Today, Thursday, 7 January 2021, the VC wrote to all staff about some important updates. You can read the full email below:
Dear colleagues,
I hope you that you managed to have a restful break and one that brought some joy. Like many others, my planned Christmas with our daughters couldn’t happen after London went into Tier 4 so instead we had lunch for two and a family game of Taskmaster over Zoom (which was surprisingly fun).
It goes without saying that this year has not got off to the start that any of us had hoped for and I’m acutely aware that the additional restrictions we face are creating real difficulties for many staff.
Unfortunately, there is no doubt that the restrictions are needed. The new variant of Covid 19 is highly infectious and the number of people with coronavirus in Brighton and Hove – and all of the surrounding areas – are both very high and rising rapidly. The local health infrastructure is under acute pressure.
In this context, we are absolutely committed to ensuring that we do everything we can to protect your health and safety and that of our students and, regrettably, this means that, unless you cannot work from home, you must do so until it is safe to return.
There is no getting away from the fact that it continues to be an extraordinary time and we will need to continue to pull together, both within the University and in our wider communities. One of our significant contributions has been to provide whatever assistance we can to those authorities who are handling this crisis, from providing accommodation and donating PPE to offering expertise and facilities. You may remember that we agreed to loan a small section of our campus to Brighton & Hove City Council for the construction of a temporary deceased-storage facility. Unfortunately, we have now been told that, given the trajectory of the pandemic, the facility will now need to be used. I am aware that this makes distressing reading and I’m sure we would all prefer not to need a facility such as this at all, let alone on our campus. However, we firmly believe it is our civic duty to provide this assistance and help to ensure dignity for the deceased. We are making sure that our students on campus are aware of this. Whilst the facility is located near to the testing centre, our excellent Estates team have worked hard to make sure that the two are discreet from one another – and I really appreciate their fast work in making that happen and the support that has been provided by the Medical School.
This is a sombre reminder of why it is important that we all continue to play our part and follow all the rules that are in place for everybody’s safety; it’s more important now than ever. It’s easy to forget even the most basic of rules sometimes and we do all need to be extra vigilant. Before the break, I took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of the East Slope development. Whilst the very brief event was carefully planned to ensure Covid-19 guidelines were followed, in a momentary lapse of judgement we came together for a group photograph, which meant that some people were too close. I know there is collective disappointment from all involved. Whilst people do make mistakes, we need to accept the importance of leading by example.
One of the more positive aspects of the past year is that we have become a more agile institution, and since the Government’s announcement on Monday night of another lockdown, we have acted quickly to make a number of important commitments to our students.
First, we have let all students know that we will once again be bringing in a no detriment policy, in recognition of the extraordinary challenges within which students are completing their academic work. This policy cannot be the same as last year’s, which used grades from the first semester as a baseline, but we are working at speed on designing a new system which is fair and provides a safety net for our students.
The first year at university, and living on our campus, is supposed to be one of the best and it is hugely regretful that so many of our students can’t enjoy the same experience that their predecessors were able to. We, of course, want to do everything we can to support our community during this difficult time. This is why we will be writing to students who live in university accommodation shortly to let them know that students who cannot live in their accommodation will not be charged rent during the period of lockdown.
We believe that approach is the only morally defensible one but – depending on the length of the lockdown – it will be a very expensive one. Although as recently as two weeks ago we expected to make a small surplus this year, it is hard to see how we will not go into deficit. It is precisely to enable to us absorb unforeseen costs such as these that it is vital that we return to a budgetary surplus next year. As I outlined before the break, we are now in a period of intense planning on a number of fronts to decide our future size and shape, so please do engage with these projects as they develop in the coming weeks and months.
In a more uplifting start to this year, we have completed the expansion of the University’s Executive Group with the appointments of Robin Banerjee, Head of the School of Psychology, and Elizabeth (Buzz) Harrison, Head of the School of Global Studies. They join Steven McGuire and Kate O’Riordan as the senior academic voices on UEG, representing all four academic ‘clusters’ at the University. Many congratulations to Buzz and Robin, who I know will do a fantastic job. I also want to congratulate Kathleen Stock in Media, Arts and Humanities and Mick Moore in IDS for receiving OBEs in the New Year Honours.
We cannot forget the other major development since I last wrote: Brexit. We now have a good idea of the state of play and likely impacts across a number of the University’s activities, while we await further developments or more information in others. Booking is now open for a staff webinar on 25 January to discuss what we know about the University’s place in the post-Brexit landscape. I hope many of you can attend but we will ensure it is recorded and shared afterwards.
Finally, I am aware that the next couple of months are going to be tough for everyone but balancing home and work life may be particularly difficult for those of you who live alone, who have young children who need to be looked after or who have other caring responsibilities, or who have a disability, or who need to shield, or where things are just too much. Please talk to your manager who will only be too pleased to help. I recognise that some things will have to give until we can return to some normality and your manager can advise on what needs to be prioritised and on those things that can wait. As I’ve mentioned before, the Employee Assistance Programme page provides pointers to support and if you need to talk to someone about anything (work related or not), you can do so.
I do of course want to finish my message today by wishing you all the best for the year ahead. I know that many of you will be finding the start to the year quite exhausting for a whole variety of reasons. I do know how tough this is – and I do thank you so much for all your support for the University and I wish you all my very best.
Adam