Friday, March 20, 2020

President delivers update as the University finds a new way of working

"We’re doing our best to help contain the spread of COVID-19 in line with guidance from the Government of Canada and Public Health Ontario," said President and Vice-Chancellor Feridun Hamdullahpur in a memo circulated to the campus community yesterday. "Collectively, leaders from across the University have been meeting – virtually – to make decisions and guide our response. We will continue to respond with urgency and care to the evolving global COVID-19 pandemic. I deeply appreciate the extraordinary efforts being made by our Waterloo community to support University operations, each other and our students. Simply, thank you."

"We are entering a phase where we operate the University in new and creative ways for the foreseeable future. We are going to keep delivering on our teaching, learning and research while asking employees and students to work from home," the president's memo continues. "Faculties and departments have started to implement business continuity plans as we anticipate and respond to emerging priorities. These plans help us maintain critical business functions while adapting to changes in delivery of work, including working remotely and changing how we deliver our services. You and your manager should be talking about the ways you will continue to deliver your work from home."

Supporting students and instructors complete the term 

"We’re committed to supporting students complete their Winter Term," Hamdullahpur writes. "Starting Monday, all of our courses and assessments will resume in online or alternative formats. Instructors are now at work on the difficult job of redesigning their courses without in-person meetings or exams so the term can be completed. Three principles are guiding their work: 

• student and staff safety
• achieving the best results for students including allowing them to progress appropriately in their programs, and
• equity.  

"We have committed to help instructors make these changes from the following units: the Centre for Teaching Excellence, the Centre for Extended Learning, Information Systems and Technology, the Library, AccessAbility Services, and the Writing and Communication Centre. Another huge thank you to people in these units for their amazing efforts." 

Thanking our on-campus employees 

The President also thanks the many employees of units including Plant Operations and Custodial Services, Central Stores, UW Police Services, Residence Staff and Cleaning Services, UW Food Services, Campus Wellness, the Emergency Communications Team and University leadership for their efforts over the last week.

'Our community has been faced with an unprecedented amount of disruption and change, but I have never been prouder of how our students, faculty and staff have responded. Thank you again, everyone, for your swift action and support for one another. In particular, I want to thank the teams who have continued to come to campus and keep our essential operations working."

Read the President's full memo on the COVID-19 website.

IST provides advice on working remotely

Chief Information Officer Bruce Campbell has circulated a memo to employees outlining how staff and faculty can work remotely with confidence.

Get IT support

Information Systems & Technology (IST) has closed its three on-campus service desk locations. IT support will be provided through online tools, including email, phone and live chat. IST staff are working from home, in accordance with the University response to COVID-19, and will only return to campus to restore critical services, as necessary.  

Stay connected while working remotely

University employees have access to a number of excellent online collaboration and productivity tools, including Office 365, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive. 

• Please visit the IST website for information on working from home securely
• Visit the IST Knowledge Base for information on staying connected while working remotely

Connecting to the University’s Virtual Private Network (VPN)

IST provides a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service to the campus community to facilitate telecommuting and other access to campus-based network resources. The VPN uses the public Internet to connect a remote computer, such as a home computer or a laptop, securely to the University of Waterloo network. The underlying principle is to make the remote computer seem as if it were physically connected to the campus network.

However, VPN should be used only when necessary. See a list of common services/applications that do and do not require VPN access.  

All IST in-person events, training courses and seminars suspended

The University has suspended all events that are not considered vital to its academic mission. As a result, in-person IT professional development (ITPD) courses scheduled to the end of April 2020 have been cancelled, however, WCMS courses will continued to be offered through LEARN. Professional Development Advisory Group (PDAG) seminars have also been cancelled. Information will be shared when these courses/seminars are available again.

OHD issues operational update and other notes

A message from Organizational and Human Development (OHD).

In light of the current COVID-19 global health crisis making events and gatherings complicated, the University of Waterloo has suspended events at the institution for the foreseeable future to focus on the health and safety of the community and its academic mission. This suspension includes Organizational and Human Development (OHD) workshops and learning events as there is a strong case to support social distancing over the next few weeks as the situation with COVID-19 evolves. 

This includes:

• Principles of Leadership (March 26, 2020) - To be rescheduled
• The Waterloo Staff Conference (April 6 and 7, 2020) has been cancelled.

As well, the OHD team will be working remotely in the coming weeks in accordance with the University’s COVID-19 strategy. As such, The best way to connect with a member of our team is to contact us via email. We are only a click away. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please contact ohd@uwaterloo.ca if you have any questions. 

Please note the following campus service modifications:

Beginning Monday, March 23, Grand River Transit is altering its bus schedules in routes around the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College. The full list of trip cancellations can be found on the GRT website.

The Turnkey@DC kiosk will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. today and from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 21. After that it will be closed until further notice. The Turnkey Desk in the Student Life Centre remains open for business, though very much not as usual.