To our U of T Engineering community
Reaching out to update you with the latest and share what this means for us here in U of T Engineering. Based on the current information from public health officials and our governments, U of T continues to adjust to safeguard the health of our students, staff and faculty. The latest changes outlined by the Provost include:
- All University buildings will be closed as of 11:59 pm, March 17, 2020 to the general public. Members of the University community will need key or fob access to enter them.
- Libraries at the University of Toronto will be closed as of 11:59 pm, March 17, 2020. Robarts will be open to members of the U of T community with limited staff.
- U of T will continue to provide residences for those students who cannot return home at this point.
- Any employee who can work from home should do so.
- Student support operations should move online and many have already made this transition — the Registrar’s and First Year Offices have gone virtual to continue to continue to serve students.
- If you have IT or equipment needs that would enable staff to work remotely, please contact your departmental IT teams who have been working extremely hard on this.
- All lab-based research operations must be shut down no later than 5 pm, Friday March 20, 2020.
- I’m asking researchers to be flexible and creative in how you support your research-stream graduate students and what can be moved online.
- Sharing this COVID-19 Lab Preparedness Checklist you may find useful.
- If you have specific questions about adapting your research or incorporating social distancing in your labs, please start by contacting your respective Associate Chairs – Research, and they will confer with Ramin Farnood as Vice-Dean, Research, as needed.
- We’ve also established a Research Continuity page on the Faculty & Staff Hub and will keep this updated with the latest.
I know many of you are wondering about final assessments and options for exams — I have heard may of your ideas and concerns. We will also be sharing info on plans for assessments later this week — we are working on solutions that best serve our students and allow our professors and instructors to deliver their courses in a meaningful way.
I realise that this is a very complex, challenging and uncertain moment for all of us and I thank everyone for everything that they are doing and will continue to do. We will make this work.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto