(Unanswered) Town Hall Questions Question Response

1. If temporary layoffs happen, will laid off employees be able to return to their home position?

No. The bumping and recall process is permanent.

2. Understandably, a great deal of energy is being expended on fall planning and staffing. That being said, longer term employment stability needs to be addressed. What is the college's staffing plan beyond the fall?

Human Resources is currently undertaking a short, medium and long term view and planning to workforce planning which will include supporting the Academic Plan and Return to Work in our financial situation.

3. When you answer the questions afterwards can you please state that the admin has lost their bonus (EPI) and their annual cost of living raise or that it has been postponed? I think it's important for other groups to know that admin is being impacted too

Increases as set out in the Collective Agreements have not been affected by the mitigation plan, and will occur for bargaining unit members on schedule. The exceptional performance incentive (EPI) and the cost of living increase for administrative employees has been deferred; a final decision will be made in the fall.

4. Have the staff and security who have been asked to return to work or are currently working have been trained with prevention measurements and PPE supplies? Where can we find this documentation in MyAC or somewhere else in an internal interface?

The range of precautions that the College community was introduced to prior to the suspension of on-site operation (Physical Distancing, Cough/Sneeze Etiquette, Frequent Hand-Washing) still apply. There are no current positions working on-site that require PPE specific to COVID-19. The College COVID-19 website has all of the preventative measures identified.

5. Have all contract positions been terminated?

All contract positions that do not impact academic continuity or are integral to operations have ended naturally, have been affected by non-scheduling or have been ended. None have been extended without the approval of an ACET member for those that are integral to operations.

6. We are hearing that some staff who have been asked to come back have not been offered any training on COVID-19 safety related / PPE use etc. What is the COVID-19 related training plan for employees?

The range of precautions that the College community was introduced to prior to the suspension of on-site operation (Physical Distancing, Cough/Sneeze Etiquette, Frequent Hand-Washing) still apply for critical employees on-site. In this respect, specific training may not have been provided. With these measures adhered to, the need for PPE is minimized. Some areas have developed specific standard operating procedures for their staff.

There are no current positions working on-site that require PPE specific to COVID-19, other than Health Services, who are well equipped. A health & safety orientation program is being prepared for returning employees to take online before returning to campus once the College is in a position to resume operations.

7. What do you mean by temp. lay off? Is our job held for us?

For the full time Support Staff, the College would rely on Article 15. For regular part time Support Staff, the College would rely on Article 18 of the Collective Agreement. As per the process in each collective agreement, temporary notification of layoff would be issued by the College and the bumping and recall process with the associated time lines would be followed prior to a layoff becoming permanent. Your position is not held for you through this process and the bumping and recall process is permanent.

8. Based on basic infection control principles, if you screen staff and students, have source control with masks and vigorous handwashing (alcohol based hand cleaner available in every class/lab) there is no need for the excessive room cleaning. What was the source for the decision for the hour cleaning interval between classes?

There has been no decision made, that we are aware of, that requires an hour cleaning interval between classes. Based on the College intentions to promote remote academic instruction and limit on-site activity during the Fall semester to applied requirements that must be delivered face-to-face, it is anticipated that the classroom space available will be more than adequate to allow for normal daily cleaning intervals.

9. Many of us are over 100% capacity with deadline driven tasks. Ex. Loading, SWFS, contracts. Being forced to take vacation days adds more stress knowing we face 12-14 hr days in order to catch up from begin off as well as dealing with the daily work. We aren't banking our vacation time for use later. There has been no time to take it. We have time booked and then have to cancel because there are new deadlines or we have to redo work that has already been completed due to the changing climate. Backfill needs to be provided, often that expertise is not available within the dept. Is there some way to consider a floating backfill for various types of work?

Requests to the Redeployment Plan for areas of need are always being explored. This is a prime example of an opportunity to be flagged to Human Resources so that those that have capacity can be matched to assist with this workload. In certain areas, where redeployment or backfill is not feasible, some work is being taken off the plate of employees that are over capacity. This work will be accomplished through different means during the pandemic.

10. How will privacy concerns be addressed for remote learning? In some cases there are accommodation requirements for recordings. How is this done if a Faculty member does not give permission to have video on? Is the SVPA requiring Faculty to use video in their courses?

A document on protecting privacy on ZOOM has been prepared. That document can be found here: ZOOM Security and Privacy Guidelines For Faculty Members Any necessary accommodation for a student should be discussed with the Centre for Accessible Learning. Identified requirements for accommodation will be met by the Academic area whenever possible. The SVPA is not requiring Faculty to use video in their classes.

11. Due to the impacts of COVID 19, the College has recently introduced a redeployment program for support staff who are not working at 100%. As well, there are rumours of potential layoffs in the near future. With these facts in mind, has the College considered the notion of repurposing the administrative bonuses to help reduce the number of support staff layoffs? Since these funds are not part of their regular salary, administrative employees should not be relying on this money for mortgage payments, car payments/gas/bus fare and putting food on the table. These funds might even be considered as “extra money” that the college has available.

The college has not considered repurposing the exceptional performance incentive (EPI) fund to help reduce the number of support staff layoffs.

