Resumption of on-campus activities

By now you will have seen the May 11, 2020 update about the fall term and the road ahead for the university including our continued commitment to high-quality academic programming, which will be primarily online in September due to COVID-19. In that message we noted that as we plan for the months ahead, we will be introducing specific safety measures to protect the health and safety of all members of our university community as we gradually increase in-person teaching, learning, research and administrative and support services on campus. 

At this point, we are still awaiting receipt of the WorkSafeBC approved guidelines for the post-secondary institutions. This work, guided by a sector-wide working group, will provide general guidance to all universities and will likely be published in early June.

While awaiting those WorkSafeBC approved guidelines, the university is developing Safe Work Plan instructions to support the safe and gradual resumption of on-campus activities and services on campus.  The first of these plans is the On-Campus Resumption of Research. For all others areas of campus, we will be building a similar Safe Work Plan application and review process, which we anticipate will be available in early to mid June.

The university administration will advise leaders about when and how to coordinate a safe and phased-in approach to resuming service and operations on campus for those employees currently working remotely in their areas, once Safe Work Plan protocols have been established. Any return to work on campus will be guided by the Safe Work Plan approval process.

Implications for remote work arrangements

What is clear is that the government’s Restart Plan contemplates that remote teaching, learning and working will continue to feature as one core physical distancing strategy to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 for many months to come and to reduce contact intensity and the number of contacts.  As such, this is a good time for department and unit leaders to check in with their teams to ensure that the interim measures that have been put in place are sufficiently robust to support remote working over the long term while teams are gradually transitioning back to campus.

To help teams to deliver services remotely, the university is continuously investing in and adding new technologies and resources including:  

1. Tools for teaching online
2. Tools to support teams working remotely
3. Tools to support faculty working remotely
4. Resources to support students for online learning
5. Technology and remote working resources
6. Office furniture and equipment removal protocol

For HR-related assistance in this remote working environment, supervisors are welcome to work with the applicable consultant assigned to your unit:

• Staff remote working: Please contact your Human Resources Consultant
• Faculty or librarians remote working: Please contact your Faculty Relations Consultant
• Grant-funded research assistants or post-doctoral fellows: Please contact Research Services

Summary

Stay tuned for more information and guidance about resuming on-campus activities.

As noted above, the university will advise leaders about when and how to coordinate a safe and phased-in approach to resuming service and operations in their areas once safety protocols have been established.  We expect to publish the safety protocols in early to mid June, thus enabling a gradual resumption of on-campus activities beginning in early July.

BC’s restart is a careful, step-by-step process to ensure our combined efforts and sacrifices are not inadvertently reversed. Thank you and your teams for all that you are doing in support of these extraordinary public health measures and our campus community.