Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
Dear Colleagues and Learners,
Our College community is continuing to adapt around the clock and I want to thank all of you for your patience and understanding as we determine how to best handle our daily responsibilities. I know this is not easy — in many cases, we are grappling with questions we have never faced before.
This morning, the Government of Ontario declared a state of emergency effective immediately, announcing a series of new interim measures. The main focus of these measures is aimed at minimizing gathering of people to help slow down the spread of the virus. The Premier is clear that business (manufacturing, construction sites, grocery stores, pharmacies, takeout food outlets, transportation, etc) is to remain open in order to keep the supply chain going. For Premier Ford’s complete announcement, click here.
This new Order from the Government of Ontario does not change our current college posture as instructed in the messages I have issued to our college community, including this message you are reading now.
Here are some updates about how different areas of the College are changing and adapting. These changes apply to all of our campuses except where noted:
Residence: In order to minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus (COVID-19), we are requesting students who are able to move out of Residence to do so by the end of the day on Sunday, March 22. Our Ottawa Campus Residence will remain open as we know a number of students will not be able to return home due to travel restrictions, personal circumstances, or various obligations. The Ottawa Campus will be refunding residence fees on a pro-rated basis for students who voluntarily choose to move out of residences by Sunday, March 22. Remaining meal-plan balances will be refunded. Students who have already moved out will also benefit from this refund.
Health Services (Ottawa Campus): Health Services remains open. Health Services employees are triaging all patients and treating or referring them as necessary. Note that, as of Monday, March 16, all visits to Health Services MUST be pre-booked by telephone at 613-727-4723 ext.7222. Walk-ins will no longer be accepted at this time. Visitors will be asked to wait outside of Health Services as clinic staff will only be allowing people with booked appointments to enter the clinic.
Information Technology Services (ITS): ITS is fully operational with some employees in this area remaining on site and some now working remotely. ITS will also be contacting employees with information about phone-forwarding (so that you can forward your work phone to your cell phone if you are working remotely) very soon. Finally, information about how employees can access our VPN (Virtual Private Network) has been added to the employee FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
Food Services: At the Ottawa Campus, the 35th Street Market Café will remain open with normal business hours. The Marketplace Food Court is also open, but with some reduced services. Food Services at the Pembroke and Perth campuses are closed at this time.
Registrar’s Office (RO) Ottawa Campus: The RO Call Centre remains open with a combination of services provided by on-site and remote employees.
Payroll: Payroll remains open with employees working both on-site and remotely.
Human Resources (HR): HR services remain open with employees working remotely.
Facilities Management: Facilities Management will continue to operate on site with reduced staffing.
Campus Security Services: Our security services will be fully operational.
Counselling Services: There are no in-person appointments with Counselling Services at this time. However, a Counsellor will be available to talk by phone or video during the day, and the way to access this is to send an email to: welcomecentre@algonquincollege.com. This is not an immediate response service, so it is not for urgent or distress situations. For 24/7 support from a counsellor trained to help Ontario college students, you can call 1-866-925-5454 to connect with Good2Talk (you can also visit them online at good2talk.ca). You can also access a trained crisis counsellor 24/7 through the Ottawa Crisis Line. Call 613-722-6914 or 1-866-966-0991 for support.
Learning and Teaching Services (LTS) (Ottawa Campus): A small team is on site right now but is working on forward-planning for online delivery of coursework. The LTS team is not currently available for student consultation.
Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) (Ottawa Campus): All CAL Testing Services activities have been suspended effective March 16, 2020. CAL Testing Services is closed for the time being, but staff will be responding to emails.
Shipping and Receiving (Ottawa Campus): A small team remains on site to handle deliveries or courier services. If you are on site and expecting a delivery that is urgent, please go to A182 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. All internal deliveries may be delayed and internal mail delivery has stopped until further notice. Canada Post continues to collect outgoing mail. External mail can be dropped off at A182 to be processed for delivery.
Co-op, work and practicum placements: Effective immediately, all non-paid practicums, field and clinical placements are suspended. For paid co-op work-term placements, work will continue at host employers as long as it is safe to do so and employers continue to operate. In some cases, this may involve working remotely from the main work environment, if appropriate. It is important to closely monitor and follow the directions from public health sources and employers. If work placement has been negatively impacted, learners should contact their placement coordinators to discuss next steps. If a student is uncomfortable continuing their co-op placement, they should contact the co-op office to discuss alternative options.
