Faculty & staff

Advise your student to stay home and call the Public Health COVID-19 Line for assistance and follow their instructions. Students can reach the Public Health COVID-19 Line at 514-644-4545 or toll free at 1-877-644-4545. Students with hearing impairments can call toll free at 1-800-361-9596.

The Public Health COVID-19 Line is available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Outside these hours, students can call Info-Santé at 8-1-1.

If your student developed COVID-19 symptoms within 48 hours of being on campus, please advise them to contact Environmental Health and Safety by phone at 514-848-2424, ext. 4877, or by email at ehs@concordia.ca.

For more information, please refer to Concordia’s COVID-19 symptoms and precautions page.

Faculty members who need to purchase any IT equipment using professional development allowance or research funds should use the intake form and indicate that they are making an emergency purchase request.

Please refer to the guide to digital teaching developed by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL).

The Teaching and Learning working group is in contact with faculties and departments to identify which activities absolutely require physical presence. Concordia is also developing protocols to establish how in-person activities will be conducted to conform with physical distancing and health and safety measures mandated by public health authorities.

Although the Webster and Vanier libraries, as well as the Grey Nuns Reading Room, will remain physically closed, access to digital collections, “Ask a Librarian,” consultations with subject librarians, interlibrary loans and other online services are functional, and will continue to expand to include instruction and additional digital resources.

Concordia Library is also providing restricted access to its physical collections over the fall term. For Course Reserves, the Library will ensure the best access possible for your students, as well as copyright compliance on your behalf. Consult the Library FAQ.

The Webster and Vanier libraries are open at a limited capacity to allow access to reserved single-seat study spaces for students. These study spaces are uniquely intended for those students who are not able to study at home. More information on how students can book spaces is available on the Library’s website.

Follett, the new bookstore service provider on campus, will help with all your course material needs. Students will be able to purchase digital course materials through the provider’s website. Follett will also ship textbooks and coursepacks to students’ homes, whether they’re living in Montreal or elsewhere.

A diverse selection of digital learning technologies will also be available. Follett will also offer affordable open educational resources content and courseware through Lumen Learning.

Follett’s cost-saving print options include used books offerings and a text rental program that saves students up to 80 per cent compared to the price of a new title. Follett also has a popular price matching program, which helps ensure students get materials at the lowest cost possible, and a year-round buyback program.

FutureReady and GradProSkills continue to offer professional and academic skills-development opportunities.

In addition, the university is increasing and adapting its services to support students through this exceptional time, including:

• more online student advising
• more online mental health counselling
• more peer-to-peer and mentoring exchanges
• virtual campus-life opportunities to help combat isolation
  

The university is also exploring ideas to build partnerships to help students enjoy the Montreal experience virtually.

Visit the Centre for Teaching and Learning resource page for more information.

All employees have access to Zoom. Teaching assistants must activate their Concordia email address (firstname.lastname@concordia.ca) to gain access to the university’s Zoom license. Once activated, they can use Zoom for the duration of their contract.

Concordia asks that faculty members secure stable, high-speed internet at home so they can teach remotely.

Employees who need to purchase any IT equipment using professional development allowance or research funds should use the intake form and indicate that they are making an emergency purchase request.

Concordia will continue working and meeting with union leadership. The objective is to reflect on how to best support the university’s mission and activities.

The university is currently defining some parameters and guidelines for employees who are working from home.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an evolving situation. Given what Concordia knows at this time, the university expects that the majority of faculty and staff who currently work from home will continue to do so until further notice.

The university will provide guidance on working from home through Learn, teach, work from home and the CU at Home website, as well as regular virtual meetings and town halls for units, supervisors and members of the administration.

Concordia University's Virtual Private Network (VPN) service allows off-site Concordia University staff and faculty access to services. Follow the instructions on the dedicated IITS webpage. Support is also available at the IITS Help Desk (help@concordia.ca).

Zoom-bombing describes when someone other than the host takes over an online meeting or class and disrupts it with irrelevant or offensive material.

Concordia has adjusted default settings on our Zoom licence to help lower the risk of such occurrences. However, this also means that some faculty members may need to adjust Zoom settings if they want interactions in their online courses and meetings.

You can learn more about using Zoom through the Centre for Teaching and Learning. If you need technical assistance, you can contact the IITS Service Desk. You can also read the about Zoom security here.

PLEASE NOTE: Zoom class IDs should only be provided to students registered in a class — ideally through Moodle.

• If one of your classes has been disrupted by Zoom-bombing, please email help@concordia.ca.
• If you want to file a complaint about a Concordia community member’s offensive or disruptive behaviour, please contact the Office of Rights and Responsibilities.

To maintain access to your campus files and tools through remote desktop, it is important that you avoid restarting, shutting down or putting to sleep your office computer.

