2020-12-21

Today, the Ontario Government announced preventative measures to help keep the case counts in Ontario from surging after the holidays. 

All of Ontario will enter the grey zone, ‘lockdown’ on midnight on December 26, 2020.  

Northern Ontario (Sault Ste. Marie/Timmins) will be in lockdown for at least 14 days, and the rest of Ontario (Brampton) will be on lockdown for 28 days. 

As previously announced, the Brampton Campus was to remain closed until January 11, 2021. With the extension of the lockdown for the rest of Ontario of 28 days, the Brampton campus will remain closed until January 25, 2021.  All employees will resume work on January 4th and continue working from home except for emergencies. 

The Timmins Campus will follow Northern College’s direction on closures and use of space.

The Sault Ste. Marie Campus will be extending the campus closure until January 11, 2021.  Employees will commence working from home protocols January 4th for one week and essential services will remain on campus as required. Please work directly with your management officer and the IT department for any at home support required. 

A permission to be on campus list has been generated to support essential services (i.e. Research, IT and Physical Plant). If you have not been notified that you are on the list, you are expected to work from home during this period. 

Service Impacts for Sault Ste. Marie:

Library – will remain closed until January 11, 2021.

IT – will be available for virtual support during the following hours: 

• December 24 – December 29 2020: CLOSED
• December 30, 2020: OPEN 1 PM to 4 PM 
• December 31, 2020: OPEN 1 PM to 4 PM
• January 2, 2021: OPEN 1 PM to 4 PM
• January 3, 2021: OPEN 1 PM to 4 PM

To connect with an IT Service Desk team member, call 705-949-2301 x 4450 or (888) 902-7866 during the hours listed above or start a chat session. On the IT Support portal page via servicedesk.algomau.ca, search our solutions for self serve options or submit an incident or service request.

Algoma University Bookstore – will be closed December 24th through January 4th. During this time, there will be no access to email or phones. You may continue to place online orders during this time; however, they will not be filled until we return on January 4, 2021.

Curbside pick-up will not be available until January 11th, 2021, due to the lockdown. If you place an order for curbside pick-up, you may resume picking up your orders January 11th, provided that there are no extensions/exceptions. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

GLC – will close from December 25, 2020 to January 11, 2021. A separate communication is going to all GLC members with details.

In addition, Algoma Public Health has recently updated their travel recommendations, that if you travel outside the Algoma region that you should self isolate for 14 days upon arrival back to the region.

To meet our social responsibility to help reduce the spread and with our Algoma University Sault Ste. Marie community in mind, effective December 26, 2020, and until further notice, anyone who travels outside the Algoma region will not be permitted to come to campus until after a mandatory 14-day isolation period.  Students in residence who have travelled outside of the Algoma Public Health region will have an isolation protocol upon their return to residence; a separate communication with directions over this period for residence students will follow. 

As a result of this, an additional question has been added to the health screening tool. 

Employees who have the ability to work from home will be asked to work directly with their management officer to support this accommodation if required. 

This decision will be closely monitored, and notice will be provided to our internal community when new information is made available.

We thank you for your continued adherence to these measures. Our collective efforts will continue to make a difference.

COVID-19 RELATED UPDATES

For ongoing updates, please visit Algoma U’s dedicated COVID-19 page.

STAY SAFE – STAY LOCAL – STAY HOME

Thunderbirds protecting Thunderbirds – Thunderbirds protecting Community

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