12. What are mitigation strategies for the administration and faculty? Does the administration and faculty have to use up their paid vacation like the support staff?

The mitigation strategies for administration and faculty were communicated during the Town Hall.

They are as follows:

• Usage of excess and accumulated 19/20 vacation (administrative and faculty)

• Temporary redeployment (administrative and faculty) • Offer of reduced workload (administrative) • Offer of unpaid leave of absence (administrative and

faculty) • Notice of reduction/termination (administrative) • Layoffs (faculty)

13. It seems that Support Staff are being targeted for all cost savings. Could you please explain in detail what cost saving measures are being

The Workforce Pandemic Mitigation Plan impacts all employment groups in the College. We explained the approach during the Town Hall and are comfortable that the Plan has

applied for the Academic Staff and for Admin staff and Senior Management...such as waiving bonuses?

been developed to ensure that we move through this pandemic in an approach that is fair and as equitable as possible.

14. Will students have an opportunity to give feedback on remote teaching and learning at the end of the fall semester? I am unaware of students being given an opportunity to provide feedback on online/remote learning as the student surveys were cancelled in Winter. Will they run in Spring?

Yes. Student Course Feedback surveys will be administered for both the Spring and Fall terms. While the standard surveys were not conducted at the end of the Winter term, students were given the opportunity to provide feedback to an email address specifically established for that purpose.

15. Will students have the option to defer their acceptance to a future semester if they don't want to do remote classes in the fall?

Generally, admissions are not deferred to a future semester due to the date of equal consideration and admission policy; however, through the online www.ontariocolleges.ca application, students can change their application to a future start date any time – for example, if they applied in fall, they can defer to winter or spring. Applicants who wish to wait until fall 2021 will need to reapply through www.ontariocolleges.ca and are encouraged to do so before February 1, 2021 to increase the likelihood of securing their spot again in a highly competitive program. Students may reach out to recruitment@algonquincollege.com for guidance and support if they are considering this option.

16. I prepaid my parking upfront $1,000 plus cash. I received only the one time payment everyone else received of $150.00. This seems extremely unfair. Why is everyone treated the same?

Annual permits are valid during the school year but also stretch through Spring term. The cost of these permits is based on the Fall and Winter terms; the spring/summer term is included as an added benefit of choosing an annual permit. The value of the rebate is dependent on the pass purchased. Please contact the Parking office if you believe that there is a discrepancy with your rebate value.

17. So the College is open to delivering 7 days including evenings. Especially for labs?

The College has offered full-time weekend programs for years. However, physical distancing requirements for a phased return to face-to-face instruction have placed more pressure on our available space. Therefore, some face-to-face learning activities that are normally offered during weekdays may be scheduled on weekends. The same is true for evenings. Should this be required, the respective collective agreements will be followed for the assignment of work related to offering these activities.

18. What percentage of Fall students are internationals?

Given the amount of uncertainty surrounding the ability of NEW Level 1 international students to travel to Canada for the Fall intake, it is difficult to state with confidence the

percentage. Our current estimate is between 20% and 22% of the Fall intake will be international students. In comparison, in Fall 2019, around 24% of the Fall intake was international.

19. What notice will the College give in the case of a layoff?

For the full time and regular part time Support Staff employees, these circumstances are considered to be beyond the reasonable control of the College as per the collective agreements; if notice is provided, it will be limited. For the full time Academic employees, the terms and conditions of the collective agreement will be adhered to from a notice perspective. For all other employee types, the terms and conditions of employment will be referenced for notice periods.

20. Will currently enrolled students have an option to 'pause' their return to a future semester?

Students in a returning status have the option to pause a return; however, it is dependent upon the delivery plan and availability for their program as well as the planned duration of the pause. It is highly advisable that a returning student considering a break have a conversation with the program coordinator or an academic advisor to understand the impact of that decision.

Further, there are additional considerations – the duration of the pause and potential changes to the program of study; access to financial aid and loan eligibility; as well as availability of next level.

Again, this is a decision that requires a personalized approach to ensure careful consideration of a student’s circumstance. To access academic advising or to find the program coordinators, visit: https://www.algonquincollege.com/acadvising/

21. Claude, since the Canadian and Ontario Governments might be looking for creative ways to save jobs, would you please consider having Algonquin College lead the way and discuss the option (amongst the ACET Team, with AC’s Board of Governors and with the Governments) of reallocating the funds intended for administrative bonuses so that support staff jobs can be saved?

The college has not considered repurposing the exceptional performance incentive (EPI) fund to help reduce the number of support staff layoffs.

22. If the president states that the college is still closed, why are some departments being recalled back to work on site?

A number of roles have been declared critical to ensure that the College infrastructure remains operable and can support remote delivery of programs and services. We also have a number of learners in Residence that require some level of support. Finally, the province has eased restrictions on some

economic sectors including construction, allowing the construction of the Athletic and Recreation Centre (ARC) to resume, thus requiring some on-site management and oversight from Facilities Management.

23. What mitigation factors for admin? So far we have only heard for Support. Are the admin using vacation, taking pay cuts, cutting bonuses?