Delivery of courses: The College is taking the week of March 16 to assess the remaining Winter Term curriculum. Online or other alternative delivery are being developed (where possible) for the outstanding learning outcomes. These modified deliveries will commence for the week of March 23. Faculty are developing contingency plans for those outcomes such as applied learning activities in labs that cannot be delivered online. Because the situation is changing rapidly, it is not possible to know when face-to-face activity can resume safely. The College is awaiting further guidance from the Ministry around apprenticeship training. We will continue to update the community as we further refine our plans.
SA Food Cupboard (Ottawa Campus): Remains open and students can continue using this service.
International Students: International students who have questions or concerns regarding their long-term study plans at Algonquin College or require more information on their health plan can contact the International Education Center Support at iecsupport@algonquincollege.com. We will answer your email within 24 hours. You can also visit the International Student FAQ.
Events: (A clarification from previous communiqué) All College events scheduled to take place prior to April 30, 2020 have been cancelled. We will re-evaluate the suspension of events at the end of April.
This is a lot of information to absorb, and it is being reviewed and updated all the time. I recognize that this can cause stress for many of you and, conscious of this, I do not want anyone to feel overwhelmed by the volume of information. To reduce email, we will use our dedicated information site (www.algonquincollege.com/coronavirus) to continue providing the most-up-to-date details from all areas of the College. I will supplement this with email updates as needed (you can see all of my previous correspondence on the site, too). I encourage you to check this site at least a couple of times each day, and to stay in touch with colleagues and classmates as much as possible. (If you have questions, you can also submit them through this site — your queries will be reviewed and forwarded to the right sources so that we can get back to you with answers.)
Finally, I know that situations like this can cause all of us to feel anxious about our work, our studies, our friends and loved ones. It is so important to take care of each other, and our mental health right now. For our learners, you will find many supports here. Full-time and part-time employees will find information about our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) here. I also want to assure our employees that I am guided by principles of working diligently to limit the spread of the virus, protecting and caring for our learners, employees and the community, and preparing for returning to normal operations stronger than before, and that means that we need all our employees with us to accomplish that goal. For our learners, I know that many of you are concerned about your studies and being able to graduate as planned. You have my word that our teams are working very hard to find ways to help you meet all of your goals.
I know there are still many outstanding questions and we are moving as quickly as possible to address all of them. As we make decisions and formulate answers, we will post them to our information site and share them on our social media platforms. I call on all of you to help us get the word out to each other — call, email or text each other to share information, offer ideas or simply give words of encouragement. We are a team, now more than ever.
Check out the College’s website with all the messages from the President and other COVID-19 information.
Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
With all the rapid change we are currently facing, one thing that will not change is Sun Life’s commitment to your health and well-being.
Sun Life serves clients across Canada, in many different ways. They want to ensure that regardless of how you do business with Sun Life, you know how to connect with them. Here are the resources Sun Life has available to you.
Posted on Monday, March 16th, 2020
The Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ottawa announced earlier this afternoon that the number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases has doubled in one day and is now asking all people in Ottawa to increase their practices of social distancing, meaning:
• Limiting non-essential trips out of the home;
• Working to maintain a distance of 1-2 meters from other people as much as possible;
• Keeping children at home and not at daycares if possible;
• Implementing where possible options for workers to work from home or at a distance from one another at work.
The health and safety of our learners, employees and entire College community remains our priority. Consequently, I am asking everyone to adopt the following additional interim measures to help reduce the rapid spread of illness.
Employees who have made arrangements with their managers to work from home should implement these measures, effective immediately. Employees who may be able to work from home but have not yet made these arrangements should stay at home and contact their managers tomorrow (Monday, March 16) to confirm these arrangements. Further determinations regarding work-from-home capabilities and critical employees to sustain College operations, in the current context, will be made tomorrow, and communicated to all thereafter.
In addition to previous interim measures communicated to our College community, all employee and student international travel is suspended, effective immediately. Persons currently abroad are required to respect the 14-day quarantine requirements identified by Public Health Agencies upon their return. This remains in effect until further notice.
