Not all colleges closing

gauchesnell

Hi ya

Has anyone else been advised by their university that they are not closing? Very confusing.

spurious

I would have thought any state owned ones are shut, any run by ETBs etc.. I suppose private colleges can do what they like, but I'm not sure their insurance cover would be valid if the government have said shut schools and colleges.

Have you just not heard from the college, or have you contacted them and they still don't know what is happening?

gauchesnell

no I work for a public university and we have received an email advising staff that we are open as normal. No classes but everything else is open as normal. This is a large public university. Maybe there are exceptions to this rule.

granturismo

'teaching and student attendance on campus will now be suspended' does not mean stay at home, staff are expected to work unless ill, taking care of family or self isolating.

jrmb

I'm working in a private, full-time language school for adults and courses have been frozen for two weeks.

gauchesnell

ok ill be clearer - the campuses themselves are not closing.

TheValeyard

gauchesnell wrote: »

ok ill be clearer - the campuses themselves are not closing.

Same as the schools. Classes have been suspended for two weeks but the building is open if staff wish to work in it

gauchesnell

confusing situation to be honest. I will contact my union. Notice from union is that the only staff to only those responsible for work that is essential will be required to work. email to staff from president advises all campuses open as normal.

My only concern would be catching the virus and spreading it...not looking for a couple of weeks off.

mirrorwall14

Our ETB has school building open with admin/caretaking staff Teachers my come in to work or can manage classes digitally from home

gauchesnell

yeah I dont like that like attitude at all. Just watched rte news and the news is appalling but also misleading. I work in a large public university and we are not closing. Unclear yet as to whether staff have to go in. Misleading to say colleges are closed. They are not. Campuses and facilities are still open the staff are still expected to work. I use public transport to get to work and work in a very large university.

Dont know anyone who thinks this time is a holiday time. Catching and spreading the disease is the only concern. 27 new cases is a huge jump.

Confusing time.

Pacifico

Yeah misleading to say the least! I wonder what the unions would have to say about it?

Darwin

Ok, here's the clarification I got from my local TUI branch - the email below was sent from the Department of Education itself:


Dear all,


In respect of further queries raised this afternoon by Management Bodies and Union Officials please see a clarification from the Department below:



Schools, Further Education Centres and Higher Education Institutions are closed for students from 6pm on Thursday March 12th, and all staff are encouraged to work from home per the advice from Health officials. However, Schools, Further Education Centres and Higher Education Institutions should be available to staff if they wish to access the facilities in order to provide online delivery, or essential services once this is in line with HSE advice on social distancing etc. Local Management should consider how to manage this access in order to comply with the advice of health officials.

Edit: here's the source:

https://www.tui.ie/news/additional-clarification-from-department-of-education-and-skills-on-closure-of-schools-colleges-and-centres-.13707.html

gauchesnell

super thanks I am waiting for my own union to advise. My own university campuses remain open for staff and students to access should they wish to. There is no blanket closure. All our buildings remain open and available to anyone. Certain areas are closed e.g. library but staff remain available by email and phone.

Still waiting on my own union to advise - all universities and colleges are not closed though.

Pacifico

Yeah sound like none are closed. Only to students.

appledrop

I'm with Forsa + we received a very good document on this.

Basically all staff in 3rd level institutions will cease classes with students but also that you should be encouraged to work from home + should not be asked to physically go into work.

Yes building etc might stay open if staff need it but you shouldn't be being told you must go into the building. You need to contact your union.

Steve456

Pacifico wrote: »

Yeah sound like none are closed. Only to students.

UCC are definitely closed - nearly all staff are forbidden to come in, are expected to arrange online teaching from home.

gauchesnell

im forsa too...just waiting on reply. Seems to vary per university. Trinity is still open despite 2 cases.

They didnt know when i queried it. Students can still attend my university tomorrow as buildings are open. We have a lot of international students and they will use the free classrooms as study spaces and I dont blame them.

Hopefully they will be clarity soon. A lot of pressure on our buildings staff though who have been doing terrific work to keep buildings clean. That blanket statement saying colleges closed annoyed me as it is incorrect- they are not. My university is open.

appledrop

Just go onto forsa website all the details are there.

Basically no staff in education sector should be attending work physically unless say a caretaker to check on building.

gauchesnell

nope thats incorrect. my university is open tomorrow...no classes but and certain offices closed but everything else running as normal. Im in forsa and they dont have final word yet. Some campus facilities are closed but otherwise everything is normal. Not all universities are closed. Go check TCD website. It varies. Im not in TCD.

Libaries in certain universities are open tomorrow. Not a full closure at all.

appledrop

Well that's not the advice from forsa on website so I'd be printing that off + presenting it to you manager etc if you are getting hassle to come into work.

It very clearly says that all education staff should be facilitated to work remotely.

gauchesnell

ah no waiting on forsa myself. I have written to my rep. every university is different and if we are open staff must go in. Ive had a quick trawl of some other universities and some are remaining open. Its just a scary time that all...not like I dont want to go into work. Our campuses are open and we are not the only ones....so staff go into work.

