The following message is being sent on behalf of Dr. Mark Abrahams, provost and vice-president (academic), pro tempore; Dr. Neil Bose, vice-president (research); and Kent Decker, vice-president (administration and finance)

As the province moves to alert level 2, Memorial has completed the process to provide faculty access to their individual offices on the St. John’s campus, the libraries are moving to expand services in all six of their branches and the Botanical Garden has opened for the season with health and safety measures in place.

Work at Grenfell Campus, Signal Hill Campus and Marine Institute continues to support operations at those facilities. As individuals and groups return to campus, the density sub-group of the administrative planning team continues to monitor building occupancy levels.

Memorial is taking a risk based approach to assessing resumption of activity on-campus.

Further unit level planning and health and safety

Units should continue to consider what operations need to return to campus as we move through the coming months and plan accordingly.

Please use this flowchart to guide your unit level planning. It outlines the process and links to required forms. The flowchart also outlines the approval process to return academic, research and administrative functions to campus.

Building occupants at Marine Institute, Grenfell Campus and Signal Hill Campus will continue to receive location specific information directly from leaders.

Employees across Memorial’s campuses continue commendable efforts toward a phased, safe return to campus for individuals who require access to support the university’s mandate.

We are aware of the priority for graduate students, research staff and postdocs to return to campus and encourage units to consider how your unit may enable their return.

The issue of shared office and work space requires a greater level of planning to ensure public health recommendations are in place.

Units must consider, as part of planning, how scheduling, sanitizing and physical distancing will be maintained between all individuals in the area.

For more information, please see today’s update from research.

We continue to encourage working from home where possible, in line with public health messages for all alert levels, and doing our part to keep density manageable in our buildings.

The ongoing direction for staff employees to work from home remains in place for now, unless currently approved for on-campus work or through a unit approved plan.

Some unit plans may consider a hybrid model with employees returning to campus on a flexible, part-time basis to balance risk, health and productivity.

Going forward

We celebrate each positive milestone as a province as we move through this pandemic, and we thank you for your patience, understanding and adherence to the public health guidelines.

Memorial’s Guiding Principles continue to inform our decisions. It is also recommended for all who may return to campus in the future to review this health and safety moment and complete COVID-19 Awareness training, which is offered weekdays, until June 30 via Webex from 1-1:30 p.m.

Email Environment Health and Safety to register.

After this date, the course will move online within Brightspace and more information will be shared about that when available.

For the latest COVID-19 updates from Memorial, see here.