Read English version of Vice-Dean of studies Trien Waaktaar`s Editorial below
Det er h?st, det er m?rkere og kaldere og v?tere utend?rs slik at vi s?ker innend?rs, og som flere har ventet stiger koronasmitten igjen. Hittil i dette semesteret har vi p? UiO v?rt b?de dyktige til ? f?lge smitteregler og heldige med ? unng? stor ukontrollert smittespredning. Dermed har vi kunnet glede oss over en trygt gjennomf?rt studiestart. Denne innsatsen ble p? SV-fakultetet forlenget gjennom den nyutviklede kollokviefadderordningen, som ga mulighet for at studentene kunne f?lge hverandre sosialt b?de fysisk og digitalt, samtidig som de tok fatt p? det faglige.
At studentene kjente hverandre litt og hadde kontakt mellom forelesningene har ogs? gjort dem tryggere i m?tet med digital undervisning videre i semesteret. En stor takk til alle dyktige faddere og ansvarlige studenter, og til gode organisatorer p? enhetene og p? SV-info for dette!
Satte pris p? ? m?tes
Denne h?sten har virkelig tydeliggjort hvor viktig fysiske m?ter er for b?de studenter og undervisere, og for sosial kontakt i det hele tatt. S? langt har vi f?tt til mer fysisk og hybrid undervisning enn vi f?rst trodde vi skulle f? til, og det har mange satt pris p? b?de av ansatte og studenter. Da smitteniv?et i Oslo ble r?dt igjen i begynnelsen av oktober, valgte SV-fakultetet ? f?lge byr?dets sterke anmodning om ? flytte alle aktiviteter der det var mulig, til hjemmekontor. Dette har - ikke minst – v?rt for ? for ? beskytte kjerneaktivitetene som fysisk undervisning og n?dvendige forskningsaktiviteter. I skrivende stund gjelder et fornyet p?legg fra byr?det om hjemmekontor og forsterket anmodning om at vi m? ta en ny vurdering av hva som kan overf?res p? rent digitale plattformer. Ikke lenge etter siste pressekonferanse med byr?dsleder Raymond Johansen, s? vi bilder fra NTNU Gj?vik, der vektere patruljerer korridorene for ? kontrollere at ansatte og studenter holder smittevernreglene. Dit ?nsker vi ikke komme hos oss! N? gjelder det for oss alle at vi deltar i dugnaden og f?r ned smitteniv?et.
Har digitale systemer som fungerer
Samtidig som vi verdsetter ? treffes fysisk, har alle enheter hele tiden hatt en beredskap for ? flytte all virksomhet over p? digitale plattformer om det skulle bli n?dvendig. I denne situasjonen, selv om mange av oss er lei smitteregler og digitale m?ter, er det heldig at vi p? universitetet har digitale alternativer som kan mobiliseres. Undervisere og forskere og administrasjon, IT-folk, renholdsarbeidere og kantinepersonell, studenter og ledere har sammen bidratt s? vi har holdt virksomheten i gang, og det m? vi fortsette med. Studentene f?r undervisning og avlegger eksamen i minst like stor grad som f?r koronaen.
Mellom hjemmekontorer og grisgrendt m?blerte m?terom foreg?r det planlegging, langsiktig strategiarbeid, kursing, nominering, evaluering, veiledning og viktig faglig utveksling. Studentdemokratiet fungerer ogs? digitalt, SVSU engasjerer seg b?de med ? ivareta medstudenter som sitter alene p? hyblene sine, og i mer langsiktige prosjekter, som blant annet et nyopprettet n?ringslivsutvalg som skal jobbe for studentkontakt med arbeidslivet.
Kommer til ? vare en stund
Vi skal ikke late som m?ten vi jobber p? n? er optimal. Det er mye vi gjerne skulle sett annerledes, og det kan v?re frustrerende, slitsomt og demotiverende ? ikke kunne levere p? den m?ten man ?nsker og er vant til. Pandemien krever en fleksibilitet og improvisasjon som p? mange m?ter er n?yaktig det motsatte av det man vet gir kvalitet og effektivitet i storskala-undervisning. N? vet vi ogs? at denne pandemien nok kommer til ? prege oss en god stund.
Vi satser iherdig med ? forbedre tiltak der vi ser mangler og feil. Samtidig tror jeg det er veldig viktig ? v?re bevisst p? ? ikke la det beste bli det godes fiende. Vi skal st? i dette l?pet uten ? bli utbrente. S? mens vi jobber p?, m? vi huske ? klappe b?de oss selv og hverandre (digitalt!) p? skulderen og ? v?re rause om noe ikke fungerer, til tross for all innsats. Det er ogs? viktig ? ta pauser innimellom n?r det blir for tr?tt. Med et virus som er av en slik art at det sprer seg p? basis av v?re medf?dte behov for ? omg?s andre mennesker, har menneskeheten virkelig f?tt en vanskelig fiende ? bekjempe. Det m? vi gj?re med tiltak basert p? kunnskap, og mens v?re kolleger innenfor MedNat-feltet jobber med virusbekjempelse via vaksine og behandling, ser vi at de samfunnsmessige utfordringene bare flammer opp og krever svar fra alle v?re SV-fag.
