Dear students and staff.
Over the past week, VID has been turned on its head due to the corona pandemic. I would like to thank everyone who has kept their heads cool and heart warm during this time - and who have been patient and friendly when not everything is going well or when questions are not being answered. I know that many work beyond expectations during these times, and that makes an impression. Thank you for making the most of the situation.
It impresses me how the staff in a few days have changed the operation to assist our students and keep the wheels running. Scientific staff has adapted quickly to offer a satisfactory teaching environment on digital platforms, well helped by our skilled e-learning educators and IT staff. Employees who work with other administrative and professional support functions have also managed to maintain almost full operation in their areas, while enabeling students and other staff to do their job.
For the students this has been a very demanding time with much uncertainty and frustration. Should I go home to Norway or stay in India or Madagascar? How should I get approved practice when all practice offers collapse around me? Can I start a job as a nurse or nurse in the fall? Can the deadline for the bachelor's and master's thesis be postponed when I now have to take care of my children at home? Should I go home to my parents and grandparents as quickly as possible? And who then pays for my accommodation?
We do not know what the next weeks and months will be like. It will take time before we return to normal. Let's stick to what we have and what we can do about it! We are challenged to create structure, good daily routines, and maintain relationships and communities amidst the uncertain and sometimes chaotic. In some units, regular meetings are held for staff meetings on skype, without any ambitious agenda. It is possible to cook a cup of coffee and have a skype chat with a fellow student or colleague that you would otherwise have a cup of coffee with today.
For those who know that life becomes excessively challenging in these times, our student deacon and student pastor are available for a talk. This applies to both students and staff.
VID's main focus is still to contribute to the national efforts, and do what we can to enable our students to complete their exams and degrees as planned. We also work extensively on the co-location of our campuses, where we have to deal with various challenges.
Already, we have staff and students assisting hospitals and municipalities to fill up with the hands needed to maintain capacity for those who are particularly vulnerable in this situation. It is our duty and honor to contribute in this way. The need for reserve staff from VID's students and staff will increase in the coming weeks.
For the rest, we try to keep everything that can be reminiscent of normality, for example, meetings that are normally held in most of our councils and committees, recruitment processes go on, research groups meet, counseling talks, etc.
Henning Christensen, a fellow at SMG, had a "VID signature" in today's skype meeting in the Research Committee, which is a reflection on the understanding and use of VID's values. Henning is Danish himself, and referred to his prime minister Mette Frederiksen, who in these exceptional times has made a slightly older Danish word a core word for dealing with the crisis, namely the word "social mind". The sense of community, or spirit of virtue, as we might say in Norway, is our own ability to lift together, and to lift ourselves out of our own little bubble and our self-esteem. We need such social forces in times of crisis. But we will also need to remind ourselves of such values when, after some time, we return to the world just as it was before the corona.
Bård Mæland
Rector, VID