The Mitigation document addresses all employment groups and focuses on the usage of excess vacation, current vacation allocation, redeployment, reduction in hours, Leave without Pay and ending of contracts/employment.

24. There are more managers now than there used to be at the college in the past several years. Is the College considering reducing the number of managers?

Mitigation options are being explored for all employee categories. A number of fixed term administrative contracts have been ended.

25. If programs experience low registration due to the current situation, will programs still run as planned? If not, when would a decision be taken regarding not running a particular program?

If the enrolments for a program or program level are too low, the College may make a decision to suspend for that term. This is never an easy decision as it can have continuing impacts in subsequent terms. Should such a decision be necessary, it will take place by June 15.

26. Since the international students will be able to attend fall classes remotely from their home countries, then how will they be able to attend the f-2-f lab classes?

International students will be informed that the program they wish to take has a face-to-face lab component. They will therefore need to be in Canada to take the program. International students can only join programs from their home country if the program is 100% remote delivery. This information is being conveyed to international students.

27. HR has directed managers to make sure employees use up all their vacation time. This seems to go against what the ESA says about vacation entitlement years and deadlines for taking vacation. Is the college sure that this directive is accurate?

Yes, the College is comfortable with the direction and the request to take vacation is within scope of the ESA legislation.

28. Has there been any further thought about retirement incentives

No. Retirement incentives are extremely costly. The College does not have the financial resources to consider offering this program at this time.

29. When are you expecting Support and Administrative Staff that are not client facing to be back on Campus?

The College Academic Continuity Plan prioritizes remote delivery of academic instruction for the Fall semester. Only required face-to-face activities should be planned for on-site delivery. In addition, the College will be continuing to prioritize remote delivery of services and work-from-home strategies to limit the on-campus requirements, as much as possible. As such, there should be an expectation that the only support and

administrative staff on-campus would be those who are required to support the on-campus academic activity in a face-to-face manner. This will help the College to ensure a safer community by limiting the population and optimizing space to support physical distancing.

30. If a PT faculty member is in a COVID-vulnerable group, will they be penalized if they refuse to do in-person classes?

The College will be following the directives of Ottawa Public Health and other government entities as they are the best source for ensuring that the College manages the process for all individuals who feel they are in the high risk category. Any request for accommodation should be submitted using established procedures. Each submission will be considered on its own merit.

31. How do we know if administrators are at "full capacity"?

Each supervisor is responsible for determining the capacity of their employees, no matter the employee group.

32. Will 90 days’ notice be given for support staff in the case of temporary layoffs

For Full Time Support Staff employees, these circumstances are considered to be beyond the reasonable control of the College as per the collective agreement; if notice is provided, it will be limited.

33. If a Full time support staff decides to take a leave of absence, will the College continue to pay benefits? If not, why?

An employee can request a leave of absence. Based upon the leave that is requested and approved, the continuation of benefits would apply in accordance with the leave provisions within the collective agreements and benefit agreements with SunLife.

34. CERB doesn't cover voluntary leave. Why is the College considering it over a layoff that would allow the employee to receive financial support?

CERB is a benefit payment made to an individual who is unable to work due to various COVID-19 reasons. An individual who does not have enough work or has family implications as a result of COVID-19 would be eligible for the benefit if they are not receiving any income. The College would process the leave request as the “declared emergency leave” as stipulated by the Province of Ontario.

35. Is the College cutting operational budgets to prevent layoffs?

Yes, the College has reduced operational budgets significantly to minimize the number of required layoffs. All discretionary expense budgets have been eliminated for the year.

36. Is it possible that part time and / or partial load employees retain their email and workday access? Many faculty are about to lose contact with AC as our employer because our access is cut off immediately upon the last day of the contract

The College grants access 30 days prior to the start of an other-than-full-time academic employee’s teaching and keeps it active for 30 days after the teaching ends. As long as an individual remains an active employee, the access to Algonquin systems is retained.

37. If we are trying to save money and staff have to take their

Not all are being covered by Appendix D, some are being covered with redeployment opportunities and some are not

vacation. Why are these positions being appendix D.

being covered as the work is not currently being completed due to remote work.

38. CERB/EI doesn't cover voluntary leave. Why is the College encouraging voluntary leave rather than shortage of work due to COVID?

CERB is a benefit payment made to an individual who is unable to work due to various COVID-19 reasons. An individual who does not have enough work or has family implications as a result of COVID-19 would be eligible for the benefit if they are not receiving any income. The College would process the leave request as the “declared emergency leave” as stipulated by the Province of Ontario.

39. What will be happening to Food Services employees if we are not able to have face to face interaction in the Fall?

Unfortunately, with significantly lower Food Service revenues, the College is required to layoff many employees. The Campus Services reserves have been depleted over the April to June period and there is no cash available to continue paying many of our Food Service employees.

40. If folks ask for reduced hours in the fall can they supplement their pay with vacation? If so, are they exempt from using vacation by August 31?

We are asking people to use vacation by August 31, with an excess amount of five days permitted to be carried over. If, after that time, an individual wishes to apply for reduced workload and has the five additional days, they can supplement their pay with the excess vacation.

