Dear students, dear staff,

Just four weeks ago, we began the lecture period for the 2020/21 winter semester. This e-mail is intended to provide you with an initial overview and prognosis for the upcoming weeks. First and foremost, we can say that our efforts to ensure that in-person events can safely take place have been successful, even during the pandemic. So far, not one single case of coronavirus transmission has been recorded within the university. On the contrary, infections that have occurred outside of the university have been effectively contained thanks to excellent reporting chains and contact tracing.

Your cooperation in observing and complying with hygiene regulations on campus has helped greatly with this. We are sincerely grateful for your support, your sense of community and your solidarity. At the same time, this would not have been possible without the work of the many individuals involved in the preparation and supervision of courses--in particular lecturers, technical and administrative staff and student assistants, who have contributed significantly to these achievements as well as the procurement and distribution of hygiene equipment and technical support.

Partial in-person teaching until 18 December 2020 / Digital teaching phase from 4 to 15 January 2021

The infection rate in Germany is still high, although it varies between regions. On 25 November 2020, the Federal Chancellor together with the heads of state governments have proposed that, in order to control the SARS CoV2 pandemic, universities switch to principally digital teaching (with the exceptions of practical and artistic elements). At the beginning of the week, the responsible state ministry (TMWWDG) held a meeting and decided the following: The Thuringian ordinance of 29 November 2020 has not adopted this regulation, allowing Thuringian universities the discretion to decide on their courses of action.

The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Board of Governance has thus decided, based on the infection situation in Weimar and the development of the pandemic at the university so far, to continue the current practice of both in-person and online teaching up to and including 18 December 2020. Instructors, as has been the case so far, can decide to switch to digital teaching wherever possible. This phase will serve to prepare for digital teaching during the first two weeks of January. Starting on 4 January 2021, teaching will move to a purely digital format for a two-week period.

Labs, internships, practical and artistic elements, as well as examinations and final theses which must be held in-person are excluded from this. Instructors are kindly requested to inform their students on the specific regulations for their courses by the end of next week.

Home office and workplace attendance regulations        

In order to allow employees to self-isolate before the Christmas holidays, working from home can be arranged between management and employees from 21 to 23 December 2020 and from 4 to 8 January 2021 wherever possible. We are pleased to announce that the workshops and labs in the faculties, the PC pools and the University Library will continue offering their standard services during this period. Please note that the University Library will be closed on 23 December 2020.

Working time from the home office must be documented and credited accordingly. The agreement for working from the home office is to be made directly between the supervisor and the employee and to be recorded in writing (by e-mail if necessary).

A reminder to wear a mask covering the nose and mouth and to distance yourself from others

We would also like to urgently remind everyone that it is mandatory to wear a mask covering the nose and mouth while commuting and to maintain the 1.5 metre distance from others no matter where you are. Only by observing mask and distancing regulations can you protect yourself and others from SARS CoV 2 infection. Communal activities lasting longer than 15 minutes and where this distance cannot be maintained should be avoided at all costs. Be sure to also ventilate your workroom or office regularly (3 to 5 minutes of full ventilation every 20 minutes). Having more than one person in an office at a time should be avoided and replaced by staggering work times.

Further information can be found on our regularly updated corona webpage: www.uni-weimar.de/coronavirus

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is a space of encounters and personal exchange--we want to maintain this during the pandemic, even with the current restrictions. We are doing everything in our power to continue the winter semester as successfully as it began. We are confident that, through all our efforts, this is possible.

We are proud to be working together towards this goal. We wish you a wonderful Advent!

On behalf of the Board of Governance
Winfried Speitkamp