Minor changes to the coronavirus master plan

The new Spring Semester started on Monday – but in online mode. Most ETH staff are working from home and virtually all university buildings are closed. More than a few ETH members are struggling with motivation. “Unfortunately we still have a few weeks to get through and we need to grit our teeth and keep going,” comments Ueli Weidmann, head of the ETH Covid task force, summarising the current situation.

Yet he still has reason to be optimistic: “Falling infection rates show that strict compliance with protective measures does pay off,” Weidmann says. Not only is that an important lesson to learn for society as a whole, but one that is particularly relevant to ETH, as the past exam session exemplifies: around 600 written examinations which students sat in person did not lead to a sudden increase in the number of Covid cases reported. “Here, special thanks are due to our students, who behaved impeccably,” says Weidmann. At the same time, he is grateful to all ETH staff whose tireless efforts facilitated this return to a temporary “normality”.

New master plan with minor changes

The Executive Board has outlined how things will look from 1 March 2021 onwards in a new version of the master plan, which is valid up to Easter. There are only very minor changes compared with the previous version, mainly concerning the areas where the Federal Council has decided to ease restrictions initially. For example, the reading rooms of the ETH Library are now open, and access to the Graphische Sammlung in the Main Building is also possible. With the opening of reading rooms, the HIL building (with the Architecture Library) will also be open on the Hönggerberg campus from Monday to Friday, but will remain closed on weekends (along with the Main Building). Outdoors, groups of up to 15 people (previously only five) are allowed to gather, but must still wear face masks. ASVZ can at last start to offer some outdoor sports activities again from 1 March onwards. Details are available on the external page ASVZ home page and will be updated continuously.

Online teaching only, for the time being

As things stand, there is no question of on-site events or guided tours going ahead at ETH. These are still banned in principle until 5 April 2021. Anyone planning to organise an on-site event after that date can submit an advance request to Services & resources, but there is no guarantee that a permit will be issued. “Due to the uncertain situation, we must advise all ETH members to be extremely cautious in planning large-scale events,” Ueli Weidmann warns, and points out that the Executive board has just been obliged to postpone the annual staff party for another year. If too many applications are received to hold events, priority will be given to the ones that are important for the university as a whole, as well as academic events such as Master’s graduation ceremonies. With all events, the Executive Board accepts no liability whatsoever should an event be unable to go ahead for epidemiological reasons. In other words, the organiser bears the full risk if the event has to be cancelled at short notice.

Federal Council recognises importance of in-person teaching

The Federal Council will discuss further opening steps in mid-March, and will also look at in-person teaching at universities at that time. Should the Federal Council come to a positive conclusion, ETH would be ready to revert to some on-site teaching after Easter. “Like other Swiss universities, ETH Zurich wants to welcome back students on campus as soon as the pandemic situation allows,” says Ueli Weidmann, not least for the benefit of students’ mental health. After all, it is the younger generation that is suffering most under the current lockdown.