With the success of the vaccine roll-out in Ontario, the Province has signaled that the public health measures currently in place may be lifted late-August, as long as thresholds for vaccination rates are met and other key public health indicators remain stable. This means OCAD University can begin to envision a return to more on-campus activity for Fall 2021.
This message outlines the approach we are taking to the return of administrative staff and managers to campus, including details on health and safety, the accommodations process and plans for a process to request remote work arrangements going forward. We will take a careful and stepped approach to the return-to-campus as outlined below. This is both to provide time to make the necessary arrangements, and to contain the number of people on campus while we continue to adjust health and safety measures and monitor results.
Protecting health and safety: A shared responsibility
As we enter a phase where some public health measures are no longer mandated, it is critical that we understand that the continued health and safety of our community is a shared responsibility. As you know from our Gradual Opening Info Fair and our new Return-to-Campus website, OCAD University has prepared for a safe return to campus by:
- Investing in air quality and ventilation improvements
- Enhancing cleaning protocols
- Installing hand sanitizing stations throughout the campus
- Implementing signage and wayfinding
Our success in keeping the community safe will depend greatly on individual responsibility as well. To this end:
- We strongly encourage staff to get vaccinated. Reaching a 90% or greater vaccination rate within our community is what will keep us all safer, our loved ones at home safer, and enable us all to be together faster and stay together longer.
- All staff will need to complete a daily COVID-19 self-assessment and stay home if you have any symptoms or are not feeling well.
- Handwashing and hygiene protocols remain critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19, even among vaccinated individuals.
- All staff should complete the COVID-19 safety training modules in advance of returning to campus.
We anticipate that masks will still be required for some time, as well as additional wellness measures, we develop in consultation with Toronto Public Health. These protocols will be clarified for the whole community before the Fall.
The return-to-campus process
Those of you performing critical functions and services that involve face-to-face interaction will return first, by Tuesday, September 8, the first day of classes. This will include those of you who have already been identified as performing critical functions and accessing campus over the closure period. Your manager/unit head will be asked to identify those staff who are returning first. There may be some individuals who are not identified as needing to return by Sept. 8 but may wish to do so. Such requests should be discussed with your manager and submitted through the existing Access Request process to be considered within context of health and safety protocols.
We have learned that many functions can be performed remotely and that many staff have experienced greater work-life balance, increased productivity, and other benefits of the remote work experience. Subject to any approved accommodations or remote work requests, remaining staff should plan to return to campus by Tuesday, October 12.
Wellness Wednesdays have been an important element in providing staff greater work-life balance and time to do focused work. There have also been some challenges with this approach. We are assessing this practice and anticipate Wellness Wednesdays will continue in some form for the remainder of this fiscal year. Ultimately, the goal is the return of a workplace culture that connects us all to the mission of the university, the city we help build, and to one another. We can do so while protecting health and safety, accommodating individual needs, and incorporating flexibility where it makes sense.
Accommodations
The University makes every effort to provide a work environment where employees can engage and participate fully and perform their job to their highest level. We recognize that employees may have particular circumstances and/or needs (e.g. medical/disability, family status obligations) that could require an accommodation under OCAD U’s accommodation policy. Please contact Shazia Hussain, Employee Wellness & Equity Advisor, to discuss how the accommodation process may support your needs.
Remote work requests
We are committed to considering what we have learned and how this experience can strengthen our organizational culture longer term. This exercise will take some time and requires broad stakeholder engagement.
Meanwhile, this fiscal year (until May 31, 2022) will serve as a transitional period, and we will therefore introduce a process for requesting remote work arrangements for this period. Consultations with stakeholders are underway, and we will release this process soon to ensure that plans can be approved in time for implementation on October 12. The process will provide clear guidelines to ensure that decisions are based on institutional principles and align with the mission and activities of the university and will outline the basis for evaluation and longer-term workplace and remote work practices.
Next Steps
We have been told more specific guidance for the post-secondary sector from the Province and Toronto Public Health will be coming in the weeks ahead. We will communicate further details about health and safety protocols as the start of Fall term draws nearer.
Unit heads should be developing unit level plans for the return-to-campus in consultation your executive team lead. Additional guidelines will be provided with respect to assessing remote work requests.
Most questions and concerns can be discussed with your supervisor. If you have additional questions on the return-to-campus process generally, please send them to our Executive Assistant, Leslie Aston Hurst.
Deanne & Alan
Deanne Fisher
Vice-Provost, Students & International
Chair, Fall Experience Working Group
Alan Simms
Vice-President, Finance & Administration
Chair, Gradual Opening Working Group