The University of Queensland is making significant advances in flood recovery with staff working round the clock to restore the St Lucia campus to pristine condition.
Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Keniger said that summer classes would resume on Thursday, January 20 with the majority of teaching facilities not affected.
The Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) program has been rescheduled to start on January 20, and no other disruption to the UQ teaching programs is foreseen.
He said the numbers of core staff were now swelling at the St Lucia and Gatton campuses, to rapidly return systems to normal.
“We are on track to reopen our doors to students and for most staff to return on January 20 thanks to the dedicated work by our core team, contractors and volunteers,” he said.
“The recovery operations have proceeded more quickly than we had hoped and UQ is in an excellent position to recommence operations.”
Professor Keniger said the QTAC website at www.qtac.edu.au was now back online so students could accept their offers for places at UQ.
After students had received their offers, if they had an enquiry about the recent QTAC offer round, they could email admissionenquiries@admin.uq.edu.au
“To put into perspective the amount of progress our staff have made in recovery, they trucked 270 tonnes of silt offsite yesterday alone, from car parks and a low-lying ring road near the Brisbane river, Sir William MacGregor Drive,” he said.
“An insurance loss adjuster has completed an audit of 85-90 percent of facilities at the St Lucia campus and will be at Gatton tomorrow and Pinjarra Hills and our Indooroopilly mine location on Tuesday.
“As waters dried up, staff rescued stranded fish and a turtle from isolated puddles at St Lucia and moved them to safety.”
Today's photographs of recovery activities at St Lucia by freelance photographer David Sproule can be viewed online at: http://www.thosepix.com/UQF2011/
Ongoing construction projects will resume at the St Lucia campus tomorrow as planned.
The Gatton campus is housing cleanup crews working in the Lockyer Valley.
The School of Veterinary Science at Gatton is housing a range of animals from flood-affected regions of the Lockyer Valley and providing veterinary support.
Professor Keniger said UQ was very grateful to Universities from throughout Australia and internationally who have shown their collegial spirit with offers of support and empathy.
He thanked the UQ Union and UQ Students who hit the streets yesterday and again today cleaning and providing assistance to residents in the Brisbane community.
“From a centre at the corner of Sir Fred Schonell Drive and Warren Street the students helped with restoration of student residences, university facilities and private properties within the neighbouring community,” he said.
The UQ Union was providing further services to flood-affected students such as emergency accommodation and a clothes washing service. See www.facebook.com/UQUnion or email president.union@uq.edu.au
UQ flood update
Transport — buses are operating to the St Lucia campus and travelling over the Eleanor Schonell Bridge (Green Bridge) and also to Hawken Drive, St Lucia with the Chancellor’s Place terminal fully operational from Monday. The UQ City Cat terminal is not operational and will be out of service for some time. Visit the Translink site www.translink.com.au for further details.
Roads – all roads within the St Lucia campus will be open by later today, with the exception of Sir William MacGregor Drive where heavy operating machinery remains at work. Pumps are being brought in to shift the last of the flood water between the Eleanor Schonell Bridge and Blair Drive. Please observe signage postings and directions.
Car parking — the University will open most of its car parks tomorrow – essential staff, contractors and volunteers should follow signage directions.
Street parking will not be permitted to enable crews free access to remove remaining mud and debris. It is particularly important that people do not park in Sir William MacGregor Drive or on Glasshouse Road, or their vehicles will be towed.
At the end of today it is expected that the only remaining car parks to be cleared are Conifer Knoll, the Sustainable Minerals Institute building and Walcott Street.
Road closures to the St Lucia campus main entrances remain in place today but will be lifted tomorrow.
There will be no charge for car parking for UQ staff and students until further notice.
Buildings — All damaged buildings or facilities have had a specific project manager allocated today. 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.
Childcare - the Margaret Cribb and Munro childcare centres were extensively damaged and UQ staff are examining temporary alternatives.
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.
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.
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.
UQ 24-hour Flood Hotline
UQ 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)
The lines will operate for 24-hours every day.
FAQs
The University has posted Frequently Asked Questions for International Students, Australian 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 will recommence on Monday, January 17.
The BeL Air 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
However, the airport collection and temporary accommodation request web system is temporarily inaccessible and requests should be sent to ss@uq.edu.au
Alternative emergency accommodation has been sourced for arriving students and Urban Nest (Southbank) will take emergency cases as of tomorrow, January 17.
The University has 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
Introductory Academic Program (IAP) classes are delayed for AusAid students until 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. The IELTS tests scheduled for January 15 at both UQ St Lucia and Spring Hill will be rescheduled. Students registered to do these tests will be contacted from January 20, regarding arrangements to take the test.
Campus reopening and access
University campuses will reopen on Thursday, January 20, allowing staff time to assist in the recovery operations.
In the meantime, staff and students are requested to delay non-essential access until Thursday.
Access to the St Lucia campus will remain controlled up until and including Wednesday, 19 January 2011 for reasons of safety, practical issues such as sewage system operations and to prevent unauthorised access to buildings. (The UQ sewage element is repaired but further work is required downstream by urban utilities).
Any UQ staff member requested to attend the campus should have their manager advise security by calling 07 3365 1234 so that 'access control' is notified. Staff entering the campus must show their UQ identification to 'access control' at entry points.
Work is progressing quickly on clearing car park areas, roads and pathways.
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.
If students have been so disrupted or upset by this tragedy that they wish to withdraw from their summer course (other than courses that were delivered in Teaching Period 6 that concluded before Christmas), the University will be sympathetic to such applications, and will consider allowing withdrawal without academic penalty and financial liability.
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
Anyone who would like to volunteer to help with the cleanup at UQ can register their interest by calling the general enquiries hotline 07 3346 4444.
Daily updates on the UQ flood recovery are posted online at www.uq.edu.au
For media inquiries contact: Kathy Grube (0418 524 297) or Jan King (0413 601 248).