41. Since Algonquin is now cancelling all in-person events at Algonquin College up to and including August 31, 2020. 1. Why is my manager and director telling me I will have to start working on campus starting in July? 2. What rights do I have?

We will be following all health and safety guidelines and will be able to provide more information to make everyone as comfortable as possible as we consider returning to campus.

42. Will staff who are laid off be entitled to CERB?

This decision will be made by Service Canada upon receipt of an application by the employee. Service Canada will determine whether an individual will quality for EI or CERB based upon the application that is submitted.

43 .Does redeployment apply to part-time Faculty?

Not at this time.

44. How is capacity measured for a role and who calculates that?

Capacity is measured by the manager based on current work being completed by employees. Given that work is being completed remotely, not all work can be completed in this way.

45. Question about redeployment: why is it okay for someone with less seniority and less accrued vacation time allowed to apply for redeployment before an employee who has worked at the College for a significant amount of years and are

Redeployment is not under the Collective Agreement and is not impacted by seniority. The College devised the Redeployment Program to ensure job security for employees for as long as possible and where possible. Vacation is part of a benefit offered by the College and therefore, should be used before redeploying someone into a different department, and/or laying someone off who does not have vacation to be used.

not allowed to apply for these job postings because they have to use up all their accrued vacation time?

46. How many people are able to be redeployed? There are not many jobs for the number of people who might need to be redeployed.

There have been 18 redeployment opportunities posted up to this point and six people have been redeployed.

47. In what ways have the union been included in the decision making process, either as a voice or partner? If you are deemed to not be at capacity and you do not get a redeployment, will your hours be reduced? Is there a timeline for this?

Our Union Partners have been informed of our mitigation options. We are always open to feedback and input, multiple ideas are always welcomed and I know through college employment stability committee, there are opportunities working with our colleagues that sit around the table both from the academic side and the support staff side to come back with some other creative solutions. We are always open to receiving suggestions that you may have and if there are department specific, program specific or school specific ideas about what might work better in your area, what could work, what are some of the ideas, I encourage you to reach out to your managers, chairs, deans and directors or your vice presidents that are sitting at this panel to hear your ideas, it is something that we would be open to and welcome all suggestions. In terms of reduction of hours – this is a possibility (hours reduced by up to 50%) for RPT employees, as per the PT SS CA.

48. How many employees have been laid off to date? How many, what kind of contracts have been cancelled?

No layoff notices have been issued as of May 28, 2020. Any contract that has expired/ended naturally and is not integral to academic continuity has not been renewed. Additionally, we have ended some fixed term admin contracts, Appendix D, part-time academic.

49. What financial compensation will be given, if any, to returning students who do not wish to complete their studies at this time and will they be able to formally defer their studies?

Students who choose to withdraw from the Spring/Summer term have until day 10 of the term to receive a refund less the deposit. Students withdrawing from their program as a result of personal exceptional circumstances, please submit a request for exceptional consideration via refundexception@algonquincollege.com. Exceptions to fee policies are individually assessed based on the unique personal circumstances. _______ Process detail: For consideration under the exceptional refund process, students are required to:

1. Officially withdraw from the program of study 2. Submit a written exceptional circumstance request. Submit via email to refundexception@algonquincollege.com. Submissions need to include:

Full Name Algonquin College Student Number Reason for the exceptional refund request Attach relevant supporting documentation (e.g. medical notes verifying inability to continue studies, death certificate), as available

Withdrawals and refunds are processed by the Algonquin College Registrar’s Office except for the Collaborative Programs, which are processed by the collaborative partner.

50. When can students (and their Professors) expect to learn whether their program (or which courses) will be taught online?

The Registrar’s Office is sending out communications to potential new students now. Returning students will be informed through their BrightSpace account in the coming week. Faculty should already be aware. If not, I suggest they should contact the Program Coordinator or the Program Chair.

51. Some employees would voluntarily "take a hit" collectively to allow other employees to keep their jobs. Are we considering strategies that employees could participate in, as a cost saving strategy to avoid layoffs? For instance, waiving bonuses if it meant a position was saved.

We are open to other ideas in addition to our existing mitigation options.

52. When will part-time and partial load be notified if they will be teaching in the fall?

Hiring for the Fall term has been delayed beyond when it normally takes place due to the Academic Continuity Planning work that was necessary. Part-time and Partial Load faculty should be hearing from their Chairs within the next two weeks.

53. A follow-up to the admission question for Laura - are we able to offer winter starts for fall students who cannot start - to hold their place?

If the program of study is offered in winter, applicants can change the preferred start term through their online application (www.ontariocolleges.ca). We cannot guarantee availability as it is dependent upon the total number of applications and capacity per program; however, through the online application, students can change the term of study or the program of study as many times as they wish. Students considering a change to their starting term can visit: www.ontariocolleges.ca for details on program availability or contact admissions@algonquincollege.com with more specific questions to make a decision.

54. Are pay cuts happening with our College Executive?

No employee, irrespective of employee group, is being asked to take a reduced compensation for working at full capacity.

