Extended Warwick Leaders Forum: Questions and answers
Read the answers to questions submitted following the Extended Warwick Leaders Forum held on 27 July 2020.
You can watch the presentation from the meeting online.
1. The challenges of dealing with Covid-19 alongside usual "freshers' flu" was mentioned in the presentation. In order to reduce other conditions like flu as much as possible, is there a plan in place to extend to students the flu vaccination programme currently available to staff members? And are there constructive ways that staff can be even more strongly encouraged to have the vaccination? Maybe an additional day of leave could be awarded once a certain proportion of the staff body have the jab?
The Government has indicated that it will expand its free flu vaccination programme and the University will encourage staff and students to have a jab. We already have an in-house programme and will work closely with the Health Centre and local NHS bodies to promote the importance of having a vaccination.
2. Please can you clarify the situation regarding holding academic conferences on campus? We normally organise many throughout the year and have cancelled /postponed/moved online the ones due to take place in the autumn term. Our next planned face-to-face event is in March (this is a PGR event and an essential part of their postgrad student experience). Should we start planning for this to be a virtual event or can we remain optimistic that it could actually take place? These conferences are usually held in rooms in Humanities, Social Sciences and WRE and have approx 40/50 delegates. Obviously with social distancing and reduced room capacity this is a problem for us.
We need to keep national and local restrictions under constant review, as we do not know how the pandemic will develop over the coming months. University Executive Board are provided with appropriate data and analyses to help inform if, when and how we can amend the range of activities on campus. We are, of course, hopeful that infections are at a level that enable a range of restrictions to be lifted by March 2021, but understandably cannot make any firm commitments right now as to what will be possible. We will ensure the University community is kept updated to enable plans to be amended or progressed with sufficient notice.
3. Regarding face coverings in teaching settings - this will help to reassure colleagues I think, but if both lecturers and students will be wearing face coverings have any tests been done to check for audibility of speech in the rooms we will be using, especially given the distances between people. If it is planned that microphones should be used, do all rooms have these installed and is there any provision for microphones to pick up student responses and discussion, and thought on how to handle the risk of transmission if portable microphones are used? Some guidance on this would be useful for teaching colleagues. Thanks.
Although we are not planning any additional installations of microphones at this time, all risk assessments are mindful of accessibility issues and where alternative control measures (such as face visors) may be used by teaching staff. We are also developing guidance on teaching face-to-face in a Covid-19 Secure setting.
4. Slide 7 refers to thermometers. What is the intended use of these - for individual use or for use on campus to determine entrance (or not) to buildings?
Staff will be provided with a take-home, reusable digital thermometers so they can check at home and, if required, book a Covid-19 test should they show symptoms of high temperature. We are also exploring feasibility of installing thermal scanners in various buildings where there is a higher footfall of visitors and members of the public.
5. When might the Covid shopping list be available?
The list of agreed PPE items has been agreed. We plan to make this list available to key staff who will be part of the ordering process as soon as we have an IT solution available to make it easy to do. We expect to have that shortly and will confirm as soon as possible. In the interim the process of getting some fixed items installed has started via Estates Building Managers and Cleaning teams and we aim to communicate a clear process agreed for fixed items as a priority.
6. Blue print risk assessments for teaching and learning and departmental spaces are required ASAP for planning. This is driving all of our plans for the coming weeks as well as for start of term (there are a lot of activities underway in the time between now and October).
At time of response (3 August), the blueprint risk assessments are currently progressing through approval mechanisms, which include consultation with Trade Unions. We intend to publish the blueprint risk assessments no later than 17 August.
7. Chris Twine mention the contact tracing project. Guidance on self-isolating in case of contact with a confirmed case needs to be updated or better sign posted ASAP for individuals and departmental managers - we have staff working on campus reporting now they have been in contact with someone with a confirmed case and are following NHS guidelines that they self-isolate, but we are lacking guidance on what else we should do.
During the current summer vacation, any staff required to self-isolate as a result of contact with a confirmed case need only notify their line manager for information. As students return and our plans for on-campus test and tracing are implemented, these protocols will be updated.
8. There seems to be some inconsistency between (i) the requirement to give (approximately) 60% of our small-group teaching to students face-to-face; and (ii) the strong recommendation to staff to avoid using public transport to come to work but to use private cars, cycle etc. instead. For all but our year 1 students who live on campus, any face-to-face teaching is going to require the regular use of public transport by students. If this is deemed to be inadvisable for staff, should we be looking at lower amounts of face-to-face teaching of students (at least those in Y2/Y3/Y4)?
We have worked with local bus operators and modelled capacity for bringing staff and students to campus. There is a significant reduction in capacity on public transport as we would expect because of social distancing. Balancing indicative levels of face-to-face teaching with transport capacity and dwell space suggests that the broad model of 60:40 for post year 1 undergraduate students is workable with current planning assumptions.
9. Will personal tutors be offering 1:1 tutorials face-to-face or virtually?
Our expectation is that both formats may be used, depending on context. If there is an office or small meeting room that will work with 2m distancing and if both parties are comfortable then its fine to undertake personal tutor meetings on a face-to-face basis. If either party is seriously concerned with the face-to-face format, the option for online meetings remains available.
10. Some buildings on campus do not have opening windows, which creates additional worry in terms of ventilating space. Air conditioning is not optimum even outside the pandemic context - are there plans to invest in opening windows?
Our Heating and Ventilation engineers in Estates are involved in all building re-opening and we ensure that there are appropriate control measures in place for those areas where windows cannot be opened, for example.