Today, 17 May 2021, marks the next stage in the government roadmap for the easing of lockdown. In line with this, we continue with a gradual lifting of restrictions and the opening up of additional facilities on our campuses. A summary of changes to our provision is available below.
A reminder that the current guidance for staff and students is:
Staff who are able to, and who are not required to be on campus, should continue to work from home. For those staff, we are expecting a gradual return over the summer months, decided at local level, and subject to any COVID-secure measures still needed.
Students who are able to come to campus are welcome to use the available facilities including libraries, sports facilities and cafes. In most cases there is no more formal teaching and the assessment period is underway. Alongside SUSU, the University is putting on a Summer Festival in June where students will be invited to attend a range of events and activities.
Catering facilities – indoor seating
University catering outlets will be open, with some having additional indoor seating as of today including the Arlott bar, Avenue café and WSA café. The café in the Hartley library is open 7 days a week (Monday-Friday 8am-6pm; Weekends 9am-4pm; no indoor seating) and all other university outlets are open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm, except for the NOCs café which remains closed.
As of today, SUSU will offer indoor seating in The Bridge (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm) and The Stags (7 days a week, 4pm-11pm) and Below Deck will be open indoors and outdoors (7 days a week, 5pm-11pm).
Pret A Manger and Costa at the Gower Building (60) on Burgess Road will be open with both indoor and outdoor seating available.
All of these catering facilities will require strict COVID measures including use of test and trace, face coverings (unless seated to eat or drink) and limits on group size in line with current government guidance.
Common Learning Spaces and Meeting Rooms
Common Learning Spaces (CLS) are open for use as of today, subject to confirmed bookings at least 24 hours in advance, for:
- Supporting students and their learning – e.g. meeting with PhD supervisors or Personal Academic Tutors and revision or study groups. Booking requests could come from a staff member or a student and bookings would take place within the teaching day.
- Student clubs and societies – booking requests made by students representing their club or society, typically for out of hours bookings.
To begin with, staff and students should request a CLS room booking by emailing: [email protected]. In due course, the online room bookings system will be available again.
Colleagues and students who book these rooms will also need to follow all other health and safety requirements, including the risk assessments required by the University/their local management/SUSU.
Approximately 200 meeting rooms will also open in the coming days. More information will be shared once these are ready for booking and use. There will be a maximum room capacity for each meeting room – this information will be available in advance of booking and clearly indicated by signage on the door to the room. As above, the necessary risk assessment and approvals will need to be in place for all colleagues using a meeting room.
Planning events
The health and safety guidance for organising events has been updated.
Read the latest event guidance on our Health and Safety during COVID-19 site.
Travel
The travel policy is currently being updated. Once approved, we will update the policy on the Health and Safety during COVID-19 site and communicate this via SUSSED News.
Parking permits
Permit holders can continue to display their 2020 parking permit when parking on site until the end of July 2021.
Stay Safe
Our Stay Safe Code of Conduct remains in place and we remind colleagues that the following measures make a real difference to ensuring we are looking after each other and our community:
- Regular hand washing
- Maintaining a social distance (currently 1m+)
- Wearing face coverings
- Regular testing if you are spending time on campus
