Careful reopening of the campuses

“The Ministry of Education has issued a clarification regarding university campus access guidelines, and we are partially reopening in accordance with the rules”, says University Director Seunn Smith-Tønnessen.

We are primarily opening for those who need university facilities to produce teaching material and for those whose working conditions at home make it difficult to carry out necessary work. Otherwise, anyone who can do their job from home will continue to work remotely.

However, everyone who wants access to the buildings must apply and get approval from their Faculty director or the Deputy director general at their department.

Now, because the campuses are open for more employees on campus, the consequence is that employees who want to pick up something from their office, now have to do this in the evening or during the weekend.

When some - and hopefully more and more employees will get access to their work place, this also means tha if you want to pop into the office to get something there, you will have to to it in the evening or at weekends, because of the risk of Corona covid-19 contamination.

Criteria for access

Faculty director or the Deputy director-general at their department can, if it is possible within the national infection control measures, allow access for staff:

• who need to use the University's facilities to produce teaching resources and plan the autumn. (Information on recording in the TV-studio or equivalent, will come in a few days.)
• employees with very poor working conditions at home. For example, a poor internet connection or poor office equipment that compromises HSE.
• employees with short deadlines where the efficiency of working from home seriously threatens necessary progress.
• other reasons.

Employees who want access rapidly must take contact with their Faculty director or the Deputy director general at their department on 6 May at the latest, to get permission before accessing campus. It can be expedient if the application for access are sent to the Faculty director or the Deputy director general at their department, with a copy to the Head of department, where it is relevant.

The earliest date of access is 11 May.

The deadline 6 May applies to next week. The reason for this is to reopen in a controlled way, which gives the Faculty directors and the Deputy director generals time to assess the total number of wishes to the recommendations of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and the faculty or department as a whole.

You are of course welcome to apply for access also later than 6 May, but if you do so, you can not expect to get access during the first week, starting 11 May.

“All recommendations on infection protection from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health must be met at all times, and anyone who needs access to campus must apply to the nearest manager and cannot go to work until the application is approved”, says Smith-Tønnessen.

Distribution of working time among colleagues

Each department must also start continuity planning. This is described in UiA's pandemic plan and means that each department must distribute the workforce between those who can be on campus and those who have a home office.

“In the event of a new outbreak of infection, we must ensure that entire departments are not impacted by the virus and that we have enough healthy employees to carry out all tasks”, says Smith-Tønnessen.

Holiday and time off in lieu

It is a manager’s responsibility to ensure that holiday and time off in lieu of overtime is taken out in a good manner.

“We urge all employees to start planning when they want to take their holidays. Because of changes in preparations due to a partially online autumn semester and a possible peak of infection in the autumn, we want everyone to take their holidays and days off well before the autumn semester starts”, says Smith-Tønnessen.