{"id":65502,"date":"2020-04-14T13:11:27","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T17:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=65502"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:06:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:06:19","slug":"operations-resurrected-work-remotely","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/operations-resurrected-work-remotely\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton Operations Resurrected Remotely in Huge Campus Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton Operations Resurrected Remotely in Huge Campus Effort\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Collaboration, preparation, a student-centric focus \u2014 and technical support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Carleton University made the monumental switch and moved not only classes but nearly all campus operations to virtual mode, staff across the institution had to rapidly figure out how to continue working together and fulfill their core duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Telecounselling Supervisor Stenley Philippe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From student-focused units such as Housing and Residence Life Services<\/a> to behind-the-scenes groups such as Human Resources<\/a>, staff report the shift has been smooth thanks to teamwork and planning, with Information Technology Services (ITS)<\/a> wizzes tirelessly backstopping thousands of managers, employees, faculty and students now relying on a range of online platforms to work from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the following story, we detail how various units have navigated this transformation \u2014 and how they hope to use the experience to continue learning from the \u201cnew normal\u201d and fine-tune their response in the weeks and months ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Health and Counselling Services<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Although Kristie Tousignant joined Carleton as the director of Health and Counselling Services (HCS)<\/a> just one year ago, she\u2019s the perfect person to lead this vital service during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tousignant spent the previous 20 years working in hospitals as a registered nurse and has experience managing infection control. She also led emergency preparedness at her most recent post at Pembroke Regional Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HCS began screening for the coronavirus back in January, asking clients about their travel history and checking physical symptoms in a separate room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With several weeks to prepare, HCS told clients over the March 13 to 15 weekend that all counselling and medical appointments would be virtual for the foreseeable future. Medical appointments start with a phone or video consultation with a physician; if a doctor still needs to see to see a patient in person, which happens once or twice each day, they wear full personal protective equipment and follow strict safety protocols, including no visits from patients exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe upfront work was heavy, but the transition was smooth,\u201d says Tousignant, a member of Carleton\u2019s critical operations committee, who is still in the office every day with several essential colleagues, all of whom maintain proper social distancing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re running an almost 100 per cent virtual clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s vital that we have mental health counsellors available, especially at this time, and I expect to see increased need as the months go on. It\u2019s really important that people can still access our services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Scheduling and Examination Services<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Starting right after Easter, Carleton students will be writing around 81,000 individual exams within 13 days. Normally, almost all of them would be paper-based and in person. Not this spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is huge,\u201d says Jamie Carmichael, associate registrar of scheduling and systems, who formed a joint exam team with colleagues from Scheduling and Examination Services (SES), the Educational Development Centre (EDC) and the Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities (PMC) to triage issues.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe formed a united front, developed workflows and processes collectively as a group and we\u2019re supporting faculty on how to make the transition to an exam world that is still personal though not face to face,\u201d says Carmichael, explaining that EDC staff are experts at using the online platform cuLearn, while PMC staff contribute knowledge and skill in accommodating students with disabilities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

SES staff thrive on keeping large exam setups running smoothly while ensuring that individual \u2014 and often unexpected \u2014 needs are also met, so they are well suited to helping professors and students meet their academic goals in times like these. \u201cStudents have to write exams and we want them to be successful,\u201d says Carmichael, \u201cso we need to get this right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The joint exam team created a 15-page guide for faculty and provided options, including an offer to build online exams for them or allowing tech-savvy professors to assemble their own exams and get help uploading the material, re-engineering the traditional exams workflow in a matter of days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnd of term and exams are stressful for students during the best of times\u201d says Carmichael, \u201cand we are here to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Housing and Residence Life Services<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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In mid-March, when the message went out that students who were living in residence could leave ahead of schedule and receive a pro-rated refund, university staff responsible for their health and safety knew that some students would not be able to go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are still more than 600 students living in residence on campus, including international students, domestic students who don\u2019t have anywhere else to go and a handful of students who are self-isolating because they had been travelling or came into contact with people who may have had COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That means staff are preparing and delivering meals to the students in isolation three times a day and feeding the rest of the students in a revamped take-out-only cafeteria with no buffet, as well as providing a constellation of other supports, such as mental health counselling, mail delivery and, with lounges and all common areas closed, digital entertainment like virtual museum tours and online games.