AUC Mobilizes Against COVID-19
By: Bassel Hanna – @basselawsamw
Reem Elmaghraby – @reemelmaghrabyy
Ahmad Tarek – @ahmadtarek98
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during the past week AUC has suspended activities and taken measures to minimize campus presence as it finalizes preparations to move course instruction online, a newly formed Coronavirus Response Taskforce told the community.
The taskforce, comprised of President Francis Ricciardone, Provost Ehab Abdel-Rahman, Counselor Ashraf Hatem, Vice President for Student Life Deena Boraie, Vice President for Management and Operations Shereen Shaker, Vice President for Digital Transformation Ayman
Abdellatif and Vice President for University Affairs and Chief of Staff Ranya Boraie, addressed community questions and concerns regarding health and safety measures to combat the virus.
Headed by Vice President for Marketing Communication and Public Affairs Dina Abulfotuh, the task force has been closely following guidelines set by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The care, safety and security of our people is our number one priority. The university is actively monitoring the local and global health situation and is taking all the needed precautionary measures,” said Ricciardone in the taskforce’s first campus live-streaming virtual meeting, March 19.
The taskforce also emphasized the importance of moving to online instruction for two weeks starting Sunday, March 22.
Ricciardone added that AUC’s second priority was to carry on with the spring semester in order to safeguard student investment in the university and their timely graduation.
“I am confident that we will emerge stronger for having confronted the novel coronavirus pandemic, and that we will achieve our twin highest goals: to protect the health, safety, and security of all our people; and to save spring term for our students,” Ricciardone said.
Ricciardone told The Caravan’s RADUC podcast service on March 17, that he compared the situation to a winding road with two ditches on either side.
“We’re on a road and we’re keeping our eyes on where we want to go. There are two dangers on either side of the road; on one side, there’s the danger of panic, on the other side of the road there’s a deep ditch and that’s complacency.”
“I believe we, at AUC, are right in the middle of the road where we should be: we’re looking at where we want to go,” he said.
On March 13, AUC decided to move up the spring break to start on March 15 instead of April 12 and the following two weeks were designated for testing online learning at AUC.
AUC TV sat down with Provost Abdel-Rahman to discuss measures being taken by AUC to combat COVID-19 and the implementation of online courses.
“While the students are taking their [spring] break, everyone in the university is actually working around the clock to make sure when we resume our online classes that we’re ready,” Abdel-Rahman said.
Abdel-Rahman said some course instructors will be using platforms already in operation at AUC such as Blackboard in tandem with Zoom.
“Zoom will be used primarily for one-on-one meetings and presentations, and small group discussions,” he told The Caravan.
Ayman Abdellatif, Vice President for Digital Transformation, offered updates on the measures being taken by the IT and Digital transformation team to move to online instruction in an interview with AUC TV on March 18.
“We’re trying to deliver all different components of that unified experience to enable students, faculty and staff to work remotely and continue to do their business as best they can during the next few weeks,” he said.
The Center for Learning Technologies are leading the ongoing professional development of AUC faculty in relation to using the new online tools presented to them.
“In preparation for the possibility that we might have to shift to online instruction, CLT designed training modules for faculty on multiple tools as well as ways to adapt their content and assignments to best suit the online learning environment,” said Abdel-Rahman
However, the office of the Provost confirmed that there are no plans to change tuition to accomodate for the change of teaching medium.
In the meantime, as the number of infected cases in Egypt rises to 285 and the number of dead hits eight, local authorities have taken a number of measures including closing cafes, malls, restaurants and other areas where people may congregate from 7pm to 6am every day. Egyptian airports were shut down on March 19.
While the number of new infections and fatalities appear to significantly decrease in China, the numbers have soared in Italy, Iran and Spain, according to the interactive map provided by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.
AUC continues to follow guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Egypt’s Ministry of Health, and will continue to monitor the situation on campus and in the country.
For the latest updates, the AUC community www.aucegypt.edu/coronavirus.
In addition to having the latest updates from AUC, important numbers and tips on staying safe, the website also has links to helpful resources.
With the moved up spring break coming to an end on Sunday, AUC will start testing online classes for two weeks starting March 22 up until April 5, with a prospective extension of this period.
In an email sent on March 18, Vice President for Management & Operations Shereen Shaker offered some updates regarding the university’s handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“For internal campus meetings, we encourage limiting participants to 50 people as per new CDC guidelines,” she said.
It was also instructed that students are no longer allowed to bring visitors to campus and that faculty and staff visitors are permitted by appointment only for work needs.
However, this is only possible if the Security Office is notified of any expected visitors no less than a day earlier by emailing gatepass@aucegypt.edu or calling ext. 4444 or 0226154444.
The library also updated their operating times which can be reviewed at http://schools.aucegypt.edu/library/pages/MainLibHours.aspx.
AUC’s Coronavirus Response Taskforce put out a flowchart on actions to take in the case when students are suffering from symptoms or not that can be downloaded and viewed here.
The Taskforce meets daily at 8:45am and conducts further meetings as needed, Boraie told The Caravan’s RADUC on March 12.