55. Will our leadership waive their bonuses for the better good of the college and keeping more employees employed?

The college has not considered repurposing the exceptional performance incentive (EPI) fund to help keep more people employed.

56. Has there been a call out for employees to take a reduced work week so their Colleagues won't be laid off?

Employees are able to request a voluntary reduced workload. This is one of the mitigation options.

57. Is redeployment a term that is used only for full-time faculty? Can part-timers apply?

The Redeployment Program is being used for RPT – Regular Part-Time and full-time Support Staff, as well as Administrators.

58. Will admin, support staff etc., be able to continue to work from home? This will save on space, electricity, office supplies and more for the college and save employees time in commuting, vehicle maintenance and more time with family and personal wellness. Overall will help with job burnouts, overall health (more time for working out, healthier meals). Many other companies have implemented this before the pandemic and it worked well. Why hasn't the college thought of this when they are all about change, new practices and being a centre of education? Is the college now thinking about allowing this?

The college is developing a policy that will address this.

60. Small sacrifices across all can help us avoid great sacrifices for some. What if employees would rather take a slight pay cut to avoid their colleague losing their job? The AC community is like a big family....it doesn't seem right that some of our family members pay a great price of losing their job when others are left untouched.

All suggestions are welcome and can be explored. Terms and Conditions and Collective Agreements would need to be examined to see how this could be done locally.

Live Questions at the Town Hall that were answered:

Question Answer

For the client-facing employees at the College (EG. Health Services, RO, Food Services, etc.), some of whom are still face to face with the clients right now, what are the safety measures being implemented? When will they be implemented, since there are employees working on campus now?

Under Colin’s leadership, we’re actively working on measures to ensure we have appropriate controls and safeguards in place to keep our front-line workers safe and healthy. On campus to date, there are minimal staff so there are precautions being taken for those staff that come onto campus during this time to ensure that they are maintaining safety. For the fall, I do not have any specific response at this time. As these are just being worked through. We are following the guidance of public health and of course the provincial government to ensure the front-line workers are equipped with the appropriate training practices and personal protective equipment to be safe in that environment in the fall.

How does using vacation save the college money? Wouldn't it be better to wait until the college is in a better financial position to use it?

You would think that there would not be any savings because we are continuing to pay our people when they are going on vacation at their salary level. There is a savings reflected in our financial statement every year if we are able to reduce our vacation liability. There's an accounting principle that requires every organization to record as a liability on their balance sheet the banked vacation of an organization to each of its employees and there's a formula to determine how we value that vacation liability. In general it is average annual salary divided by the working days times that by number of vacation days banked. The more we can have our employees reduce their bank vacation or the accumulating vacation that will result in a credit on our income statement at the end of the year. It will improve our bottom line, our net contribution. That is the financial benefit of reducing our vacation liability. Of course there are other personal well-being benefit that we won’t go into.

Where are we at with the Redeployment program Process? Recognizing this will be fluid... wondering how many have been accommodated and how is it going? What has some of the challenges presented thus far?

Diane: I will probably turn it over to Penny afterwards to augment my answer just in case I have not covered everything. But essentially the redeployment program had 17 postings. So 17 opportunities. 16 support staff roles and 1 administrative role that were posted. My

understanding was that there was a total of 35 employee submissions for redeployment. So the possibility of redeployment. And out of that there were six opportunities out of that 17 opportunities that had no one submitted for consideration. Those postings ranged anywhere from five hours as an additional something you could take on up to 36.25 hours, so a full weeks worth. The opportunities span until August 31. There was a wide variety of different types of postings that came in. And I think from a phase I perspective, so our first opportunity to go through that process. It was a good response as people were trying to figure out what this would look like. I anticipate as we go through the summer months and into the fall and into our new realities where the capacities are changing so there might be some areas right now where they're coming up to say that we need a lot of work done in a particular area right now. Those opportunities should continue to come in. It is not that this program is closed, certainly for the things that have come in to date we have completed out those processes and matches have been found. If Penny would like to augment that answer at all. Penny: I would just add that we have redeployed six employees. One administrator, one academic and 4 support staff. Just from my account perspective just to let people know that those redeployments are happening and we continue to post redeployment opportunities as we receive them. Like Diane said we will continue to post these and they will range anywhere from five hours a week to 36.25 hours a week just depending on how overcapacity some of our departments are. Really it is helping some departments that are overcapacity and making sure everybody's getting the help that they need and everybody is able to use their skill set.

