Message from the President – Coronavirus Update
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. All students currently registered with CAL can email their Disabilities Counsellor, Learning Strategist, or Assistive Technologist for questions or to set up a virtual appointment. For all current AC students not registered with CAL, but who are seeking accommodation, please email the Centre for Accessible Learning at calmessages@algonquincollege.com.
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.
Sincerely,
Claude Brulé
President and CEO
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