Information for all university members about current changes of university operations

Dear university members,
dear colleagues, dear lecturers, dear students,

With the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of the coronavirus and the resulting strong increase in the number of infections throughout Europe and the world, the new year is also beginning for us as a university under difficult conditions, or conditions that are once again becoming more difficult. In the district of Lüneburg, the seven-day incidence reported by the RKI is currently already over 200, in neighboring Hamburg already about 400, in both cases with a strong upward trend. The state of Lower Saxony has at the same time currently extended the Christmas and New Year's rest up to and including January 15, as well as once again tightened its Corona ordinance and declared statewide warning level 3. The federal and state governments will decide on further measures next Friday.

Against this background, the Presidential Board has decided that Leuphana University Lüneburg will also continue to organize its university operations online as far as possible, as it has since December 20, 2021, and adapt individual regulations accordingly. This decision initially applies analogously to the regulations of the state up to and including January 15, 2022; we expect a further extension. We will provide information on further-reaching measures for the university following the federal-state consultations that will take place at the end of this week.

In concrete terms, this decision means for university operations:

1. All courses are currently scheduled to take place online - unless a course requires physical presence on campus for didactic reasons. The assessment and decision about the didactic necessity of holding the course online or in presence is still incumbent on the lecturers. Courses that require physical presence on campus for didactic reasons (especially in natural sciences, music, art and sports) can continue to be held in person; these courses should also continue to be streamed hybrid, if possible, to enable students to participate (at least passively) from home.
    
2. All participants in courses that are held in presence must continue to have a 3G certificate (vaccinated, recovered, tested). All participants in other events of the university, which are not courses and are conducted in presence, must have a 2G-plus proof (proof of vaccination or proof of recovery, plus proof of a booster vaccination, proof of recovery after a complete vaccination or proof of a negative test). Proof must be checked by the person responsible for the event upon entry.
    
3. All participants in lectures and other events of the university must wear a FFP2 respiratory protection mask (or comparable) at all times – as long as warning level 3 in the state of Lower Saxony applies, even if and as long as a seat is occupied.
    
4. Decisions on the implementation of the examination phase of the winter semester will be made and communicated by the Presidential Board in the coming week after consultation with the deaneries, department heads and the representatives of the Staff Council and students.
    
5. The university and all its facilities will remain open in principle. All persons present in the university must carry at least a 3G proof (vaccinated, recovered, tested), which will be checked for students by lecturers or when entering courses and for employees by supervisors.
    
6. For all employees and teachers of Leuphana, who work or teach in presence on campus, there is also the obligation to document their 3G proof at the personnel service; this can be done on a daily basis (for tested persons) or even on a one time permanent basis (for vaccinated or recovered persons). Please inform yourself about the applicable regulations in detail in our circular email of Nov 25, 2021: https://www.leuphana.de/portale/coronavirus/aktuell/ansicht/2021/11/25/informationen-fuer-alle-beschaeftigen-und-lehrbeauftragten-zur-verpflichtenden-kontrolle-eines-3g-nachweises-beim-betreten-der-universitaet.html
    
7. For all employees of Leuphana the legal obligation to work in a home office still applies, as far as a presence in the university is not required for official duties. Please inform yourself about the regulations in detail in our circular email of Nov 25, 2021: https://www.leuphana.de/portale/coronavirus/aktuell/ansicht/2021/11/25/informationen-fuer-alle-beschaeftigen-zur-erneuten-home-office-pflicht.html
    
8. The Presidential Board asks all departments and institutions of the University to review their spatial and temporal personnel planning and to ensure through appropriate measures that the University's ability to function continues to be ensured in the event of Omicron infection cases of University members or possibly resulting quarantine cases, in particular
   a) by working in a home office as far as possible,
   b) the greatest possible spatial separation of workplaces in the university, specifically working only in individual offices,
   c) the greatest possible avoidance of meetings and sessions in presence,
   d) the greatest possible temporal separation of official necessary presence times on campus into several teams, in order to avoid a quarantine obligation for all colleagues of an area.

Please continue to review all information on our Corona portal at www.leuphana.de/portale/coronavirus. Immunization appointments are still available without an appointment every Tuesday in the Central Building cafeteria. If you have any questions, please continue to contact your academic dean's office, your supervisor, or centrally at cv-info@leuphana.de. Please continue to notify the University of confirmed Corona infections at cv-kontaktnachverfolgung@leuphana.de.

We sincerely thank you for your understanding and continued support and wish you all an otherwise hopefully good New Year at this point as well.

With kind regards

Sascha Spoun
President

Christian Brei
Executive Vice President

Erich Hörl
Vice President College

Simone Abels
Vice President Graduate School

Jörg Terhechte
Vice President Professional School

Susanne Leeb
Vice President Research