COVID-19 is destined to have permanent impacts on the way certain industries function. Algonquin College is no exception to this. Flexible working arrangements (working remotely) is one way that Algonquin College can be innovative as a part of a “new normal”. For positions and departments that can operate remotely, will Algonquin College innovate to allow this practice

We are starting to think about what this could possibly look like because again as I started to say at the very beginning, who would have thought that we were in this position 11 weeks ago and that we would be continuing to live this reality certainly through the summer. And what does that look like on a more permanent

to continue permanently? If not, what is the rationale?

solution? We are in the process of starting to turn our mind to that to say what would post-pandemic, post-state of emergency look like? As we look to the academic continuity plan to say the labs will be set up differently in the classrooms will be set up differently, that also comes with there won't be as many people on the campus. What does that look like in remote learning and also remote working? And so, we will contemplate looking at that from a more permanent perspective: this is something the executive team is starting to talk about. We are certainly looking at a policy on what flexible work arrangements look like on a permanent basis. But I'm not ready yet to rule that out because we are still under state of emergency. We still are looking at that this is not necessarily the new normal it could be a very different new normal, when we turn our mind to maybe partial attendance at the college campuses, so what does that look like? Do people come in and out of the college, there are so many things to turn your mind to. It was interesting to see in the news, I think it was Shopify that put it out there that they would be working remotely for the next year and even picking up some of their office space. There are institutions and organizations that are in fact doing that and it is up to us and our planning to turn our mind to it. I don't have a definitive answer for you, but it is certainly something that we have on her mind.

Who will inform students that their program is now online? Will students be given a set of expectations for participating (i.e., adequate connection, access to a device, etc.) in remote learning prior to registration?

The academic area and the registrar's office have been working very closely to coordinate those communications. Generally, the RO will communicate at a high level that your program is running, this is going to what it is going to look like whether it is going to be remote or require face-to-face. Then we are working with the program teams, the chair, the coordinator and the program faculty to communicate really those finer details to the students of this is what it's really going to look like, here is what your day is going to look like, here are the expectations for you, here are the timelines for those sorts of things. And that will be communicated with the students, particularly for the returning students through their Brightspace where will can trigger an announcement that will send an email to tell the students to come look at this and similar

emails from the program areas to the new level I students to share that type of information. The expectations again, as the individual plans are continuing to be refined at home, absolutely. Sharing the information of acceptable devices making sure that what we have posted on the web with regards to the BYOD actually meets the needs of the program if in its new remote delivery. Any other materials that are necessary, that is the kind of communication that will come directly from the program.

Many organizations are facing same challenges can you comment and provide businesses cases where Technology is helping the college to serve their mission ( for instance CRM)

We are aware of many instances where technology has been leveraged to improve the outcomes and the goals of the business and we are learning lots through this experience because we are having to rely on technology that we never had to deliver our programs and services to the students and accommodate our employees to be able to work and our executive team will be having a retreat in a week where we will be spending some time focusing on those types of things, such as how do we leverage this crisis to create opportunity for the college.

For full time support staff, "Notice of Termination" was not listed. Does this mean that termination does not apply to full time support staff? For lay-offs for Full Time Support staff: will Collective Agreement be adhered to or will the Furlough Agreement be followed (ignoring Article 15 in Collective Agreement)

I will answer the 2nd question first. Then I will ask Erin to help us with the article 15 information for the notice of termination question. With regards to the question with the furlough agreement be adhered to or will the article 15 in the collective agreement it hereto, we do not have a furlough agreement. We will only be abiding by the collective agreement. And so, in relation to the first question, the first question was the notice of termination not being listed in the slides. There is a complete process within the support staff collective agreement very much like the academic collective agreement that walks through different processes and seniority is key. When we go through the process, it's not the highest of seniority, it is the lowest of seniority that within the positions that gets the notice of layoff. Then those processes take place which includes a bumping process, all within the support staff collective agreement. Erin: We have a college employment stability committee composed of both union members and college members. We assist with the

process when a layoff is determined. We would work through that process with all parties, and there are bumping procedures as you discuss, there are recall procedures, and there's a fair amount of time and work that the college employment stability committee does together and makes recommendations to the President prior to termination being considered. When you look at the collective agreement, there are many steps that need to be followed prior to seniority being lost through a layoff in article 15.

Are there students who are having their fall term offer of admission pulled back because we have programs taking in fewer students to enable distancing?

We are not quite there yet but we do anticipate getting there very shortly to be in that situation because as Chris demonstrated in his PowerPoint presentation, physical distancing means being able to accommodate fewer students so the Registrar's Office is working very closely with the Department's. We will be in a very unique position where we will most likely need to rescind some offers and we will work that through in a very careful way, a very personalized way with the students to see if there is any other capacity in a program that they may want to pursue and if not, and we saw a lot of the online capabilities for our students, the majority of the fall is being offered remotely so that certainly helps in terms of not having to rescind offers. It will be a situation that we work through very carefully- in a coordinated effort to communicate properly, internally and to our students.

Have our learners been informed, where appropriate that they will be learning remotely for the fall semester. When will we know which programs are not going to run this fall?

The consultation with the RO has been happening. There has been a flurry of activity this week and I have lost track of whether or not these communications have gone out or are going out imminently but they are going out very soon. As far as when the greater college community can find which programs are not being offered, that information I have, I just need to find a good venue in which to share that so that information will be coming out over the next few days. Either at the end of this week or the beginning of next week when we find a good way of communicating what that information is – so soon.

Have employees or Unions been consulted to give their mitigation ideas? There might be alternatives to the ones that were listed here.

I can say that we are always open to feedback and input, multiple ideas are always welcomed and I know through the college employment stability committee, there are opportunities working with our colleagues that sit around the table both from the academic side and the support staff side to come back with some other creative solutions. We are always open to receiving suggestions that you may have and if there are department specific, program specific or school specific ideas about what might work better in your area, what could work, what are some of the ideas, I encourage you to reach out to your managers, chairs, deans and directors or your vice presidents that are sitting at this panel to hear your ideas, it is something that we would be open to and welcome all suggestions.

