Letter to senior management about unnecessary face to face teaching and student services during covid-19 pandemic
Email sent 2.15pm Friday 18 September 2020 on behalf of UCU University of Leeds Branch to the University of Leeds deputy vice-chancellor for student education, copied to the university secretary and to the director of Human Resources. Dear [deputy vice-chancellor] We are writing to you in relation to the increasing pressure which is being experienced by staff to provide face to face teaching on campus over this academic year. Over the summer, staff involved in teaching and student support have worked incredibly hard to produce teaching materials, and design teaching and student support and community building processes that operate online in order to provide student education in safe circumstances. A number of Schools and Faculties had had plans approved to provide student education wholly online in Semester 1, because of their judgment that teaching and student support can not only be effectively provided online but, in many cases, can be better provided online given social distancing rules that will impact how we work face to face. We now understand that those Schools are being required to provide face to face activity where none was previously planned, requiring changes in planning, staff to teach face to face and in many cases … continue reading