COVID-19: A message to alumni and supporters

I would also like to update you on the University’s response to this rapidly developing health emergency.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the COVID-19 alert level in New Zealand had been raised to Level 3. At 11:59pm tomorrow it will be raised again, to Level 4, which means the country will go into full lockdown.

Many of you will be shocked by the speed and severity of these restrictions in New Zealand as well as the rapidly changing situation around the world.

The priority for the team here at the University has always been the welfare of our students, staff and wider University community. This is an unprecedented situation for all of us, and we must look after each other.

The University’s response to COVID-19

With yesterday’s announcement, the University is moving to a full campus closure prior to the Level 4 deadline tomorrow. This week we had hoped to have time to finalise the necessary preparations to be able to deliver remote teaching and learning from next Monday (30 March) by using a Teaching Free Week. Whilst we no longer have that opportunity, we are using our remaining time on campus and the rest of the week off-campus to prepare for how we continue to deliver a high-quality educational experience and maintain our essential research support to our students. As I am sure you can imagine, delivering our programme of teaching to 41,000 students online is an enormous challenge, but my colleagues have been doing astonishing work to make this a reality. It’s been a terrific effort.

For the latest, detailed information on the University's position regarding COVID-19, please visit the dedicated webpage regarding how we are adapting our operations to ensure the health and safety of our community.

University expertise

Providing evidence-based research, scientific fact and thought leadership is an important function of a University such as ours and now, in particular, we have a duty to combat misinformation and share knowledge as widely as we can.  Our academics across many disciplines are talking to the media and writing insightful articles.  We’ve pulled these together and published them on the alumni and friends website.  You can view them here – and we’ll endeavour to keep that page updated. Similarly, you can connect with us on Facebook, and the University’s social media channels to stay informed.

As well as providing information, many areas of the University are helping to fight the epidemic in more practical ways.  From research on vaccines, disease spread modelling for Government, and access to laboratories, equipment and expertise, we are lending our support to the global effort against COVID-19.  We will be able to share more detail about this work in our upcoming newsletters.

Student hardship

Over the past few days we have had academics and supporters contact us, concerned about the impact this situation has on the wellbeing of our students. I am particularly concerned about this too, as the pandemic has hit a lot of students very hard. On the financial side, most students work one or more jobs to help them balance their student finances but, as the economy has ground to a halt, their jobs have often been the first to go. We are providing what support we can through the Student Emergency and Wellbeing Fund as well as central University resources, but if you are in a position to be able to help at this time I would ask you to consider making a donation to support this very real need.

Connecting with us

We are committed to continuing to keep in contact with our alumni and friends community but are also conscious of the need to adapt to the changing conditions and respectful of the various challenges it poses to you all. We genuinely would like to help where we can and are keen to hear suggestions about what our global network can do at this time, and how we might be able to facilitate that.  For example, we’re considering what role our alumni groups around the world might be able to play, and how we might make the most of our online networking tool – Alumni Connect – in the context of the current epidemic.  If you have any ideas on this or any questions for the Alumni Engagement or Donor Relations teams please contact us at alumni@auckland.ac.nz.

In the meantime, please stay safe, look after your loved ones and be confident that we’ll get through this together.

Ngā mihi,

Mark Bentley
Director, Alumni Relations and Development
University of Auckland