When you need to leave your remote desktop, you can safely select “disconnect.” This should ensure that your office computer remains on.

As a temporary measure, to help office computers remain powered on during the COVID-19 crisis, IITS has hidden the shutdown option on IITS-managed computers.

Please contact the IT Service Desk if you’re having problems connecting to your office computer or maintaining a remote desktop connection.

Please contact the IT Service Desk if you’re having problems connecting to your office computer or maintaining a remote desktop connection.

If your office computer has been shut down or lost power, please provide your office room number in your service request. This will allow IITS to send someone to turn it back on.

Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) has made available information on how to work from home while minimizing the risk of injuries — particularly linked to your desk and computer setup.

Because some people may have specific concerns, EHS is also booking online appointments for ergonomic consultations. Concordia employees who need to speak with an EHS expert can email a request to ehs@concordia.ca.

No, a medical certificate is not required. If you have been instructed to self-isolate by public health authorities, we also ask that you complete the self-isolation form (on MyConcordia). If you are a student requiring academic accommodation, please contact your professor(s).  

Yes, if you incur an injury while working for the university remotely you should report it to your supervisor.

As soon as possible after the injury, you should fill in this injury form and email it to your supervisor and copy EHS at workinjury@concordia.ca.

Please note: If the injury requires medical attention or lost time, a doctor’s note is required. 

For additional information, please go to concordia.ca/campus-life/safety/injury.

You should discuss any plans with your supervisor.

• Serve others. Reaching out to help others in need may benefit you as well. This may include calling an isolated elderly parent, relative or friend. Check out non-profit organizations that serve populations in need and see how you can safely help. You can also refer to the CU Cares initiative. There is often satisfaction to be found in serving a cause.
• Take advantage of the CU at Home virtual community webpage.

Human Resources has created a guide for staff and faculty trying to adjust to new ways of working. Additional resources are also available on the Working Through Change Cspace page.

Unless you are on vacation, on leave, or are sick, you are expected to be available by email in accordance with your usual schedule.

Employees are expected to be available during their regularly scheduled hours. For individual situations, please contact your manager.

As per usual practice, overtime must be pre-approved by your manager.

Employees cannot carry over personal or family days from one year to another. Collective agreements and official university policies remain in effect during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For any questions on changes to an employee’s work conditions, please contact a representative of Employee and Labour Relations.

You should openly discuss availabilities with your employee(s). These conversations will help you set clear expectations for your staff member(s) and give them the opportunity to ask specific questions.

To ensure consistency across the university, please use the following out-of-office message in both languages for generic email accounts:

Thank you for your email. Please note that Concordia is carrying out its return-to-campus plan in several phases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff members mainly work from home and most services continue to be offered.

This mailbox is regularly monitored, and we will respond to your email as soon as possible.

Nous avons bien reçu votre courriel et vous en remercions. Veuillez noter que Concordia échelonne sur plusieurs phases son plan de retour aux campus dans la foulée de la pandémie de COVID-19. Le personnel travaille principalement de la maison, et la plupart des services continuent d’être offerts.

Cette boîte de courriel fait l’objet d’une surveillance continue, et nous vous répondrons dès que possible.

Employees should not be activating their out-of-office alerts unless they are away due to illness or vacation. As a reminder, employees working remotely are expected to be available during regular business hours — or as agreed with their supervisor.

Human Resources has created a guide for staff and faculty trying to adjust to new ways of working, some tips and tricks for managers, and a guide to keep managers and staff fully engaged and productive while working from home.

Managers who have specific questions on navigating these challenging times can also reach out to Natalie Camirand, manager of organizational development.

For more information on how to hold effective online meetings, please refer to these tips for virtual meetings. For other resources to support your team through times of change, visit Human Resources’ dedicated Working Through Change page on Cspace.

Unless designated as essential service staff, managers as well as employees are asked to work remotely for the foreseeable future. 

If you have questions, speak with your supervisor.

• If you know that someone on your team lives alone, feels lonely or is experiencing difficulties adapting to working remotely, make sure to connect with them regularly to keep track of how they are feeling. Brainstorm together on ideas that may help them go through this situation more easily.
• You may also raise your team’s awareness by suggesting they keep in contact with each other, so they can maintain their relationships and support each other. Everyone has a role to play in lifting their own spirits and, consequently, lifting the spirit of the community.
• If you are worried about one of your team members or colleagues, you may refer them to Concordia’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) at 1-800-663-1142 (English services) or 1-866-398-9505 (French services). You may also suggest that they visit the EAP website. Assure them that all contact between them and the EAP counsellor is confidential and at no cost.

Concordia is reviewing all recruitment activities for non-academic staff positions on a case-by-case basis. If you are involved in a recruitment and selection process and have not been contacted by an employment advisor, please verify its status at: concordia.ca/hr/jobs/openings/staff-positions.