USask continues caution with operations during COVID-19
Today, the province announced its Re-Open Saskatchewan plan. The plan outlines how the province will slowly and cautiously transition Saskatchewan’s activities back to a pre-pandemic state.
We are encouraged by this important step. It shows how we as a province, including our university, have come together to help flatten the curve in Saskatchewan. But we must continue to protect the health and wellness of our communities through the commitment of each individual to aligning with health guidelines.
University leadership is carefully reviewing the plan and we continue to have important conversations with our partners in government to ensure we have a full understanding of what it means for the post-secondary sector, our students, faculty and staff, and how the plan affects our preparation for the fall term.
In the meantime, the current campus operational status will continue until further notice. This means we will continue to enforce and adhere to the significant changes we have made to the operations of the University of Saskatchewan, including spring and summer sessions offered online only, campus access limited only to those employees critical to core activities, and restricted travel outside of our province, among others.
We must continue to comply with government health directives with vigilance and demonstrate caution in our actions and plans. In a short amount of time, the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed university operations, and these changes will be in place for the foreseeable future in order to protect the health and safety of the campus and broader community.
A comprehensive process to determine how certain aspects of campus operations may re-open will be implemented to determine how the university proceeds in the coming weeks and months. This work will follow a very well-defined process and pre-determined decision-making principles, with the safety of our students and employees remaining as the top priority. An important part of this planning revolves around fall term, and a task force has been formed to determine what fall classes could potentially look like. As those plans take shape, more information will be shared in the coming weeks.
Responding to the pandemic will continue to be a long-term process for our university, and will continue to require our patience and caution.
The latest USask COVID-19 updates can be found at https://updates.usask.ca
For more information about the province's Re-Open Saskatchewan plan, please visit www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19