On the 12th of August, I discussed with Study Support and library Team this article titled “A Safe Return to Campus in Times of COVID-19: A Survey Study among University Personnel to Inform Decision Makers”. I was interested to link this article topic which focuses on staff return to campus as it links us with our thoughts, and experience of return to campus with our students in the current term of 202260. It is our first term to have students on campus after more than two years of online learning. The centres took the hybrid approach to deliver services. Staff shared positive sides as well as negative sides of return to campus. Social interaction, seeing colleagues and students, work on a physical spaces, safety preparations on campus were some of the positive things we have discussed. On the other side we looked at challenges that staff facing when working on campus such as travelling, waste time and money and other health issues such as winter waves of COVID.
Back to the article details: the data were collected between 11 June and 28 June 2021. This study showed that, while most personnel (94.7%) were already vaccinated or willing to do so, not all personnel did feel safe to return to campus in September 2021. Over half of the respondents (58%) thought that the university is a safe place to return to work when the new academic year starts. However, the remainder of personnel felt unsafe or were uncertain for various reasons such as meeting in large groups or becoming infected. Moreover, when returning to campus, employees stated that they would require some time to reacclimate to their former work culture. The group who felt relatively more unsafe indicated that returning in September was too risky and that they worried about being infected. They wanted the safety guidelines to still be in force. On the other hand, the “safe” group stated safely returning to be “certainly possible” and trusted that others would still stick to the prevention guidelines. The findings led to practical recommendations for the University Board as they were preparing for organizing research and teaching for the upcoming academic year in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A brief intervention was developed: a webinar in which the data were linked to the board’s plans for safe returning. This study demonstrates that university boards may use research among personnel to develop adequate measures promoting safety and feelings of safety among personnel in similar future situations.
More information about the discussion about return to campus can be found in the recording here: