Planning for Fall 2021

This message was originally sent to Executive Council by vice-president, academic and provost James W. E. Rush.

It has been a long and difficult 12 months dealing with the challenges presented by the pandemic. In retrospect, it has also been a truly inspiring time considering all that we have accomplished, and I am grateful for the work that you have all done over the past year to help support our students, staff, and faculty to manage, progress and thrive during the pandemic.

I am writing today with optimism that the fall term will allow us to return to more in-person experiences for our whole campus community. As leaders of the University, we must start collective planning now to make sure that we can deliver the best quality teaching and learning, research and work experiences possible. 

In-person learning and student services

We know that our students – and prospective students – are keen to come to Waterloo for the amazing things they can only experience on our campus. Many of you have been planning for a variety of possible scenarios over the last several months. We are now starting to develop the direction your teams will need to plan for more on-campus experiences for students; and importantly for coordinating these plans within an Institution wide framework.

Though I can’t predict exactly what level of in person learning we will be able to offer, we must be ready to deliver a significantly expanded on-campus learning experience in September and beyond. In turn this will mean many more of our faculty and staff colleagues returning to our campuses. This, of course, includes ensuring that our buildings, spaces and services are healthy, safe environments ready to support the student experience, and employee and community wellbeing.

Over the last year your teams have introduced many innovative ways of helping students learn. You’ve also developed new, flexible ways of working. Thank you sincerely for these efforts – I know that these innovations have not all come easily and that we have learned greatly from the experience. We must preserve the best of these approaches as we plan to expand in-person activities while maintaining our flexibility to respond to changing public health guidelines.

Fall 2021 is the first time during the pandemic that we are declaring an intention to deliver much more in person learning. It is also the first time that we must be ready with plans for multiple possible scenarios. Faculties and departments have been and must continue to lead this work to make sure we have local plans, supports and services that serve our students and enhance our campus communities.

At the institutional level we must support integration of plans for overall feasibility and interdependence.  We are currently developing scenarios to help guide this. For example, as large gatherings are unlikely to be allowed before the end of the calendar year, we may need to continue to limit class sizes. We expect physical distancing measures to continue. This planning framework will necessitate central coordination/integration to ensure common awareness and equitable opportunities for access to physical and technological resources.

I recognize that these plans may mean that the University needs to allocate additional resources to enable certain scenarios for instructional capacity or the means to help instructors deliver learning, as well as for units responsible for the scheduling, coordination, technical and learning supports, and health and safety related to these activities. I believe that confirming our intentions now to move towards in person learning means we have the time to plan for the people, processes, technologies, and spaces we need to prepare for and deliver these novel approaches. I firmly believe that we will be much better off committing the focus and resources now to be prepared to execute an optimistic plan for fall if possible than we would be in not doing so now, and having to scramble to do so later.  Of course, the Keep Learning team as well as all our learning support resources will continue to be available to help guide instructors in the transition of course delivery methods as needed.

We also need to recognize that many international students may not be able to get to Waterloo due to the lengthy visa process and continuing global travel restrictions. Our planning needs to take their needs into careful consideration, especially as they relate to modes of instruction and service provision.

As leaders, we will work together to develop more concrete guidelines on logistics, operations and resources that will enable your teams to plan in better detail over the coming days and weeks.

Research and travel

The Office of Research and the Safety Office have implemented a phased approach to restarting research that has been in place since the middle of 2020. Since the stay-at-home order was lifted in February, we have resumed our phased return to research and I know many of our labs are working well under approved safety plans. I’m particularly encouraged that we have been able to resume human-participant research on campus with approvals from the research ethics board.

You can expect to receive information from the Vice-President, Research and International regarding further changes to our research activities as the public health guidelines change over the coming months.

On travel, though University-sanctioned travel remains suspended until the conditions allow us to change, we have introduced a procedure to apply for exceptions for sabbaticals and long-term research leaves during which single travel events need to occur for long term relocation to complete essential work. We will, however, continue to be guided by the need to be responsible and protect the safety of global communities. This means applications to permit travel must necessarily be truly exceptional.

On-campus safety and office work

In-person general office activity will gradually resume as we prepare to receive more students on campus in September. This will remain in line with safety plans that unit heads have developed with the Safety Office. These plans will remain under review and updated as the local public health and post-secondary safety guidelines change.

As leaders we must also consider the flexible work arrangements we have put in place over the last year. As we approach greater levels of vaccination, knowing which roles and functions may continue to include some, or all, remote work and which must operate from the campus will help us achieve the flexibility we need. We will provide integrated guidance on return to work and flexible work arrangements to balance the needs of the institution, units and individuals where necessary.

Our efforts to support the health of the community will continue, too. On Monday, working with partners in the community, we opened the first University-hosted vaccination clinic. We are continuing to work with the Region of Waterloo to explore ways we can further support the vaccination effort.

Meanwhile, we continue to look for new ways to promote and achieve safe conditions while working in person on campus. A pilot program using Panbio rapid antigen tests is well underway. Though the supply of these tests is very limited, they are helping our health teams manage and monitor COVID-19 infections in our people who live or are working on campus. This new pilot project is in addition to the exemplary Campus Testing and Assessment Centre and the COVID hotline in Health Services. We have also recently shared new guidelines for mask-wearing and what to do if anyone in your home has symptoms.

As we prepare to welcome staff, faculty and students back to campus, the health and safety of our entire University community remains our top priority. We will continue to rely on public health directives to inform evidence-based decisions that consider equity issues while remaining open, transparent and collaborative.

During this planning phase it’s important for our community to know that our goal is to return to as many in-person campus activities as will be possible this fall.

You can continue to find information about the University’s COVID-19 response at our dedicated website. We will continue to update you on the University’s plans and on public health recommendations about in-person activities on a regular basis and as new developments occur.

I hope that you share my sense of hope and optimism and join me in this next planning phase to achieve a return to our vibrant campus community this fall.