19 January 2011

This will be the final daily update ahead of the campus re-opening tomorrow Thursday, January 20, when business as usual resumes at the University.

Accommodation — The university has formed an Accommodation taskforce to ensure additional support for any students and staff whose accommodation may have been affected, as well as assisting arriving students to find suitable accommodation.

Further, the 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 Student Help on Campus (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

Centrelink — Centrelink will establish a base at the UQ Centre from Thursday, January 20 to assist students affected by the floods.

Customs House — Customs House in Brisbane’s CBD is back up and running after a temporary closure, and will hold functions this weekend. The three-storey building sustained no water damage, with power resupplied on Monday. Reservations for the Customs House restaurant, which re-opens for dinner service on January 27, are now welcome on (07) 3365 8921.

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 Level 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.

Emotional recovery — In case of an emergency or if you want to talk to someone immediately please contact Lifeline, available 24 hours a day on 13 11 14. Staff should visit the Staff FAQs on the home page www.uq.edu.au for details of the University’s assistance. Help is available for students at the University Health Service http://www.uq.edu.au/healthservice, Student Services http://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/Counselling and the University’s Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Service http://www.uq.edu.au/chaplaincy/ or please talk to your doctor.

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. Contractors are working on the ferry site. 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. It is hoped that Sir William Macgregor Drive will be re-opened to limited traffic next week. Union Rd and Glasshouse Rd will be restricted to essential traffic only to allow cleaning crews safe manoeuvre space. Staff House Road will be closed to all pedestrians due to construction projects. Please observe signs and directions.

River banks — Staff, students and visitors to The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus are advised to keep away from the river banks due to instability following flooding. Please observe signage at John Oxley walk, the pathway adjacent to Sir Wiliam MacGregor Drive, and stay well back from the river banks.

Car parking — the University has opened most of its car parks – staff, contractors and volunteers should follow signage directions. The lights are back at the UQ Centre car park but there may be a delay on lighting in the Multi-level car parks.

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. Paid Parking will recommence at St Lucia campus on Monday 21st February.

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.

Grounds — Work will continue on the embankments. Staff are on track to remove about 1000 tonnes of silt from Sir William MacGregor Drive. Most of the soil has been removed from Oval 4 and cleared from stormwater drains. Pathways and the area around the lakes are being cleaned.

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 Health Advisory

Brisbane city council has advised any person working in the cleanup for the floods should seek tetanus immunisations being made available by Council. Council locations can be found on the Brisbane City Council site http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/. University staff and students can also obtain the tetanus immunisation from the St Lucia University Health Services. Gatton and Ipswich Health Services plan to be open from Thursday 20th.

It is advisable to have a tetanus booster if it is more than five years since your last tetanus vaccination or if you are uncertain when you had your last tetanus vaccination.

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.

Communications — There 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.

Over the past week there has been an active stream of approved communication to all key stakeholder groups, both domestic and international.

If you would like specific messages to be conveyed to particular cohorts of students can you please contact either Maureen Bowen (for domestic students) on m.bowen@admin.uq.edu.au or Alison Campbell (International
Students) on alison.campbell@uq.edu.au who will then either include your message in the centralised messaging that is periodically going out or they will seek approval from Maurie McNarn and Anna Ciccarelli for their distribution.

Faculties, Institutes and Schools can contribute to our overall communications strategy with stories on their websites relating to business as usual in a consistent manner and that their communications are aligned with centrally issued University communications.

Kiosk at Gatton An internet kiosk with 16 work stations has been set up at Gatton campus for UQ staff, students and the community 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 specialist cleaning.

Pest control — Additional pest management is being carried out as a preventive measure.

Water — the water in Brisbane is safe to drink. The UQ Gatton chlorinator station has been repaired. Queensland Urban Utilities advises that water should still be boiled prior to drinking.

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 now access on the one lane bridge at Pinjarra Hills. There is some flooding in the University mine shaft at Indooroopilly. Pumping will begin this week on the shaft.

UQ Flood Hotline

The University 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)

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. IELTS tests scheduled for UQ St Lucia and Spring Hill on Saturday, 22 January will continue as planned. The IELTS Office has emailed the majority of candidates who were registered to take the cancelled 15 January test to make arrangements to take the test on an alternative date. If you have not received any communications from the IELTS office, please email ieltsregistrations@icte.uq.edu.au as soon as possible.

Campus reopening and access

University campuses will reopen on Thursday, January 20, allowing staff time to assist in the recovery operations.

Normal sewage and sanitation arrangements are in place at the St Lucia campus.

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
If you are aware of anyone who would like to volunteer in the St Lucia campus clean-up, could they report to the UQ Security Office, Services Road from 8am on Thursday 20th January. The main focus of work will be ensuring the health of our trees along the riverbank by removing silt around trunks and roots. Volunteers should have enclosed shoes, gloves, hats, sunscreen and shovels, if possible.

This is the final daily update on the UQ flood recovery, which is being 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)