Gradescope will refuse to accept your paper. Later deadlines in March will be advanced by less than a week, and by sometime in April we will be back on the original schedule. Fortunately, there is a bit of slack in the lecture schedule during the second half of the course. According to the Provost, the Q-drop and withdrawal deadlines have been extended to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 30. Thank you for your patience. I hope that the impact of this disruption upon you has been and will be minor, and I echo the Provost's words: "I encourage you to be mindful that we remain in a pandemic with altered methods of instruction, necessarily reduced social activities, and diminished capacity on everyone’s part to deal with yet another stressor. Things won’t return to normal as soon as the temperatures moderate; in fact, weeks may pass before infrastructure is repaired both in our homes and on our campus.  Thus, I encourage you to take care of yourselves and your loved ones after this difficult week. Similarly, if you become concerned about any of your [fellow] students, encourage them to seek assistance or tell us so we can follow up with them.  While we remain committed to our academic mission, let us not forget the importance of our collective responsibility to care for one another in these challenging times, just as Aggies have done in previous generations. We are stronger together." Stephen A. Fulling