If the unions are partners, why have the local executives not been given a seat at the table to discuss workforce planning in the same manner as when addressing bill 148 issues in the past?

Diane: What we are doing is human resources developed this mitigation HR strategy from a job protection perspective and what we do is we have a COVID team that is working under Colin’s’ leadership as well, there's a lot of different subgroups and then our ACL team, our Algonquin College leadership team meets regularly at first we were meeting almost every day than it went every 2nd day, our executive team meets every day on this so that is how we are handling this but we certainly have regular check ins with our union partners and keep the conversations flowing. Claude: It is a very important question, we absolutely need everyone at the table to have the best possible solution for our employees and as you've heard from Diane, we are asking constantly for that input in order to capture that input into the eventual solutions that are put forward. And that offer still stands. If there is anything that we can do together to arrive at a good solution, going forward, we will absolutely entertain those. I am personally in conversations with our 2 union presidents as well as our student association president as I have always done but now more frequently as a result of the pandemic where we find ourselves in. As Diane has mentioned, our 2 union presidents are sitting on CBC [College Budget Committee], they are sitting themselves or their representative on the COVID committee and that is where many of the

suggestions around how to handle the situations are being formed and those suggestions make their way to our leadership team as well as to the executive team to form as part of our plans. Yes, it is happening, could we do more? Absolutely, we need to do more and I would welcome suggestions on how we can certainly increase the amount of input we are receiving so we can look under every rock, and not leave any suggestions not thought through or not considered.

Do you anticipate many (most) student services to continue to be offered virtually in the fall term? Will students be told to only visit campus on the days they must do so for learning activities?

Duane: I can speak to some of that and Laura can also answer. The student services that are in my portfolio are generally the campus and ancillary services. There are some of those services being offered virtually where we can for example purchasing course materials can be done online and we are now offering curbside pickup. That is probably the most prominent example that comes to mind. But I turn it over to Laura to follow along with that. Laura: We saw in Chris Janzen's presentation that we anticipate the fall term to have about 5300 students. Possibly less, we will see. And not all here at the same time. So student services is following the same guidelines as the academic program - only people who need to be here on campus will be here on campus to deliver services. We will certainly be following all of the health protocols. And we have proven through these past 11 or 12 weeks now that we have also pivoted quickly and have been able to offer all of our student services remotely and in a very good way and we will do continue to do so with the majority of our services through the fall.

Some people don’t know that they need VPN to access the redeployment opportunities. Could the college send a communication out to let them know, with a link to instructions for VPN access? Is there a strategy to connect with staff who do not have regular VPN access with redeployment opportunities and other important news etc.?

Duane: Yes we can and will send out a communication concerning the process to use VPN to access this redeployment opportunities. Diane: I was thinking about how would we communicate opportunities who may have a variety of reasons do not have their contract active anymore and so I will turn my mind to that and think about that. I know that Penny came up with a solution during a recent round. Penny if you're able to speak to is I believe you sent it out

a different way. Can you add to what we did the last round? Penny: In terms of sending out the redeployment postings - we sent those out in three different ways. First we posted them on my AC. HR has a regular job posting spot on my AC so it is a job posting page and what we've done is posted all redeployment opportunities there. Secondly we sent them out to a regular distribution list that we use across the college. That typically goes to 200 people or so across the college made up of different administrative assistants, timekeepers and budget officers, a number of different peoples who asked to be on the distribution list over the year so that goes out every single day and then thirdly we post them on workday but it is internal to the college only so no one external to the college can see them. Diane: That is relation to the VPN access thank you for providing an overview of some of the other steps. It still does not address the how do we send out important communication. We will turn our mind to that so I do not have an answer for you right now. We will certainly talk to Tracy and her team from a communications perspective to see how best we can continue our communication.

Will the college executive management team take a pay cut or use their excess vacation.

The subject of compensation let me be clear we are not asking any group to take a pay cut for the work that they do. If you're doing work and you're doing your work at the hundred percent you are going to be compensated at 100%. We are being true to that and were asking that every group receives the proper compensation for work done. And that is true for the executives and the administrators and support staff and faculty. On the topic of vacation I have asked my executive team, including myself to take all of their vacation, accumulated in 19/20 vacation included. At this point I think we only had two people, me included with just a couple of days left. I think everybody else consumed or plans to consume between now and end of August all of their vacation. We are setting the example as I have asked my team to do so and I know that it is important. Let me just open a small bracket for a second here. I'm one to say that there's always

work to be done. I could definitely fit that bill and I ended up taking the 15th of May as a vacation day. It did me the world of good. I did not know how much I needed to be off on that day. That is my message to everybody. A vacation is not meant to be something that you accumulate as a bank for future things. It is meant to be used to see to your health. It is meant to be used as a part of making sure that we have people effective at work. It is there for that purpose. If we use our vacation well and use it to recharge and replenish that is exactly what we need. We need people to be effective when at work and to be able to take the vacation when it is important to take that. Right now as Duane said earlier, there is an imperative to take vacation to assist globally the institution in order to see to the pandemic from a financial perspective there is a component of saving at the end of the day so I have asked the team to do that – everyone has done that. We’re getting a weekly report from Maureen Castella in HR of where we're at in addressing this and we are following up with our managers to make sure that we are all taking that time because it is important to do that especially this summer.

