After an electrical fire closed the Humanities Centre in December 2023, the rapidly evolving situation meant teams across the university not only relocated final exams, offices and workspaces, but also 237 Winter term classes — only two days before they were scheduled to begin.
“The university community showcased an extraordinary spirit of resilience and collaboration. Departments, colleges, faculties and teams across the university sprang into action, highlighting the incredible potential of our collective effort,” said Jesse Luyendyk, assistant registrar in Enrolment Services and Exams and Timetabling (ETT) with the Registrar's Office.
The university implemented the college model with goals of creating more strategic, nimble, collaborative and accountable leadership forums and removing potential structural impediments — overall helping to create a structure conducive to resolving issues efficiently and effectively.
Within that structure, the Offices of Education are small teams that have consolidated scheduling and timetabling, and those teams proved essential in responding to the crisis.
As one of the first institutional-level disruptions to impact the campus community since instituting the college model, the response to the Humanities Centre disruption put the new model to the test and helped demonstrate its success in achieving those goals.
“I think it's a really good illustration of what the colleges can contribute,” Vanessa Grabia, director, Office of Education, College of Social Sciences & Humanities, shared, illustrating how one person in ETT was able to “essentially activate this tree of people working on things by contacting three people.”
“Prior to having the colleges that communication probably would have had to either go out to all 17 faculties… or more likely out to the individual people who did the scheduling in each of the units, which was upwards of 80 people.”
Vanessa said that reducing the number of people involved at the very beginning and being able to rely on those folks to then fan out with communication and solicit support was immensely helpful.
“It made it a much more manageable situation and communication chain at every level.”
The Office of Education in each of the colleges provides administrative support to the academic units and coordinates efforts to simplify and improve processes - making them uniquely positioned to facilitate quick and complex responses like this.
With so many units involved, the streamlined Offices of Education enabled a nimble response as the situation evolved.
Jesse highlighted the coordination with the colleges, IST, the Teaching & Learning Services team, and the Facilities & Operations team (Space Planning, Facilities Services Partners, Electrical Utilities, Project Management Office, Engineering and Operations, Office of Emergency Management, and Trades & Infrastructure Maintenance) who were pivotal to meeting the community’s needs.
“The partnership between the Offices of Education across colleges and the Office of the Registrar was instrumental in facilitating rapid and effective changes. Behind the scenes, the Examinations and Timetabling team in the Office of the Registrar performed herculean tasks, working tirelessly to ensure that every class had a room.”
“The unwavering dedication of these teams not only supported the university’s immediate needs but also reinforced their commitment to the campus community,” Jesse said.
All of this means there's been a lot of work behind the scenes in a short period of time, John Benson, director of Facility Services in Facilities & Operations (F&O), pointed out.
With the health and safety of the U of A community being F&O’s highest priority, the weeks following meant that F&O was “all hands on deck,” said John, “to make sure that we're minimizing any impacts to our community, particularly our students.”
“It's a really good feeling to see people just, sort of, drop everything and turn around and go, ‘this is a problem, and we're going to fix it together’,” Vanessa highlighted. “That's baked in… that's always been how we've done things at the U of A. The challenge we've had in the past is that the communication was then based on your personal relationships and your U of A network.”
Before the college model, she described, if a pipe burst, for example, and classes needed to be relocated, folks would hear about it through the grapevine, making it more challenging to offer support with relocation. With a more formal communication structure, the U of A community were able to focus their efforts, making it easier to respond effectively.
“Through collaborative problem solving and unshakeable teamwork, the university turned a significant setback into a powerful example of what we can achieve together,” said Jesse.
The University of Alberta is committed to the safety, health and well-being of our faculty, staff and students. Every day, we advance this commitment to safety through the Culture of Care.