Accommodation — The university has formed an Accommodation taskforce to ensure additional support for any students whose accommodation may have been affected, as well as assisting arriving students to find suitable accommodation.
Further, University jointly with the UQ Union is urgently putting a scheme in place to provide emergency financial assistance to those students at financial risk as a result of the Queensland floods. The specific details will be provided soon.
Funding will be in the form of once-off grants through the UQ Union's SHOC Centre, or longer-term loans that will be administered by Student Services. In both cases students will need to meet certain criteria concerning need and circumstance.
The University has also posted frequently asked questions for international students at these websites: www.uq.edu.au, www.uq.edu.au/international and via www.accommodation.uq.edu.au
Child Care Centres — The Margaret Cribb and Munro Centre both sustained extensive damage by last week’s flood. Action is underway to establish a temporary combined centre on the Keith Street Carpark opposite Multi Story Carpark number 1. The area has been chosen because of its good access, convenient connection points to utilities and services and lawn for playground with shade cover. The University is investigating re-build and refurbishment options. The centres will contact affected families directly.
Transport — buses are operating to the St Lucia campus with travel over the Eleanor Schonell Bridge (Green Bridge) and to and from the Chancellor’s Place terminal fully operational. The UQ City Cat terminal is not operational and will be out of service for some time. All public transport is free until Friday. Visit the Translink site www.translink.com.au for further details.
Roads – all roads within the St Lucia campus are open today, with the exception of Sir William MacGregor Drive. Sir William Macgregor Drive will be closed to all vehicles between the Green Bridge and Blair Drive until further notice to accommodate silt removal and road and drain repairs. Union Rd and Glasshouse Rd will be restricted to essential traffic only to allow cleaning crews to manoeuvre space. The remaining boats in Glasshouse Road have been moved and one remaining boat in the AFL oval will be moved when the ground firms up. Please observe signage postings and directions.
Car parking — the University has opened most of its car parks – essential staff, contractors and volunteers should follow signage directions.
People are encouraged not to park in streets to enable crews free access to remove remaining mud and debris and for final street sweeping today. It is particularly important that people do not park in Sir William MacGregor Drive or on Glasshouse Road, or their vehicles will be towed.
There will be no charge for car parking for UQ staff and students until further notice.
Buildings — All damaged buildings or facilities have had a specific project manager allocated. They will contact the coordinator for each building/facility and be the point of contact for all work.
The focus of the recovery work continues on the Human Movement Studies building, which is the main teaching and learning facility that experienced flood damage.
Contractors — are back in full swing on capital projects, and P & F Assist staff are taking work orders.
Health — The UQ Health Service has prepared a post-flood health advisory to assist the University and general community. It is available at http://www.uq.edu.au/about/index.html?page=150344
Childcare - the Margaret Cribb and Munro childcare centres were extensively damaged and UQ staff are examining temporary alternatives for about 100 children. Childcare will be relocated to temporary accommodation being commissioned in the Keith Street, St Lucia car park and will include a play area and awning. Preliminary work is being conducted and the site is expected to be operational in the next few weeks.
Colleges – most are operating as per normal and those that lost power now have it restored, except for International House which had some water damage at the lower levels. Power is expected back later this week.
CommunicationsThere are regular updates to all staff and students, and inbound phone calls are now accessible to all campuses. The damage to some 4000 incoming lines has been repaired. Voice operations staff are back at the University switchboard, additional extensions have been added to the University hotlines and UQ Connect staff are assisting with IT enquiries.
Kiosk at Gatton An internet café has been set up at Gatton campus for UQ staff in the Lockyer Valley without facilities at their homes. It is located in building 8117 and is sign posted on Campus. The hours of operation are from 8am till 6pm daily.
Glasshouses — work is proceeding on the glasshouses and damaged motors have been removed for repairs and airconditioning control panels will receive electronic cleaning.
Pest control — Additional pest management is being carried out as a preventive measure.
UQ sporting facilities — work is continuing on these facilities, which suffered extensive damage. UQ is providing assistance to UQ Sport and volunteers are assisting to clean equipment. The netball courts have been cleaned, work is proceeding on the Rugby Club and ovals are being prepared to get back into shape. UQ Sport is temporarily closed. Please visit www.uqsprt.com.au for more details.
Research — Researchers returning to their place of work should not dispose of any lost material before this material is recorded. Please see equipment below. If researchers wish to come to their offices to work, they would be welcome to do so, given the grant deadlines in the next few weeks.
Equipment — If a staff member believes there is equipment that has sustained damage directly resulting from the flood, it is imperative that before attempting any repairs or recovery themselves, they must contact Geoff Dennis, Deputy Director P&F at g.dennis@pf.uq.edu.au, who is coordinating the University’s insurance cover.