There is confusing and misleading info out there thats all. Universities and colleges are not all closed. Campus buildings are open. We are not the only ones

Steve456

From uni websites:


DCU - no on-site teaching, but campus not shut - "DCU staff will be notified of specific working arrangements in an email that will be issued later today" (https://www.dcu.ie/coronavirus/index.shtml)

Galway - closed to all staff and students (http://www.nuigalway.ie/alert/)

Maynooth - no on-site teaching, but campus not shut - "Research students and staff who need access to campus facilities will continue to be able to do so, unless advised otherwise by the Head of Department. Most campus buildings will remain open." (https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/coronavirus)

Limerick - closed to all staff and students (https://www.ul.ie/latest-advice-all-ul-community-%C2%A0coronavirus-covid-19)

Trinity - closed to non-resident students but otherwise open (https://www.tcd.ie/about/coronavirus/)

TUD - no on-site teaching, staff arrangements very unclear from website (https://tudublin.ie/covid19/)

UCC - closed to all staff and students (https://www.ucc.ie/en/emt/covid19/)

UCD - unclear from website, though campus clearly not completely shut (see http://collegetribune.ie/ucd-moves-online-for-remainder-of-year-amid-covid-19-university-closures/)

gauchesnell

super thanks...campuses not shut. Certain university libraries and facilities remain open. Varies per university.

Universities and colleges are not closed.

Pacifico

Most ITs are open to staff. Maybe staff are immune to the virus?

gauchesnell

maybe we are ...only IT staff and staff in certain universities.

my union sent an update. Apparently my university is the only university requiring non essential/non critical staff to attend work despite government advice. Wonderful.

appledrop

gauchesnell wrote: »

maybe we are ...only IT staff and staff in certain universities.

my union sent an update. Apparently my university is the only university requiring non essential/non critical staff to attend work despite government advice. Wonderful.

Ridiculous get your union to challenge them on it.

If that's doesnt work contact all your local T.Ds.

I bet they wont be long changing their mind.

gauchesnell

yeah Id wait and see. Nasty stuff really.I will follow Union advice myself. The update from the Union contained some nasty allegations from the management of the university.

University is still open tomorrow. Im in a union - a lot of non essential staff arent and will be in work tomorrow along with students.

CramCycle

UCD is still open if you read the email from Deeks, apparently so are all the buildings and cafes. Interestingly, all the cafe staff say they are not in tomorrow, and most staff say they will not be in. Deeks has went the way of being particularly vague and sending out an email saying nothing has changed in the morning but he is having a meeting. Then after the meeting he sent round a mail saying you should work and come in if necessary but do what you want really.
What he really meant was he doesn't want to shut the campus because he knows their contingency planning is awful and they cannot deliver online lectures at a reasonable standard at short notice and if he sends people home they have the excuse to not follow through. It is shambolic.
I am currently discussing with academic staff/principal investigators who really have no concept of the issues, Their students will be fine, it is the people they infect when they leave that are the issue but they all insist that they should continue working as per usual.
Hopefully the stern words I will be sending around tomorrow will resonate as I will be locking out the student access cards on H&S grounds tomorrow evening, muppetry at UMT level be damned.

gauchesnell

quick update...been in work all day. Some universities and colleges are not closed. We are definitely not

Pacifico

How are some universities open to staff and others closed? Is this decision made at local college management level?

Steve456

Pacifico wrote: »

How are some universities open to staff and others closed? Is this decision made at local college management level?

Yes, there's a lot of local autonomy. And so long as there aren't significant numbers of students on campus any more, there's no reason why the government would care exactly what each institution does.

Different unis and colleges are in different positions - they differ in how many students they have in on-campus, and some are better prepared to do on-line teaching than others are.

gauchesnell

agree...just to note im admin not academic and not in any critical role. Academics are working from home. Didnt see any today. No students permitted on campus now so thats changed. What you have is admin, building staff and cleaners and admin managers. All academics were prepping for shutdown for a while.

situation is changing though - not sure I will be back Monday.

speaking for my own university it is still open to the public, deliveries, couriers etc. Not sure how they differentiate between members of the public and students to be honest. All buildings remain open to anyone.

CramCycle

Pacifico wrote: »

How are some universities open to staff and others closed? Is this decision made at local college management level?

