Students study at SFU’s Surrey campus in early 2021. The university has launched a four-stage recovery plan to help safely guide the university’s return to campus this fall.

COVID-19

SFU launches four-stage recovery plan to guide return to campus

April 27, 2021
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
SMS
Email
Copy

SFU is launching a four-stage Campus Recovery Plan to help safely guide the university’s return to campus this fall.

The new plan replaces the university’s previous COVID-19 impact scale.

"We're releasing this plan now to give the community time to make plans for fall,” says Catherine Dauvergne, SFU’s vice-president academic and provost. “We're working on a plan that keeps us aligned with other universities in the province and which follows guidance from public health.”

In March, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry instructed all B.C. post-secondary institutions to prepare for a return to on-campus instruction by the fall. As part of that planning, SFU decided to retire the COVID-19 impact scale and launch a new plan that’s focused on recovery and on the return to campus.

The plan’s stages, outlined in the graphic below, increase inversely to the severity of COVID-19 in the community and consider a number of factors, including rate of community transmission, vaccination uptake and public health orders. The four-stage plan also outlines broad guidelines, such as campus density, services available, and on-campus learning and research activities. It provides flexibility for input and decision-making by faculties and units who best understand their work and needs.

Stage 1, for example, reflects high or growing levels of community transmission. Only critical support services are allowed on campus, all teaching is remote only and research is by exemption only.

Stage 4, on the other hand, reflects low community transmission and access to vaccines. Research and teaching are in-person, provided it’s consistent with public health guidelines.

Based on the amount of face-to-face instruction and research underway, SFU is currently in Stage 2. The university is monitoring the situation and hopeful to reach Stage 4 by this fall.

"A full return to campus means a return to delivering the best educational experience that we can deliver, which is most often in person," says Dauvergne.

No public events will be permitted on our campuses until our community of students, staff and faculty have fully returned to campus.