{"id":835,"date":"2021-10-13T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/?p=835"},"modified":"2021-10-13T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T08:56:06","slug":"ueb-blog-12-10-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/2021\/10\/13\/ueb-blog-12-10-21\/","title":{"rendered":"UEB Blog 12.10.21"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director, Engagement and Advancement<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-834 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/10\/UEB-Blog-12.10.21.fw_.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"590\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/10\/UEB-Blog-12.10.21.fw_.png 590w, https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/10\/UEB-Blog-12.10.21.fw_-300x142.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Operating in <strong>Gold Command<\/strong> mode, UEB discussed several operational and campus issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Vice-Chancellor expressed his and UEB\u2019s huge thanks and appreciation to everyone who has worked incredibly hard in recent weeks to prepare our teaching, campuses, residences and student support for a successful start to the new academic year.<\/li>\n<li>We are, of course, monitoring closely the return of our students and more staff to our campuses. We continue to be in regular dialogue with our local health protection board and with our campus trades unions, and we are listening carefully to feedback from students, staff and SUSU. It has now been two weeks since the bulk of our students returned and, as of Tuesday morning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/coronavirus\/campus-life.page\">COVID case levels remain low<\/a>. But we remain very vigilant \u2013 this is a critical moment for us to ensure we continue to support each other in keeping our community safe, exercising caution and ensuring everyone respects and adheres to our community expectations, particularly around <a href=\"https:\/\/sotonac.sharepoint.com\/teams\/HealthSafetyRisk\/SitePages\/Face-Coverings.aspx?xsdata=MDN8MDF8fDlhYTExMWJlY2EyOTRhMmFiMjljMWJjY2ZjMjgyOThmfDRhNTM3OGY5MjlmNDRkM2ViZTg5NjY5ZDAzYWRhOWQ4fDF8MHw2Mzc2OTcxMDkwNTc3MTIzNzJ8R29vZHxWR1ZoYlhOVFpXTjFjbWwwZVZObGNuWnBZMlY4ZXlKV0lqb2lNQzR3TGpBd01EQWlMQ0pRSWpvaUlpd2lRVTRpT2lJaUxDSlhWQ0k2TVRKOQ%3D%3D&amp;sdata=Z2d4Z2tQUDNYcm5ROFpUYVFTOUF4ZThBeUVBUzFzNmJzSDJMMGpLWVFQYz0%3D&amp;ovuser=4a5378f9-29f4-4d3e-be89-669d03ada9d8%2Crb2n18%40soton.ac.uk&amp;OR=Teams-HL&amp;CT=1634114114460\">the wearing of face coverings<\/a> when moving around inside a shared University building or in crowded spaces. It is encouraging that vaccination rates are high within our student community, and we are continuing to promote and facilitate easy-access vaccinations, alongside our regular testing programme.<\/li>\n<li>In response to requests, additional signage is being installed this week, and we are also looking at a small number of teaching spaces where bottlenecks could occur on entry and exit, and where additional measures may be required. We will continue to monitor and adapt accordingly.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The meeting then reverted to normal UEB mode to discuss a number of other issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>UEB heard there had been another highly successful <strong>open day<\/strong> over the weekend, with more than 6,000 people on campus. There was very positive feedback for the very warm welcome given, from both prospective students and parents, and UEB expressed its thanks to all those who helped organise and participate in a highly successful event.<\/li>\n<li>UEB was updated on the widespread consultations which have been taking place on the emerging new <strong>University Strategy<\/strong>. This has included the first ever joint meeting of Council, Senate and Senior Leaders; the first ever strategy session with our alumni community; and the Vice-Chancellor has also held very positive meetings in recent weeks with our four key local authorities, at leader and chief executive level, and had been invited to address the entire ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ City Council Cabinet later that day. The Vice-Chancellor is also this week attending a number of faculty and directorate Town Halls to hear views and answer questions on the strategy. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/sussed-news\/2021\/10\/11\/four-more-days-to-go-share-your-views-in-our-university-strategy-consultation\/?sussed-user=staff&amp;utm_source=email+&amp;utm_medium=Staff+Digest&amp;utm_campaign=12-10-2021\">The deadline for submitting online comments<\/a> on this second phase of consultation on the University strategy is midnight on Thursday 14 October. Input and feedback from the various Town Hall meetings which are being held will continue to be received and considered beyond that date.<\/li>\n<li>There was a wide-ranging discussion about the <strong>Key Performance Indicators<\/strong> (KPIs) which we will be proposing to our governing Council and against which we will measure progress against delivery of the new strategy &#8211; an issue on which there has been very helpful engagement from various consultation meetings. There is a recognition of the need for a small number of top-level KPIs, which will inevitably often be an aggregate of more granular second-level KPIs, and also a recognition of the importance \u2013 and challenge &#8211; of making such KPIs meaningful and relatable to everyday working life. Discussions will need to continue, and the development of effective and more granular KPIs for the individual strategic plans, which will underpin delivery of the main University strategy, is going to be a key element of the next round of business planning.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, UEB welcomed a decision to plan for a return next year to an in-person <strong>¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ Science and Engineering Festival<\/strong> (SOTSEF), on Saturday 7 May instead of the traditional March weekend date. This year\u2019s event had to be online-only due to the pandemic. The meeting then ended with the regular review of the <strong>University Risk Register<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Shaun Williams, Executive Director, Engagement and Advancement Operating in Gold Command mode, UEB discussed several operational and campus issues: The Vice-Chancellor expressed his and UEB\u2019s huge thanks and appreciation to everyone who has worked incredibly hard in recent weeks to prepare our teaching, campuses, residences and student support for a successful start to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":227,"featured_media":834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ueb-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2021\/10\/UEB-Blog-12.10.21.fw_.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfzuzw-dt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions\/838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/ueb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}