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re doing much more than just giving them beds,\u201d says Housing and Residence Life Director Laura Storey, who has daily online meetings with her team and constant phone contact with colleagues throughout the university.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep students engaged. We promised to help and we\u2019re here to support them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is more challenging with almost all of us working from remote, but our team is so resilient and we planned for this. We\u2019ve done tabletop exercises on pandemics and know how to respond if a key colleague is not available. We\u2019ve called in all the troops and have had incredible support from staff in other departments, including Athletics<\/a>, Campus Safety Services<\/a>, Conference Services<\/a> and Facilities Management and Planning<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Enrolment Management<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Six different units report to Enrolment Management\u2019s<\/a> Associate Vice-President Janice O\u2019Farrell: recruitment, admissions, international recruitment and admissions, the awards office, the registrar\u2019s office and academic advising. And all six have managed to maintain an approach to their work that\u2019s practically business-as-usual, including getting admissions offers to prospective students for the next school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to working together all the way from the recruitment of students to their graduation,\u201d says O\u2019Farrell, \u201cand that hasn\u2019t changed. Student engagement and success is at the heart of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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High School Outreach Manager Doug Huckvale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of these units are accustomed to dealing with a steady stream of questions from prospective and current students on subjects that range from course selection and program transfers to visa applications \u2014 \u201cthings that normally come up at the end of the school year,\u201d says O\u2019Farrell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They typically handle these queries via phone and email, plus online chat sessions and webinars, which hasn\u2019t changed, except that staff are now working from their own homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re using technology to stay connected and respond to students in a timely manner with the information they need,\u201d says O\u2019Farrell, praising ITS for enabling staff to use their office phone systems remotely. \u201cIt helps that students are adept at doing so many different things online.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Digital Content & Communications Coordinator Brier Cook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Enrolment Management has also accelerated development of a new high-end virtual campus tour, complete with 360-degree photography shot inside buildings, which should be ready for deployment in early May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to O\u2019Farrell, there\u2019s an unexpected benefit to all of the new collaborations and workflows that this massive shift has necessitated.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cEverybody is a getting a deeper understanding of and appreciation for what happens inside the offices they\u2019re not directly involved with,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re seeing how they can better support and feed into that work. This is going to be huge for Carleton going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lab Support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Although we\u2019ve already detailed how Carleton faculty and staff executed a successful shift to online teaching and learning<\/a>, there are myriad other examples of people going above and beyond to help students continue their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paleontology master\u2019s students Bryan Moore and Taia Wyenberg-Henzler are teaching assistants in a second-year paleontology course in which students study major fossil groups in the lab every week. They pick up specimens of trilobites, bivalves, brachiopods, cephalopods and other species and have to identify specific features, ask detailed questions and derive as much information as they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the Friday before the university shut down all in-person classes and labs, Moore and Wyenberg-Henzler met in a lab in Carleton\u2019s Herzberg Building in late afternoon and spent several hours photographing 100 or so specimens from a variety of perspectives, allowing students to finish the term by studying the images from home \u2014 and providing source material for the end-of-year lab exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was just the first thing that popped into my head,\u201d Wyenberg-Henzler says about the 11th-hour effort.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe knew that if students couldn\u2019t finish the term and do the exam,\u201d adds Moore, \u201cthey might not have a solid foundation in paleontology and might not want to continue in this field.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Meanwhile, at the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS)<\/a>, a research centre affiliated with the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism<\/a>, 70 part- and full-time students are working with a group of external partners on projects such as the Centre Block rehabilitation on Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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