We have a series of questions to perhaps further clarify the type of consultation and communications that were having with our union partners- if you can help provide a bit of an overview of what exactly that means as there are numerous references to union partners is a part of our presentation and we have a number of people in a few different ways looking for some clarity on what exactly that means and perhaps more practical sets.

Diane: Certainly we had, with our academic union partner we have twice a week now- Chris and Erin and myself meet with our union president and another representative of the executive and to have conversations about what are some of the issues that are being brought forth from the academic area and what we need to be turning our mind to. It has been very helpful for me to hear directly to understand what is of concern. Sometimes we can do some things about it jointly and sometimes we cannot but at least it gives us that opportunity to have those discussions. Certainly from the support staff side we are having our problem-solving meetings regularly, Erin will speak to that. I've had the benefit of being able to share, I will give you an example. My last communiqué that was sent out to the college community, either yesterday or the day before, I was able to provide an advance notice to both Christine and to Annette and they gave me very helpful suggestions and some feedback from their perspective on my communiqué and I thought that was really helpful

and that is an example of us, in my perspective working very positively and working together. We may not always agree on direction but I do have to say it was from feedback from some of these meetings that I turned my mind to that - we needed to have more clarity on what all of the strategies were for the different employee groups because that was something that was not being transparent to the college community. And it was feedback from those conversations that helped me understand that. Where I may not have received that feedback directly. Chris: The conversations I've had with the academic union president have not touched as much on the workforce planning and mitigation as it has around the work of going remote, workload assignment and making sure everything is being done fairly and equitably in accordance with the collective agreement. These conversations have been remarkably helpful for me. I could hear sometimes how things are being interpreted and enacted and I hear directly from union folks on how things are being enacted and where communication needs to be strengthened coming from me so things are done in a fair and consistent manner and in keeping with the collective agreement. Those conversations have been wonderful. And really I look forward to more of them.

Will extra supports be available for students in the fall over and above what we usually have in place? Examples bright space, ITS and tech resources.

Chris: I will start here and then turn it to Laura. The answer is yes. I give you an example that I used from the program management graduate certificate. I know faculty are turning their minds to making sure students have environment in which is going to be easy for them to learn, have had a good experience and still thrive in this new reality that we have. The questions that were asked earlier around making sure students are well aware of the technology that is going to be required for them to be successful. We’re trying to ensure that that is well communicated. I know when we went to remote emergency delivery in the winter term the college gave a strong effort trying to ensure that all students have good access to internet, at least at a speed that they would be able to be functioning within that remote delivery. I know we are looking forward to continuing that this summer and in trying to

ensure that students this fall are really set up in a position for success rather than hamstringing them to begin with by expecting technology that they are not going to have available. Of course were turning our minds to those certain things and to the actual classroom experience. I might also add we’re turning our minds to the experience of the faculty. We have significantly increased the capacity of learning and teaching services to help faculty learn how to better interact with their students. That is where the student experience happens is that interface between the faculty and student. If we increase the faculty members’ comforts of the ability in those areas the students will have a better experience. Laura: In terms of student services and extra support services what we are doing is we pivoted quickly in offering traditional face-to-face supports in different ways. We are continuing to analyze how that worked and what we are doing so far. One of those examples would be spring orientation and how did that go and what did we experience that we can do better. Each of the Departments in student services is doing the same type of exercise since we've transitioned this way. We will and continue to be more proactive in our outreach and what is that right balance for our students. I would say it's almost a daily assessment of how we are working our way through this and what our students need in this very different type of environment. It's just continual improvement and continual assessment and literally also by asking students. I saw that somewhere in the questions what we are asking her students. I think it's imperative that we’re understanding their experiences and learning where there are gaps and see how we can close those gaps.

The last series of questions if I include them into a theme that we have not yet started to address is around the return to the work on campus. And the question around for staff or security have been asked to return to work now I will or will be returning to work this fall, what are the training requirements and prevention measurements including PPE supplies are being considered and where can we find this type of documentation moving forward?

We have a workplace recovery group that is working towards getting a clear picture of what that will look like first off in the fall when people return. Just recently we have released our Occupational Health & Safety guidelines in draft that will apply for all employees along with the draft policy and accompanying that we are developing a training program that will specifically help people understand the new

environment that they are coming back to in the fall which will include all of the information, not that it is necessarily new information. We did have a lot of information that was posted to the college FAQ site around hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette and physical distancing. But this training will be specific for all employees are coming back to the campus to be able to go through the training so that they are prepared, coming back in and know what measures are being taken. In terms of PPE the application for PPE will be very specific in terms of what jobs individual people are doing. Not all jobs will require PPE. And where those requirements are in place certainly there will be dedicated training for the use of PPE as well.