As well, all events at the College that are extra-curricular and all events that include hosting members of the public are cancelled until April 5, 2020. The situation will be re-assessed at that point.
I would like to remind everyone that the only official source for College updates and information relating to COVID-19 is our dedicated webpage, which will be updated as information becomes available: www.algonquincollege.com/coronavirus. Learners and employees should monitor this webpage and check their College email and Brightspace accounts regularly.
I know these are unprecedented challenging times for us, and I thank everyone for your continued patience and understanding as we respond to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation. I appreciate that this is a difficult time for our learners, employees and the College community. Thank you for your continued attention to these important matters.
Posted on Friday, March 13th, 2020
Dear Colleagues and Learners,
As you know, information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its impact around the world is changing at a rapid rate. We are assessing plans on an ongoing basis to make sure that we are prepared and protected, and we are guided at all times by advice from our public health agencies at municipal, provincial and federal levels. We are communicating changes to our college community as quickly as possible, and taking many factors into consideration.
Even though the public health risk associated with this virus is still considered low as stated by the Federal Public Health Agency of Canada, there is heightened anxiety and an increasing number of people who are self-isolating as a precautionary measure. I want to acknowledge that this is creating many challenges for everyone and emphasize that the mental and physical health of our college community is our priority. For this reason, we are adopting new measures, effective immediately.
All face-to-face classes and labs at all campuses and locations have been suspended as of Monday, March 16, 2020 until 10:00 pm on Sunday, March, 22 inclusive in order to provide faculty time to prepare online delivery and term completion plans. Online classes will continue as scheduled. Exams and assignments scheduled during this period of suspended activity are now postponed and new dates will be posted as soon as they are known. Students should monitor their Algonquin College email and Brightspace accounts for updates.
For co-op work-terms, practicums, field and clinical placements, work will continue at host employers as long as it is safe to do so and employers continue to operate. In some cases, this may involve working remotely from the main work environment, if appropriate. Students should continue to complete all of their placement assignments and deliverables. It is important to closely monitor and follow the directions from public health sources and employers. If work placement has been negatively impacted, learners should contact their placement coordinators to discuss next steps.
During this one-week suspension, the College (including services, such as health services and food services locations, the library, and common areas) will remain open. However, learning enterprises including Restaurant International, the Dental Clinic and the Massage Clinic, and Savoir Faire will be closed.
Work will continue for all College employees. If you require accommodation to continue working — for health reasons or due to the closing of your child’s elementary or high school — please speak with your supervisor to make appropriate arrangements. Read the Employee FAQ here.
For those who have not already signed up for VPN access, instructions will be posted to the FAQ site shortly.
During the one-week suspension, students may remain at home or residence. We would encourage learners to keep up with their course material, either by studying, reading or using online resources to stay in touch with classmates.
Classes will resume on Monday, March 23, 2020 but many will be delivered using alternative instruction methods, primarily online, for the remainder of the term. Learners should monitor their Brightspace accounts for details of their specific courses. We ask our faculty to use the one-week suspension to plan for the delivery of the remainder of their courses until the end of the term. Each faculty member may have different approaches or may use different tools in order to provide instruction and meet course requirements and learning outcomes. The College will be providing support to faculty who need assistance. We realize this presents unique challenges, particularly in some trades or areas of applied learning, but we must find ways rise to this challenge so that our learners can achieve successful learning outcomes.
We ask all employees and students to postpone events scheduled before April 30, 2020.
I encourage all of you to keep up with our College’s response to COVID-19 by checking our information page at www.algonquincollege.com/coronavirus. You will find all the latest updates as well as a place where you can submit your own questions and concerns.
I understand that these changes to our daily routines can cause some upheaval. We are dealing with unprecedented circumstances and trying to find the best solutions for everyone who works, studies and lives at Algonquin College. I thank all of you for your support and your feedback, and for your efforts in the days ahead as we adapt to this ever-changing situation.
The next few weeks will be challenging. We will continue to keep you informed about any new developments as they arise. I would ask all of you to continue to show understanding, patience and, above all, caring.
Posted on Friday, March 13th, 2020
Check out this how-to guide for information on connecting to VPN!
Posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2020
As many of you know, Ottawa Public Health has confirmed the first case of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ottawa. With the virus now confirmed in our region, we understand concerns will be heightened within our college community.
Nationally, the Public Health Agency of Canada continues to assess the overall risk to the public as low, and this risk is being assessed continually as new information becomes available.
Just because the risk is low does not mean that we shouldn’t plan for the possibility of changing scenarios related to this situation, and many activities have been going on behind the scenes at the College to ensure we are prepared. We will continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments as required.
The frequency of our communications will increase, as needed, as local updates – and their potential implications – become available.
As for the potential impact on Algonquin College, here is what you need to know:
- Classes: As of now, all classes and activities are proceeding as scheduled. Any decision to suspend face-to-face teaching would be made based on guidance from municipal, provincial and federal public-health agencies, along with information from key stakeholders, such as Colleges Ontario. If the College were ever to suspend face-to-face teaching, it would explore all opportunities to allow our learners to continue their studies.
- Events: To date, we have not cancelled any major events at the College due to this situation. There are many events planned in the months ahead. The College will make decisions surrounding future events based on the circumstances at the time and with full consideration of guidance from Ottawa Public Health.
- Resources: The College’s Coronavirus Information website continues to be our most comprehensive resource. It features up-to-date FAQs, links to Public Health Agencies, prevention tips, hygiene best practices, and all related messages from the College.
- Response: The College has increased the cleaning of common surfaces and the number of sanitizing stations around our campuses, particularly in high-traffic areas, such as washrooms, and around touch-points such as elevator buttons and hand rails. A cross-college coordination committee continues to advise on issues and activities related to the coronavirus. Key personnel across multiple departments – from Facilities Management to Academic Services – are hard at work examining the potential impact the virus could have on our campuses and developing contingency plans. The Algonquin College Leadership Team is also meeting regularly to discuss priorities related to this situation.
- International Travel: Based on instruction from the Ontario government, and effective immediately, only business-critical out-of-province, and/or international travel requests that adhere to the Government of Canada’s travel health notices will be permitted for our employees. The College’s policy for international travel coincides with the latest advice from Public Health and Global Affairs Canada and the current policy position of the College is that travel to any Level 3 or Level 4 destinations due to COVID-19 AND any other destinations listed by Guard.Me, as uninsurable, will not be approved. At present, travelers should ensure that trip cancellation coverage is available through airlines or otherwise, if it is not provided under their own travel insurance plans. College International Travel policies are continually being assessed to respond to a rapidly changing international landscape.
- Returning Travelers: As per Ottawa Public Health recommendations, if you are returning from international travel you should self-monitor. While there may be anxiety surrounding the return of travelers to campus, it is important that we ensure that our treatment of returning students and employees coincides with the recommendations of Ottawa Public Health. If you have any concerns about a returning traveler, you should advise your supervisors, who will forward your concerns accordingly and to the appropriate contact.
We are also relying on you, our employees and learners, to help us keep our campuses safe. You can do this by washing your hands frequently with soap and water, using hand sanitizer, avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth, and covering your coughs or sneezes with a tissue.
Health Canada, Public Health Ontario, and Ottawa Public Health continue to monitor this evolving situation. We will be following guidelines issued by these organizations and watching for any developments that could affect our college community. We are also closely monitoring the decisions made by other post-secondary institutions in places where the virus is more prevalent.
I know many of us may be experiencing increased stress and anxiety. Emotional and Mental Health Supports for students and employees can be found on our website. If you have additional questions about the coronavirus, please send them to algcomms@algonquincollege.com or submit them via this submission form.
Finally, and I cannot emphasize this enough, if you are feeling sick at all, please stay home and seek medical attention as required. This is a difficult time for everyone, and increased absences are an unfortunate side effect of this situation. In the spirit of our values — especially Caring — I ask everyone to be patient, understanding, and as flexible as possible as we continue to navigate this uncharted territory. With a solid foundation and great teams guiding our response, I am confident that we will find the right solutions for our College.
As we proceed with day-to-day campus activities, I want to reiterate how important it is to stay informed, take precautions, and continue to respect one another. Again, we will update you via email, social media and our website as new and important information become available.