Trinity’s campus will from tonight be closed to everyone except residents, with identity cards required to enter the College.
In an email sent to staff and students today, Provost Patrick Prendergast wrote that students who are not residents will no longer have access to the campus until March 29th.
Staff will be able to enter and leave campus, while buildings will close to all except staff with up-to-date identity cards, after the government’s announcement today that colleges are to shut until March 29th.
Postgraduate students who require access to campus for critical research projects will be able to enter campus with email permission from their supervisors, Prendergast wrote.
Staff will begin teaching online next Monday. IT Services is to run courses this weekend in order to equip staff with the necessary technical skills.
All College events on campus must be cancelled, and people with underlying illnesses should not come onto campus “in any circumstances”.
While the government’s announcement only lasts until March 29th, Prendergast wrote that “it would be wise to allow for the possibility of a longer closure”.
The Buttery will remain open, but all other catering outlets and the Pav will be closed.
All of the libraries will close, and off-campus access to licensed electronic resources – books, databases and journals – will be available to registered students and staff.
“We are liaising with academic staff to ensure the availability of additional, online texts to meet remote learning requirements”, Prendergast wrote.
The College Health Centre will remain open, and will ‘do telephone consultations in most cases”. The student counselling service will also carry out consultations over the phone “for students in distress”.
“Please use both these services judiciously as demand is strong”, the provost wrote.
In terms of professional activity on campus, Prendergast said that “managers will decide how to deliver business critical work with the remaining available staff”.
“Home working and staggered work patterns” will be implemented in order to minimise face-to-face interactions among staff.
“It may be necessary to recall and/or redeploy staff to support critical work across the college”, he said.
“Critical services such as the call centre, payroll, some parts of academic registry, health, counselling, disability services, IT Services, support services for online teaching and learning, security, cleaning, internal post, and reduced catering will all continue to operate.”
Trinity’s day nursery will close, as will all sports facilities.
