On Thursday 14 January the Vice Chancellor wrote to all staff. You can read the full email below:

I’d like to start with some very sad news. I learned at the end of last week that a member of staff, Moletsane Monyake, has died of complications arising from Covid-19. Moletsane studied for his PhD in Politics at Sussex under the supervision of Dan Hough, who described his thesis as brilliant, and has been working as a tutor on our online distance learning Masters in Corruption and Governance. Moletsane was from Lesotho and has been there for the duration of the pandemic. He will be missed by everyone who knew him for his intellect and for his warmth, humour and humanity.

I think we all knew the start of 2021 was going to be challenging but it would have been difficult to imagine the sheer scale of work we have got through since returning last week.

The upshot is that we are in a really strong position to support our students and staff during this difficult period. There is still much more to do but we have acted swiftly and decisively, using all the experience we gained last year.

Had we not re-entered lockdown, we would have been preparing, around now, to carry out thousands of lateral flow tests for our returning students. That is clearly no longer necessary. However, the testing facility is still in place and is being well used by those individuals who do still need to access campus, such as students studying medicine or social work, or those on campus to use our available facilities such as the library and labs. In the past week, the team have carried out around 1,600 tests, showing that our campus community on the whole is continuing to act responsibly and with due regard to the gravity of the situation. 

It is all the more disappointing, therefore, when we hear about people behaving with a reckless disregard for the laws that have been put in place to protect everybody. At the weekend, there were unfortunately student parties on campus, one of which required police presence to disperse. The host of that party has been fined by the police and the University is also taking appropriate action. I very much regret to confirm that we have decided to withdraw the licence to occupy our accommodation from one student. This hasn’t been an easy decision and I feel enormous sympathy for young people whose lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic. However, we have a responsibility towards the overwhelming majority of students and staff who are abiding by regulations which are designed to prevent the transmission of the virus.

The impact of Covid-19 on wider society is, I know, an active field of interest for many of our researchers. Despite their concerning findings, I was proud to see one of these research projects, on the inequalities within lockdown home-schooling, make the headlines this week. The researchers, Matthew Easterbrook and Lewis Doyle in the School of Psychology, importantly shone a light on the stark differences between households, with noise and lack of space, resources and even food making it difficult to learn effectively from home.

We know that some of our own students are affected by similar issues, which is one of the reasons why we have moved quickly to introduce a no-detriment policy for this assessment period. As I said last week, this is complicated by the fact that we have entire cohorts this time without any assessment history but we hope to be able to outline this policy shortly. We also continue to help students with equipment, wherever possible.

I also fully appreciate the difficulties that the school closures have caused for many of our staff. Trying to continue to do your job as normal while educating and supervising your children must feel like an impossible task. I want those colleagues to know that we are here to support you and we will this week be providing new guidance for managers, asking them to be as pragmatic and sensible as possible over this period. We will share details tomorrow (Friday), so please do have a conversation with your line manager if you are in this position.

You might have heard on the news that the Government is writing to all employers about the ways that we need to be alert to the potential that employees may be subject to domestic abuse in one form or other. In ‘normal’ circumstances, colleagues may be able to see changes in someone’s behaviour or it may be easier to talk to someone about something happening at home that is either immediately dangerous or makes you feel uncomfortable. In an environment where most people are working at home, not only is it less likely that we will pick up on problems but people at risk of domestic abuse are in the home almost all of the time. Please watch out for your colleagues and, if you have any concerns, have a confidential discussion with your manager. If you think that you might be subject to domestic abuse – and sometimes forms of coercive control are subtle and doubt isn’t unusual – please let your manager know and we will do everything we can to support you. If you don’t feel comfortable talking with your manager, your HR business partner would help you however they could.

I hope by now you have seen the news that we are amending our Discretionary Pay Review (DPR) for this year only, to reward as many as colleagues as possible, rather than a smaller subset, as is usually the case. These payments will be made to eligible staff in January’s pay. I hope this goes some way to show how much the University appreciates the exceptional contributions made by staff over the past year.

Finally, if you need some inspiration at this time, I encourage you to check out one of the many sessions taking place as part of a free, three-day mini festival showcasing the past, present and future of feminist publishing. Organised by a team led by Professor Margaretta Jolly in the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, in partnership with the British Library, the Creative Women, Creative Business festival features a host of inspiring speakers. Booking is free and the festival continues until Friday.

Best wishes,

Adam