Pretty much, clarity from the initial statement means it is just lectures from unergrads and anythng further than that is at a local level. It is ridiculous in the extreme, we have several research institutes, buildings with large numbers of postgrads who will attend as they are on a time limit.

gauchesnell wrote: »

agree...just to note im admin not academic and not in any critical role. Academics are working from home. Didnt see any today. No students permitted on campus now so thats changed. What you have is admin, building staff and cleaners and admin managers. All academics were prepping for shutdown for a while.

situation is changing though

No undergrads on ours, word on the street is that full closures are imminent, and rightly so. Luckily our line manager has the common sense to tell people to leave if they need or want too. I was in all day but the place was essentially abandoned. Bar people working with animals, for ethical reasons, everyone else should not be given the choice. The idea that we will be back in two weeks is laughable at this point. If a miracle occurs, maybe after Easter but realistically it will be summer time and I was sitting in on plans to prepare for a non essential staff until next year.
Typical sign of senior management not accepting the way of the world, I overhear them talking about getting people ready to graduate with no changes to the timetable.

gauchesnell

totally agree..today felt uneasy and risky. Decisions seems to vary at local level and academics and admin are being treated differently. Thankfully I am permanent staff but a lot of staff are contract and are feeling pressurised to come into work - again not essential roles. Academics have been prepped for weeks but no word for admin roles and other roles (buildings/technical etc). Very disappointing attitude so far from management - work comes first attitude.

see what happens over the weekend. No academics and no students but all buildings open requiring staff to be there. More advice came through from my union and no I wont be going back Monday unless there is something critical/urgent required and I am advised of same in advance. Pay cannot be affected so I am very lucky in that sense. I can answer emails from home.

Even without classes you have large numbers of people in a building - my building alone can hold over 7000 people during a normal day. My university doesn't restrict access to its buildings - unless physical restrictions are put in place next week. Remember a lot of international students will have nowhere else to go and will use campuses for study/wifi etc. Social distancing would prove difficult in student accommodation I would think. Our classrooms werent locked today so anyone could have used them. Canteens arent open for business but were not locked to prevent access.

Even if restrictions were put in place to stop members of the public accessing the campuses it would be great - limit it to staff only. Would hugely cut down on numbers. We even had applicants turning up today for advice - students commencing in September 2020.

Pacifico

Any update in colleges actually closing? Students still permitted on campus and permitted to use facilities without any restrictions...

gauchesnell

again depends on the university/college. Mine is still open as per tonight. no change to situation really. Im availing of remote working now but can be requested to attend on campus anytime.

CramCycle

We are down to restricted access, so only those with out of hours access can come in, as it should be, dissapointed it was so slow to come around. I'll be in most of the time but most academics are well into the process of setting up online lectures, tutorials, practicals. Exams will be the biggest thing now, particularly for those in an exit year, hope it is all goign OK for everyone.

Steve456

At UCC the entire place has been locked down for several days now. Lecturing is going on remotely. My department has a virtual meeting today to discuss how we are going to set exams.

gauchesnell

lol my university is also preparing for exams - but exams as normal.

some places are in a twilight zone

Steve456

gauchesnell wrote: »

lol my university is also preparing for exams - but exams as normal.

some places are in a twilight zone

Sounds like it. UCC central guidance on this is that the rejigged exams should be
as close to normal as possible - questions in the same form, to be completed in the same sort of time - but they are clear that nobody's coming to an exam hall, we're talking about submission online. Exactly how individual schools do that is up to them.

gauchesnell

ah well my work is proceeding along the same line except the expectation is that large exam halls will in place. The normal set up until now. Im admin not academic but us admin are prepping for normal exams/normal queries. I worked remotely today - didnt get much done as wifi was ****e but university is open and staff went to work. I am lucky I know - but I could be asked to me in the office tomorrow.

My university is still working on the expectation that they will reopen to everyone in 2 weeks. That would be amazing I know but I dunno. Lots of students cant return home - especially difficult for international students.

Im lucky I know to still have a job.

Steve456

The official story on Exams, as of this evening:

DCU: "There will be remote assessments, which will extend into and across the examination period of May 5-18th, and work on specific arrangements continues."

MU: "The University is closed for face-to-face teaching and will not reopen before 29 March, and probably not for some time after that. Teaching and assessment will continue remotely, and students should look at their university email and the university Moodle pages for details."

NUIG: "When teaching resumes on Monday March 23 it will be delivered online ... Assessments and final exams will also take place at-distance. There are a very few circumstances where a component of an assessment needs students to be present in Galway. These assessments will be delayed or run in a different format to ensure everyone can participate."

TCD - "We are preparing to convert all planned in-person examinations to alternate modes of assessment that can be delivered online. Note that there may be a very small number of cases in professional or externally accredited courses where in-person assessment is still required – if this is the case your School will inform you directly."

TUD - "Arrangements are being put in place for students to complete their academic curriculum and assessments so that they may progress or graduate."

UCC - "No examinations requiring physical attendance on campus will occur during the period from 13th March to 29th March inclusive."

UCD - "We are making arrangements to deliver courses at-distance and provide alternatives to traditional examinations."

UL - "The University is ... looking at continuing online learning and offering alternative means of assessment than the traditional paper based onsite exam hall experience. This also includes assessments and final projects for Masters students."

gauchesnell

wow a lot of work in progress. I suppose my main point is to close the campuses. My university has a case now

Leaving large university campuses open is not a good idea.