Dear Emeritus Community,
It’s official, the Emeritus program is staying online for Winter and Spring 2021!
Many of you are able to register online, which we appreciate. For those of you who still register using the PDF form or paper application, I implore you to please use Corsair Connect online instead. The Emeritus staff would be glad to help you learn to navigate that system. There are several important reasons why you should register on Corsair Connect, instead of emailing us or mailing us your registration form:
- Your registration appointment (as shown on your Continuing Student Enrollment letter), only applies if you register yourself online at Corsair Connect (smc.du/cc). If you register on a paper or PDF form instead, it will be processed after your scheduled enrollment period.
- You can ask family or friends to help you navigate the online system. The staff and student workers can help you as well.
- Processing enrollment forms while working remotely is incredibly difficult for the staff. If you absolutely cannot figure out online enrollment, then please email your registration form to emeritus@smc.edu Please do not mail forms unless necessary.
- We have staff in the office only for one week during the peak period of registration, and as we have seen and heard, there have been delays with mail delivery. If you mail a form in late, or certainly after the main registration period, it could be 1 week or more before the staff get in to the office to process those forms.
We appreciate your patience at this time, and again, strongly encourage you to register online on Corsair Connect for the reasons shared above.
Most classes will be synchronous on Zoom (at the time scheduled here), some are using Facebook, or Canvas, or another asynchronous delivery method. Your instructor is in charge of determining the delivery method and will email you information on how to access your class 24 hours prior to the first class meeting. Please do not email the office asking where your link is before that time.
On that note, please know that the first 1-2 weeks of every term, our response time will be slower than usual. There are several things we are doing to help you.
- Adding all Emeritus faculty email addresses to the Emeritus website. This way, if you don’t have the information for class, you can email them directly instead of asking us to do so. Better for everyone for you to email them directly.
- We have gotten some extra support from our student workers on returning phone calls — though emailing the office when absolutely necessary is probably better.
- When you contact the office, please leave succinct and detailed voicemails so we can address the question. 99% of the time, we have to return the call anyway. Emails are preferred, as we have found sometimes our return calls are not picked up.
I encourage you to do a few things:
- Log in to Corsair Connect (smc.edu/cc) – you can activate your SMC email address, update your personal email address, and eventually even use Corsair Connect to register for classes.
- If you need help, reach out to emeritus@smc.edu or for detailed technology help, email studentithelp@smc.edu
All normal registration rules still apply. You can only enroll into 3 classes for Winter initially, and add classes when the Semester starts. This way, every student is given a chance to get into a few classes. Also, remember that a student cannot enroll in more than one section of any specific course number at the same time.
Zoom does allow classes to be huge, but the actual capacity for an Emeritus class requires stricter limitation, for pedagogical or management reasons. Some classes might be 20, and other 200. Very few classes are that large, as attendance reporting alone could be a challenge.
Lastly, please join me on congratulating Lauri Arneson, whom has been our Administrative Assistant for the last 14 years. She has retired, effective September 30 to enjoy time with her family. I know that any of you who have interacted with her know how she has contributed to the program. We will miss her at Emeritus. Her email address is arneson_lauri@smc.edu, if you want to share any congratulatory well wishes with her.
Please stay safe, and stay connected.
Sincerely,
Dr. Scott C. Silverman
Associate Dean, SMC Emeritus