The world is currently in a strange place with the
ongoing global pandemic and we understand that you all have many
questions and thoughts about how we will handle this in the autumn
semester. Even though we have been privileged to have a low number
of infected people in Umeå, we will soon be in another situation
with many new students arriving to Umeå from all over the world. We
have already seen examples of sudden outbreaks and we
must all take our collective and individual responsibility to
reduce the spread of infection. At the same time, many of you
have very different experiences with social distancing, lockdowns,
wearing masks or not, and family and friends getting infected,
which influences how you relate to the situation.
We are happy that UID will be able to open up for education for as
long as we follow the University policies and Public
Health Agency's recommendations regarding social distancing and
measures to reduce the spread of infection. In order to be able to
follow those recommendations regarding social distancing, we will
start off asking students to only be within the building and
studios when scheduled. Activities that must be performed at school
will be prioritized when scheduling students. The Public health
agency have expressed a desire for staff to work remotely when
possible and that also applies to students.
UID will adapt all teaching that is conducted inside the school
premises by physically facilitating social distance and hygiene
routines with information, signs and access to hand
sanitizer.
If you have any problems participating in the education
activities, please contact your course responsible.
Access to school and Studios
We understand the need and desires to meet up with your
classmates and teachers in person, but we will start out carefully
and ask students to only be within the building and studios when
scheduled. Only one group of students will be scheduled
at a given time in a studio or classroom with a limited number of
groups within the building. The number of groups is connected to
the use and cleaning of common areas such as toilets and hallways.
We hope this will ease the effort in maintaining social distancing.
After some time, we will evaluate the situation.
Lunch
In order not to gather in larger groups, we will aim at
scheduling half days and advise you all to eat at home before or
after your activities at school. When working full days, microwave
ovens will be available, but the student kitchen will be closed for
preparation of food. The reason is to limit the use and time spent
at common areas between different student groups.
Your responsibility
It is important that you take responsibility for reducing
the spread of infection and stay up to date with information
provided by Umeå university regarding covid-19.
https://www.umu.se/en/student/changes-due-to-covid-19/
https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/the-public-health-agency-of-sweden/communicable-disease-control/covid-19/
Stay home if you feel unwell
If you feel unwell with cold symptoms, cough or fever, you
should try to avoid contact with other people. Do not go to
school. This applies even if you only feel slightly unwell. It is
important that you do not risk infecting others.
We must be patient in this new unfamiliar situation and it is
extra important that we all show extra understanding for each
other's perspectives and comfort levels, and take care of each
other and ourselves! We must work together so that we can all get
the absolute best out of the Umeå Institute of Design, our
fantastic students and teachers. Together we trust we can
create the absolute best "UID spirit" ever this year!
We understand that the outbreak of COVID-19 can raise a fair few
questions, especially for first-time international students. The
page -
What Happens to New Students? - hopes to answer
some of those questions.
If you still have questions or concerns of any nature
dring the summer, please contact - Infocenter at Umeå
University.
