Resumption of academic activities

JU - Almost a year has passed since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, the scenario is still uncertain regarding the resumption of academic activities in person, in its various segments. How can we face this reality without putting the health of students, teachers and staff at risk and, at the same time, preserve the progress of teaching, research, assistance and administration activities?

Tom Joe - Conducting academic activities during the Covid-19 pandemic requires the University administration to continually monitor local, regional and national epidemiological dynamics. In addition to this constant scenario analysis, effective communication with the entire community is necessary, in view of practically real-time decision making. Unpredictability and uncertainty require organized, coordinated action with representativeness endorsed by the spirit of dialogue, without losing sight of the quality of Unicamp's core activities.

Remote teaching activities undoubtedly bring losses compared to in-person ones. Even in theoretical subjects, where much of the content can be worked remotely, the student's experience at university, especially at graduation, presents a much broader training and social perspective. The in-person experience allows students to be more fully immersed in everything the University offers in terms of cultural diversity, opinions and forms of professional activity. The knowledge transmitted in the various disciplines is consolidated through the exchange of ideas and experiences, through the formation of a network of contacts, preparing the student in a more comprehensive way for their future professional life and in society.

However, in the current epidemiological situation, the use of remote teaching activities presents itself as a possible alternative and with a better compromise between results, safety and costs, despite the inherent losses and limitations. To ensure that this strategy is minimally successful, it is necessary to qualify everyone involved, by offering a broad structure of technological and pedagogical support. The responsible sectors, such as coordination and deanships, must open easily accessible communication channels to quickly detect and resolve detected problems.

It is clear that not all activities can be remote. There are disciplines and research that are eminently practical, or that use equipment and inputs that cannot be replaced by a video demonstration or a computer simulation. The development of certain professional skills or attitudes requires working in practice scenarios with mentoring. In these cases, a hybrid model must be adopted, which combines remote activities with in-person activities in a safe way, ensuring distance and a rotation between students, teachers and researchers to avoid crowds. These solutions must take into account the realities of students who may have difficulty traveling, for example through temporary living arrangements. When possible, solutions such as the use of large amphitheaters or outdoor activities can be sought. It is necessary to adapt the university's infrastructure and its physical spaces with creative solutions and a sustainable perspective, including signage about distancing and prevention rules. Alcohol gel, surface disinfectants and personal protective equipment (PPE) should always be widely available.

Teaching, research and service activities in the hybrid modality require planning and organization of the work process, coordination between the administrative support and information technology sectors and, above all, effective communication between the different sectors of the academic community. An institutional guideline is needed that outlines structuring guidelines to conduct this process, taking into account the need for investment in information technology and the reality of human resources available in the different units. Finally, the systematic pedagogical training of teaching staff to use new technologies is a fundamental requirement for qualified and professional remote teaching.

Facing the pandemic requires effective communication, which guarantees the participation of the university community in prevention measures, understanding the risks, and using health services and available resources as members of a globalized community. Safe and sustainable coexistence, distancing, the use of masks, hand hygiene and concurrent disinfection must be incorporated into everyone's consciousness. This communication must go far beyond the limits of Unicamp. In fact, as a center for the production and dissemination of knowledge, Unicamp must prospect creative, sustainable and participatory initiatives to combat the pandemic and its effects on different sectors of Brazilian society. The University must also act as an effective center to combat rumors and fake news. In short, Unicamp can contribute to articulating and integrating different actors in the community and beyond (eg Education and Health Departments of municipalities and the State), also sharing its experiences with other Higher Education Institutions in the country. 

The details of the plan for resuming in-person activities must be dynamic, appropriate to the competing epidemiological situation and in line with state plans. Symptomatic cases must be quickly identified and their contacts traced. To achieve this, it is necessary to ensure, expand and speed up the laboratory diagnosis of cases. The pandemic has contradicted many predictions, in such a way that We must maintain surveillance of the local epidemiological scenario, in close integration with the municipal, regional and state health surveillance spheres. Vaccination is a top global priority and there is a need for Brazil to guarantee access to vaccines in a broader, more agile and planned way.

The pandemic brought enormous challenges, but also opportunities, by forcing us to adopt technological solutions for remote interaction. In many cases, remote interaction is worse than face-to-face interaction, and has been adopted due to the lack of another safe alternative. In some cases, however, remote interaction can be more effective and productive than those adopted before the pandemic. In other cases, the combination of different strategies, remote and in-person, allows for successful outcomes. These opportunities must be carefully analyzed and improvements incorporated. The resulting decisions must be the result of a broad dialogue involving the teaching, student and staff community of the University.

Finally, so that Unicamp can truly play a leading role in this and other emerging situations in contemporary society, the University must induce research and extension projects on related topics in different areas of knowledge: health, teaching modalities, economics, new technologies and social behavior, raising resources from development agencies, civil society entities and the productive sector.

Mario Saad - Firstly, we would like to highlight that Unicamp has been a protagonist in the fight against Covid-19, since the arrival of the pandemic in Brazil. At the end of 2019, our health units were already monitoring the escalation of the pandemic in the rest of the world and began to outline contingency and risk plans. We cannot forget that Unicamp was the first institution in the country to place its students and employees in quarantine, even before any decision from government levels. Through the Task Force Against Covid-19 and its health care services, with emphasis on the Hospital de Clínicas and Cecom, Unicamp has stood out in the fight against the new coronavirus.

In recent months, impactful research has been rapidly developed and hundreds of people have been served, from the general population, via the Unified Health System (SUS), as well as students, faculty and staff, members of our university community. Furthermore, we had volunteering actions never before developed at the university, in the proportions we are seeing now. Collection of food baskets, loans of equipment to facilitate remote access, mental health care, and so on. We need to highlight this impeccable performance by our community in facing the pandemic, which should still take a few more months to end.

