Dear staff,

Dear students,

I’m sure you never expected to be reading the words contained in this particular newsletter, and I certainly never expected to be writing them. But as Hamlet so famously put it: “The time is out of joint!” It’s only a few brief weeks since the crocuses started to flower in our gardens, and I had actually decided to write a newsletter about the freedom of research and research integrity, ending by encouraging you to take part in discussions of a strategy for the Faculty of Arts. But the extraordinary situation in which we now find ourselves has put all such plans on the back burner. So while we wait to return to our normal everyday lives, I just want to send you a warm greeting and thank you all for the great efforts you are making under these undeniably difficult circumstances. I also want to tell you a bit about my own perspective on the events of recent weeks, and to gaze a little into my crystal ball and say a couple of things about the future.

It all started when the senior management team received a text message from the rector in the evening of Wednesday 11 March, asking us to watch the prime minister’s press conference on television. On Thursday morning I had a quick chat with the staff at the secretariat, who picked up their IT equipment and went home. I also had a brief meeting at the Dean’s Office and attended a short crisis meeting with the senior management team in Frandsensalen. We were already practising social distancing. By noon the buildings were empty. Most of our staff and students hadn’t turned up on Thursday morning at all. On Friday morning the senior management team held its first virtual emergency response meeting, followed by similar meetings at faculty, school and department level. We also started coordinating our efforts with regard to our teaching and exams, AU’s PhD organisation and other areas. By Friday a good number of online teaching activities had already been launched, and by Monday morning a huge number of activities were working online. During the next couple of weeks the management met on a daily basis to discuss our emergency response at all levels, including communicating the results of each morning’s senior management team meeting to relevant parts of the organisation. One of the important aspects of this activity focused on issues that were agreed by the university directors of Universities Denmark, and dealt with in daily briefings involving the chair of Universities Denmark and the ministry. At first the focus was placed on the safety of staff and students based abroad, including PhD students, and on collaboration with Aarhus University Hospital. But even on that very first Monday, there was considerable focus on technical support for online meetings and online teaching. At the start of the second week, the senior management team started to return gradually to normal discussions about our buildings, the financial situation and other issues. And our emergency response discussions started to take up a little less time.

A good deal of this activity has also been reflected at faculty level. There are still a small number of staff who (for one reason or another) are still abroad. And there are also a good number of students who are studying abroad on a long-term basis. In terms of our teaching and exams, extensive support by the IT staff and CUDiM has made it possible to transfer a large proportion of our ordinary teaching and supervision to online platforms in an impressively short length of time. For lots of people, this has been a unusual and challenging task which has also been affected by the fact that we are now working from home as an integral part of our family lives. All our staff and students have worked hard to ensure the success of the transition. While all this has been going on, the faculty management team has been trying to identify the areas in which we face particular challenges (field studies, placements and similar issues). We have also been trying to prepare for en exam period which will undoubtedly be influenced by the situation, whether or not things have returned to normal by then. We have had extensive support from our Studies Administration unit; and great efforts have been made by the Arts Council, boards of studies, and students and staff at our departments. And finally, we have had to make decisions about a countless number of activities which have been cancelled, postponed or transferred to a virtual form. This includes the MatchPoints seminar in April and countless workshops and meetings. A large proportion of our PhD activities (including PhD courses) have also been transferred to virtual platforms. All this has only been possible because we were able to bring forward our introduction of Teams, a platform for teamwork connected to Office 365 which we hadn’t actually planned to start introducing gradually until the autumn.

And it has been achieved while our normal daily lives have been collapsing around us, and the world as we know it has been turned upside down. Many of us are concerned for our families, friends and loved ones. And countries and partners with whom we have very close connections are becoming increasingly mired in serious social crises. For instance, I have close connections (and many friends) in Italy. It’s bound to affect us all. And it’s at a time like this that we really need each other. But in order to protect each other, we also need to keep our distance from each other. What I have realised (and I’m sure you have realised this too) is how important our daily lives and the people we meet on an everyday basis are to us. And despite all the digital, IT-didactic and online steps we can take to keep the wheels turning, this is surely the main lesson we can learn from the strange times that we are living in. More than ever before, Danish society and Aarhus University have realised the vital nature of a true sense of community and belonging on an everyday basis. Let’s try and remember this when things return to normal. Some of us may have gone stir crazy during this period of isolation, while others may be worried about catching the virus off their colleagues or students when they return to work. And this is where we need to remember the kind of generosity of spirit which has been so much in evidence recently.

What will the future bring? We don’t know. Realistically, we need to remember that it will take time for our economy and state finances to recover from this, and our universities will also have to keep a close eye on our housekeeping as a result. But the Faculty of Arts has managed to transfer so many of its activities onto online platforms that I expect most of our core services to return to their normal level. Some exams will probably be delayed, but I hope that our joint efforts can help to ensure that the effects of such delays are kept to a minimum. Naturally, a great deal depends on how long the lockdown lasts. But if it doesn’t last too long, and if libraries and other services can reopen at the right time, I am cautiously optimistic with regard to this point. Thankfully, our faculty has managed to achieve a good level of financial stability following a very difficult period in recent years. And this is helping us in the current situation. But nobody actually knows what’s going to happen, or what we can expect in the slightly longer term.

At some point the world will start turning again. And indeed, as I write these lines, the Danish prime minister has just appeared on television to predict that it might be possible to reopen Danish society gradually after 13 April. Let me just finish by adding that even though the time is undoubtedly out of joint, the things I was planning to say to you in this newsletter are still important. Aarhus University still regards the freedom of research and good academic practice as vital. And we will be launching a new and stronger practice in this area to harvest the results that have been achieved in close collaboration with the academic councils. Please keep an eye on this during the upcoming period. The university also has a brand-new strategy, as well as a climate strategy that has almost been approved. We need to follow up on these initiatives. And local discussions of our faculty and school strategies will continue unabated. Please feel free to get involved in these discussions, too. I still believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Best wishes,

Johnny Laursen

Dean