Kan ogs? motivere
Jeg tror at studentene p? SV-fakultetet, som forskerne, ogs? vil la seg motivere av den ?penbare samfunnsrelevansen av faget de studerer. Erfaringene fra v?rens lockdown tilsier at studentene som n? sitter i ?kt isolasjon og tiltakende eksamenspress vil klare ? holde konsentrasjonen denne siste ?kta fram til eksamen. Det m? til, for det kommer tider etter denne der de selv skal forvalte verdien av det ? vite og forst?, og beherske metoder til ? utforske det vi enda ikke begriper.
Det er krevende tider for alle, og idet vi gj?r enda en koronainnstramming dette semesteret kan det kan v?re grunn til ? minne om et (lett omskrevet) opprop fra et England i 1939 som rustet seg til krig: Stay safe and carry on!
Editorial: Important to be generous with each other
We're going to survive this pandemic without getting burnt out. So while we're working away, we must remember to pat both ourselves and each other (digitally!) on the back and to be generous if something doesn't work, despite all our efforts, writes Dean of Studies, Trine Waaktaar
It's autumn, it's darker and colder and wetter outdoors, so we are spending more time indoors, and as many people have been expecting, the coronavirus is surging again. So far this semester, we have been good at complying with the infection control rules at the UiO and we have also been lucky to avoid a widespread, uncontrolled spread of the disease. Consequently we have been able to enjoy safe completion of the start of studies. These efforts were extended at the Faculty of Social Sciences with our newly-developed colloquium buddy scheme which provided students with the opportunity to keep in physical and digital touch with each other socially, while also getting to grips with their academic studies.
The fact that the students knew each other a bit and had contact between lectures has also made them feel safer when receiving digital tuition later on during the semester. A big thank you to all our competent buddies and responsible students, and to all the excellent organisers in our units and at SV-info!
Appreciated meeting
This autumn has really shown us how important physical meetings are for both students and teachers, and for social contact in general. So far we have managed to offer more physical and hybrid tuition than we previously thought we would manage, and this has been appreciated by many of our employees and students. When the level of infection in Oslo turned red again at the beginning of October, the Faculty of Social Sciences decided to comply with the Oslo City Council’s strong recommendations about transferring all activities to a home environment. This has been designed - not least - to protect our core activities, e.g. physical tuition and essential research activities. At the time of writing, further instructions issued by the Oslo City Council about working from home are in force, along with a reinforced request that we reconsider what we could transfer to purely digital platforms. Not long after City Council Chairman Raymond Johansen held his most recent press conference, we saw images from the NTNU in Gj?vik, where security guards were patrolling the corridors to make sure that employees and students were complying with the infection control rules. We don't want that to happen here! Now we all need to pull together in order to reduce the infection levels.
Digital systems that work
While we value being able to meet physically, all our units have always had contingency measures in place to enable the transfer of all our activities onto digital platforms if this becomes necessary. In this situation, although many of us are fed up with infection control rules and digital meetings, we are lucky at the university to have digital alternatives that could be mobilised. Teachers, researchers, administrators, IT workers, cleaners, canteen staff, students and managers have all contributed towards keeping our activities up and running, and we need to continue with this. Students are receiving tuition and taking exams just as much now as they did before the coronavirus outbreak.
Planning, long-term strategy work, training, nominations, evaluations, supervision and important academic exchanges are taking place in home offices and sparsely furnished meeting rooms. Student democracy is also being pursued digitally, with the SVSU involved in both looking after fellow students who are living alone in their bedsits, and in longer-term projects, including a newly created business committee that will work to promote contact between students and the labour market.
Going to last a while
We're not going to pretend that the way we are working now is the optimal solution. There is a lot that we would like to see done differently, and not being able to deliver in the way we want to and are used to can be frustrating, tiring and demotivating. The pandemic demands flexibility and improvisation that in many ways is exactly the opposite of what we know produces quality and efficiency when providing tuition on a large scale. We now also know that this pandemic is probably going to affect us for quite some time.
We are committed to improving measures when we see deficiencies and errors. At the same time, I think it's very important to be aware that we should never look a gift horse in the mouth. We’re going to survive this pandemic without getting burned out. So while we're working away, we must remember to pat both ourselves and each other (digitally!) on the back and to be generous if something doesn't work, despite all our efforts. It's also important to take breaks sometimes when things get too tough. Humanity really does have a difficult enemy to combat in the form of a virus that spreads as a result of our innate need to socialise with other people. We must fight it with measures based on knowledge, and while our colleagues in the MedNat field are working on fighting the virus with vaccines and treatment, we are aware that the social challenges are simply flaring up and requiring answers from all our social science subjects.
Can also motivate
I believe that, like the researchers, students at the Faculty of Social Sciences will also allow themselves to be motivated by the obvious social relevance of the subject they are studying. The experiences we have acquired from the lockdown this spring suggest that those students who are now isolated and under increasing pressure from exams will be able to maintain their concentration now during the final run-up to their exams. This needs to work, because there will be times later on when they themselves will have to manage the value of knowing and understanding, and mastering methods for exploring things which we do not yet understand.
These are challenging times for everyone, and as we once again implement coronavirus austerity measures this semester, we could benefit from recalling a (slightly reworded) poster published in England in 1939 as the country prepared to go to war: Stay safe and carry on!