Corona update: current measurements from May 18

Dear members of the university,

We hereby inform you about current developments in the Corona pandemic. This weekend, the state government set the legal framework for further relaxation of the corona restrictions. According to this, public life is to be gradually and cautiously activated, due to current conditions. In the following, we will inform you about the effects this will have on the work at our university.

The primary goal is to keep the further spread of the virus under control. An overload of the health care system shall be prevented in the future and medical care remains guaranteed nationwide. A general ban on contact and distance therefore continues to apply throughout the country. The same applies to general hygiene requirements. A minimum distance of 1.5 metres to other people must be maintained (distance requirement). Contact with persons other than members of one's own household should be kept to a minimum if possible. Events with more than 50 persons are also prohibited. This applies to events with more than 1,000 persons until August 31, 2020. Public and non-public meetings in the open air and in closed rooms are generally prohibited.

In view of these regulations the University Board, in consultation with the crisis management team and the faculties, has taken the following decision of principle: The presence of students and staff on campus should be kept as low as possible to reduce the risk of infection.

Courses that can be digitally implemented and courses that have already begun should therefore be continued and completed in this way. Courses with obligligatory attendance are only held on site, when explicit practical competence has to be taught partially or completely on site. These include, for example, laboratory exercises, excursions or practical sports exercises. A prerequisite for each of these events, however, is a hygiene concept that regulates the protective measures, rules of conduct and the procedure of laboratory practical training or presence tests, for example, based on the CAU's framework hygiene concept.

The respective hygiene concept for an event can be drawn up on the basis of the CAU's framework hygiene concept and the corresponding handouts in the teaching units in consultation with the faculties (deans). Facility management and the crisis management team are currently preparing all necessary information for this. Practical courses can take place from  May 25. The faculties can start planning the rooms for upcoming examinations. The Academic Affairs Division and the faculties (deans) are preparing the scheduling of the examination periods for the current summer semester and for the examinations to be made up for last winter semester. You will receive information on this later this week.

Further information on the hygiene requirements and the registration process will be available soon on the Corona website of the university: www.uni-kiel.de/corona.

The number of on-site courses in teaching and self-administration should be kept as low as possible, since spatial and personnel resources are needed to guarantee the courses, examinations and services that must be carried out on site. Individual CAU facilities open to the public, such as the Kunsthalle, the Zoological Museum or the Sports Centre, will resume limited operations in the coming week on the basis of hygiene concepts that have already been agreed. Borrowing and returning books is also possible again in the University Library. Information on opening hours and the requirements for visitors and users can be found on the websites of the above-mentioned institutions and on the Corona website of the CAU.

In addition, the option of home office is to be used until further notice. Employees must, however, be able to perform their work at the university if this is not possible in the home office. Meetings, meetings of commissions and committees, or even lectures on appointments should continue to be conducted digitally as far as possible, also in order not to discriminate persons with childcare responsibilities and those who are at particular risk due to previous illnesses.

With the far-reaching openings in public life, the state government is counting on the personal responsibility of the citizens to ensure that they observe the rules of distance and the basic rules of hygiene. This will also apply to the severely restricted local university operations. A return to "normal conditions" is unlikely. We therefore expect that teaching, research and work at the CAU will remain considerably restricted in the coming weeks and months. At the same time, the members of the university, you all have all impressively demonstrated that teaching, research and administration can be successfully organized even under these difficult conditions. We would like to express our special thanks and recognition for this. Despite all the restrictions and the sometimes surrealistic reality of these days, we still wish you a successful summer semester 2020. 

With kind regards
Claudia Ricarda Meyer, Chancellor
Lutz Kipp, University President