UC important announcement

Based on current information and assessment, the University of Canterbury has announced a timetable for bringing staff back on to campus for the clean-up following Saturday’s earthquake.

In a phased and tightly controlled programme, staff will be invited back to UC for a working bee beginning 12 noon Wednesday 8 September. The clean-up will be rolled out in stages on Wednesday and Thursday for specified colleges and departments and will be restricted to staff only.

The priority is to make offices and teaching spaces ready for a possible opening of the UC campus on Monday 13 September. A decision on this will be made by 5pm on Wednesday 8 September. Clean up of research spaces is a lower priority and likely to take longer.

Staff will be required to attend a briefing on the clean-up before they will be allowed into their buildings. They will also be issued with Health and Safety guidelines, giving instructions on what they can and cannot do.

The working bee is voluntary and staff are asked to come prepared for some heavy duty work. The buildings have been declared safe by structural engineers but staff should be aware that they may be dealing with broken glass and other building debris so must take extreme care. Signs will indicate which lifts are working and identify any restricted areas.

Only staff will be allowed into their buildings and must not be accompanied by friends or family.

A curfew will be in place from 6pm to 6am until further notice. Staff must follow instructions from Security Staff at all times.

The proposed timetable for the clean-up is as follows:

Wednesday 8 September at 12noon: Engineering including Forestry, Old Maths (excluding Erskine); Von Haast, Zoology, Biology and Communication Disorders (Briefing C1).

Wednesday 8 September 1.30pm: Library Leadership Team (Briefing C1).

Thursday 9 September at 9am: Geography; Gateway Antarctica; Psychology and Sociology; College of Business and Economics; School of Law; English; History, Modern Languages; Erskine; Rutherford (Briefing C1).

Thursday 9 September at 12noon: Fine Arts and Music (including houses); Social Work; Aotahi: Maori and Indigenous Studies; Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies; Registry (Briefing C1).

Thursday 9 September at 1.30pm: College of Education, Dovedale campus (Briefing Jack Mann Auditorium).

Friday 10 September is a staff-only day for all staff and approved student work groups supporting staff. There will be a briefing in C1 at 9am for those staff in all other buildings and for any others who have not attended the briefings on 7 and 8 September.

Please be aware that this timetable may change if there are further impacts from ongoing aftershocks or new information affecting health and safety becomes available.

Depending on how the clean-up goes on Wednesday and Thursday, postgraduate students who will be invited to a briefing on Friday at the NZi3 building on Creyke Road, may be allowed to return to their facilities on Friday with the permission of the relevant academic staff.

Dr Rod Carr
Vice-Chancellor