From the analysis of this scenario, considering that with some discomfort, students, teachers and staff quickly needed to find ways to continue activities at Home Office, the first step of our management will be to offer greater institutional support to the community, so that activities continue to be developed without compromising the quality of Teaching, Research and Extension carried out on our campuses, as well as the physical and mental health of our entire public. We need to look for solutions to make distance activities more beneficial and didactically effective for the professionals and students involved, both in undergraduate and postgraduate courses and in extension activities. We also need better infrastructure for equipment, internet, Information Technology, Occupational Health and Human Resources. Furthermore, we will ensure that strategies for returning to in-person activities will be the safest and most proactive possible given the pandemic scenario. We also intend to review the calendar of some activities, in order to propose greater schedule flexibility and thus offer attention to those people whose activities were irreparably damaged during this pandemic period. Furthermore, we need to listen more carefully to what local communities say in their specificities. The reality faced by all of us is the same, but the demands are often specific, and we need to be aware of these issues, so as not to perpetuate injustices within our institution.

In short, within the principles that permeate our management, we will need a lot of administrative boldness so that activities continue to flow in our daily lives with more Harmony and Responsibility. That's what we believe.

Sergio Salles-Filho - The possibility of returning to face-to-face activities is still very uncertain given the evolution of the pandemic and its indicators, associated with the prospects for widespread vaccination of the population. Therefore, we will continue with predominantly remote activities in the 1st half of 2021, hoping to be able to plan a progressive in-person return as soon as access to the vaccine and/or changes in the disease's behavior allow.

We will work so that our community of teachers, researchers, students and employees and the entire population are vaccinated. We recognize the academic difficulties, the delay in training and the effect on the mental health of the entire community that the pandemic has caused. This occurs in all areas and is particularly acute for professionals who are working in person.

To face the return to campuses, we will create a Post-Pandemic Actions Committee, continuing the work that began in 2020 in a specific GT. This Committee will cover the activities that were affected: teaching (at different levels), research, extension, services and administration.

Diagnoses, solutions and identification of opportunities must include the consequences on the University's activities and on the communities of students, employees (Unicamp and outsourced workers), teachers and researchers and the external public with which Unicamp interacts.

In teaching, losses must be identified and recovery planned through proposals for adjustments to early childhood and complementary education, secondary education, undergraduate and postgraduate education. It will be necessary to diagnose and implement solutions for learning gaps, backlog of demands in subjects, evaluate and minimize the impact on completion time and difficulties in preparing and completing dissertations and theses.

In these initiatives, it is essential to consider the specific needs of students (mothers, people with socioeconomic vulnerability and difficulties in access and permanence, people with disabilities, indigenous people, foreigners, etc.), teachers and staff. Support for recovery from psychological and psychiatric problems should also be an integral part of recovery actions.

Special attention must be given to digital literacy skills and investments in virtual learning environments, offering courses, equipment and structure to support the use of teaching strategies using technology.

Special action is necessary to strengthen bonds and identities with students entering undergraduate, postgraduate and high school in the years 2020 and 2021, who were impacted in an unprecedented way by the forced absence and consequent lack of integration with the campus and people. In this sense, activities aimed at integration and academic coexistence, sports and cultural actions need to be implemented for this particular audience.

In research and extension, in a similar way, it will be necessary to evaluate impacts and propose actions that support projects and activities that suffered delays and had to be redirected or even canceled.

Unicamp demonstrated its ability to provide quick and effective responses to the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to the dedication of its professionals and the recognition that the interaction between science and the provision of services to the community is fundamental.

It offered quality service to the entire population, with extraordinary commitment from professionals working in the areas of health, security, maintenance, IT, food, among others, amplifying the importance and reaffirming its role for the population and the University itself.

Unicamp now needs to look for ways to recognize the efforts of everyone who contributed, meet demands that have become very evident and sensitive and move forward in opportunities opened up by the epidemiological crisis. In particular, we have to provide:

• Strengthening bonds and identities with students entering undergraduate, postgraduate and high school in 2020 and 2021.

• Investment in emotional health programs, seeking to adapt them to the specific demands of different groups in our community, taking advantage of the bases of the Well-Being project and its Good Practice Guide.

• Investment in the expansion and scope of health care that the University offers to employees and faculty on all campuses.

• Investment in SAE and SAPPE services, in response to the increase in demand among high school, undergraduate and postgraduate students.

• Resume and expand benefits to employees, especially those in more vulnerable conditions and who had to continue working in person.

At the same time, we will take advantage of and advance the positive experiences gained during the period, such as:

• Holding meetings, online or hybrid thesis defenses.

• Dissemination of activities and techniques to support teaching that use digital resources and new technologies.

• Expansion of EA2 and GGTE actions and interaction with units with teaching and training activities.

• Expansion of the supply and use of multi-user centers and equipment for research activities.

• Expanding the reach of extension and cultural actions through the use of digital access and dissemination technologies.

• Taking advantage of remote activities that have recently occurred due to the pandemic, encouraging participation in Virtual Exchange Programs known as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), developed by several universities

• Expansion of digitization and access to Unicamp's libraries, collections and archives for teaching, research and extension activities.

• Institution of Unicamp's digital transformation program towards a digitally modern university, with more agile and easy-to-follow processes, which involve less bureaucratic work and consistently and permanently reduce rework and time spent by employees, teachers and students with administrative processes.

• Investment in digital literacy in Unicamp communities.

• Regulation of teleworking at Unicamp.