Working together to keep our community safe on campus
Everyone’s health and safety on campus and throughout our community are NSCAD’s first and foremost priorities. Now more than ever, we need to work together to create a warm welcome for returning and first-time students, and to ensure that all students respect and always comply with Public Health Authority directives, both on and off campus.
As we have shared in previous communications, all of NSCAD’s teaching and learning will be online for the Fall 2020 semester, which is consistent with the approach for other post-secondary institutions in the Halifax Regional Municipality. We are meeting the challenge of delivering a rich educational experience in a physically distanced but digitally connected world, and we are committed to engaging with our students as closely as we can while working to ensure the health and safety of all members of our community.
In the near future, we expect to determine how best the winter term will be delivered. A decision to allow in-person instruction in our facilities, shared studios or workshops will happen only once it is absolutely safe for everyone’s well-being to do so following the university’s approved addendum to the Code of Conduct and Campus Response Plan.
COVID-19 addendum to NSCAD’s Code of Conduct
NSCAD created a COVID-19 addendum for the university’s Code of Conduct to address the current circumstances of the pandemic. Every individual on campus is personally responsible and accountable to all other members of our community, and this expectation is enforced through the Code’s provisions for addressing breaches including escalating discipline.
The Addendum to the Code includes specific Public Health directives and university operational requirements with which the NSCAD community must comply, including social distancing, hand washing, mask wearing, health self-monitoring, and avoiding gatherings. These requirements are applicable not only on campus but throughout everyone’s daily experience.
By adhering to ‘The Code,’ we can jointly support our mutual well-being.
NSCAD Campus Response Plan
Like all universities in Nova Scotia, NSCAD developed and is implementing detailed plans for each program, office or facility (unit plans) and an overarching plan (the NSCAD Campus Response Plan) to allow the university to operate safely through all phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. These plans were developed under the requirements of the Nova Scotia’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, and apply to everyone in the NSCAD community – the senior leadership team, faculty, staff, volunteers, alumni, board members, and, of course, students.
The unit plans will be regularly updated as our experience with them evolves and the pandemic’s circumstances change. Our aim is to ensure that the plans continue to protect everyone at and around NSCAD in manner that reflects the foremost priority of the health and safety of our community.
To help you understand the Code of Conduct Addendum and the Campus Response Plan, an online questionnaire has been added to BrightSpace for students and to Navigator for faculty and staff. Students will be prompted to complete the quiz when they first log into BrightSpace and before proceeding to their course material. Staff will receive a follow up communication on instructions to complete the questionnaire, which can be found here.
Public Health directives for testing and self-isolation
As we previously announced, students arriving in Nova Scotia on or after August 20, 2020 from outside Atlantic Canada (or who have traveled outside the region within 14 days) to attend university or NSCC must complete the Nova Scotia Safe Check-in. These students will be required to self-isolate for 14 days and three COVID-19 tests will be administered by public health during their self-isolation.
Students who came to Nova Scotia before August 20, 2020 from outside Atlantic Canada and are currently self-isolating on campus will need to get tested at least once.
All students, faculty and staff who self-isolate must complete a daily digital check in with NS Public Health to confirm their self-isolation status, and also the NSCAD self-isolation plan form. All aspects of the Nova Scotia Safe Check-in for students are also requirements within the NSCAD Campus Response Plan.
If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at provost@nscad.ca, or James Rae, Manager of Facilities at jrae@nscad.ca, or Jodi Robichaud, Occupational Health and Safety Coordinator at OHS@nscad.ca.
Working together, I am confident we can conduct a fall semester that is safe for everyone and provides a robust, engaging student experience.
Sincerely,
ANN-BARBARA GRAFF (she/her)
Vice-President (Academic & Research) and Provost
NSCAD University