Pinjarra Hills and Indooroopilly — There is still no access on the one lane bridge at Pinjarra Hills and there is some flooding in the University mine shaft at Indooroopilly. Pumping will begin this week on the shaft.
UQ 24-hour Flood Hotline
UQ has established 24-hour hotlines for enquiries relating to the floods at UQ:
General enquiries: 07 3346 4444 (within Australia) or +61 7 3346 4444 (international).
Student administration: 07 3346 4446 (within Australia) or +61 7 3346 4446 (international).
General and student administration enquiries sent by SMS: 0434 603 132 (within Australia) or +61 4434 603 132 (SMS enquiries may only be sent to this mobile number)
The lines will operate 24-hours every day.
FAQs
The University has posted Frequently Asked Questions for International Students, new and current domestic students, Summer Semester Students and Staff from its home page at www.uq.edu.au
International students
Key UQ International and Institute for Continuing and TESOL Education staff are back at work.
The Airport pickup service has continued to operate normally for international students and UQ contact details have been provided to airport reception and the pickup service.
Alternative emergency accommodation has been sourced for arriving students and Urban Nest (Southbank) will take emergency cases.
Introductory Academic Program (IAP) classes will commence on Thursday, January 20 and the University has emailed these students.
ICTE-UQ
The ICTE-UQ home page has been updated at www.icte.uq.edu.au/index.html?page=150270
All ICTE –UQ program classes will resume on Thursday, January 20. The IELTS tests scheduled for January 15 at both UQ St Lucia and Spring Hill will be rescheduled. Students registered to do these tests will be contacted from January 20, regarding arrangements to take the test.
Campus reopening and access
University campuses will reopen on Thursday, January 20, allowing staff time to assist in the recovery operations.
In the meantime, staff and students are requested to delay non-essential access until Thursday. Where staff need to check on key research projects, then access is available. Where staff do not have normal access at home to the internet or their computer systems, and they need such access for work purposes, they may travel to and use their office facilities.
Access to the St Lucia campus is open but buildings require card access. The UQ sewage element is repaired but further work is required downstream by Queensland Urban Utilities.
Any UQ staff member requested to attend the campus should have their manager advise security by calling 07 3365 1234 so that 'access control' is notified. Staff entering the campus must show their UQ identification to 'access control' at building entry points.
Summer Semester
For students enrolled in summer semester, it is expected the class timetable will recommence on January 20.
Additional classes may be scheduled in revision week, from Monday, January 31 until February 4, with examinations still being held as usual.
The following details have been confirmed:
• The duration of Summer Semester will not be extended (ends 12/2/2011);
• The revision week (31/1/2011 - 4/2/2011) will become a teaching week, to be used at the discretion of the course coordinator, to make up lost classes if required;
• If possible, examinations will be re-scheduled to the latter part of the central examination period (5/2/2011 – 12/2/2011), to allow maximum time for student revision if classes are conducted in revision week (to be confirmed).
Course coordinators have recently been emailed to advise them of these arrangements and to ask them to decide how best to alter their course delivery and assessment to accommodate these unexpected events.
Course coordinators have been asked also, to communicate these arrangements to students as soon as possible, using email and/or Blackboard. However, students are asked to be patient waiting for this advice, because many members of academic staff have also been affected personally by the flooding and may not be able to access or respond to their email.
Prior to making any decision with regard to your enrolment in courses please contact an academic advisor in your faculty.
The University will consider compassionately, requests made by students to withdraw without academic penalty, and will also remove the financial liability were students were unable to complete Summer because of the floods (excluding Teaching Period 6 that concluded in December).
Also, if the student is able to complete the required coursework from their home, providing they are living more than 200 kilometres from Brisbane, the University will allow Summer Semester students to sit their end of Semester examinations off campus (including overseas). Students need to apply to sit off campus using the form that can be located at: http://www.uq.edu.au/myadvisor/forms/exams/internal-off-campus-exam.pdf
Students should consult the MyAdvisor web site to access application forms for withdrawal without Academic Penalty and Removal of Financial Liability – links below:
Application for withdrawal without academic penalty
Application for removal of financial liability
Volunteering
Anyone who would like to volunteer to help with the cleanup at UQ can register their interest by calling the general enquiries hotline 07 3346 4444 or turn up at the Security Annexe, Services Road, St Lucia on January 19 at 8am.
Daily updates on the UQ flood recovery are posted online at www.uq.edu.au or UQ Twitter www.twitter.com/uqnewsonline.
For media inquiries contact: Jan King (0413 601 248) or Fiona Cameron (0407 1133 42)
