Liveblog Wednesday: corona and Erasmus University

17:31 – Message from a virtually empty campus: for the guys paving the streets, it’s business as usual. “If a fire should erupt – and these things do happen, even when there’s a coronavirus outbreak – the fire brigade must be able to pass through.”

Construction worker Marco Stolk (26) is not at all afraid of the virus. “If you’re afraid now, even though you haven’t actually contracted the virus yet, it will inconvenience you twice. I’ll save the fear for once I’ve come down with the virus.”

16:04 – Students who are studying in the Netherlands for less than a year and who are renting a room from the SSH student accommodation association in Rotterdam are free to terminate their lease agreements with immediate effect, if they so choose. Normally, they would be held to the terms of their lease until the end of August.

15:44 – A short update from University Council Chair Hans van den Berg.

14:53 – The Erasmus Sport center has found a solution for all athletes sitting at home: virtual lessons under the hashtag #esstayshome. Videos of various sports instructors will appear on the Erasmus Sport Facebook page in the near future.

“Taking group lessons has never been easier,” Erasmus Sport writes on its Facebook page. “You can do this all by yourself, that way there is no chance that you will be infected with the corona virus yourself while you do your exercises.

It is also possible to submit videos yourself. Erasmus Sport will assess the quality and if it is good enough they will post the video on the page. The first lesson is online: 10 minutes Zumba from Samira.

13:37 – Students who are on an exchange or internship abroad have received a call from the university to come home. “We can’t oblige anyone to come back,” said Rose Korver of the International Office. Students are asked to respond in writing to the call. “We hope to be able to find out who actually comes back.” The university is prepared to financially support the students if they incur additional costs for their return journey and the insurance does not want to reimburse that.

11:52 – How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting lecturers and researchers? Are they able to work from home, and are all their lectures and seminars getting taught? Etienne Augé isn’t too concerned, although his wife’s pregnancy during a corona crisis is a complicating factor.

11:01 – Because everyone is at home as much as possible, the university has made a special ‘tool’ for online education available to all its staff and students: Microsoft Teams. “A safe solution for online education, meetings and chat. Above all, get to work with it, ”the IT Service writes in an internal message. With Microsoft Teams it is possible to chat, meet and call remotely.

There is no time for training, says the IT Service. Information about the operation of ‘Teams’ is available via MyEUR. Questions can be asked to the service desk and Teams can be found by logging in with your ERNA account at portal.office.com. When you are logged in, you can click on the Teams icon and get started.

9:00 – Rose Korver of the International Office and Hans Smits (president Executive Board) answered questions from international students in the first live episode of Erasmus TV. Too late? No worries: later today it will be possible to watch the episode on our website and socials.

08:47 – The Erasmus MC education crisis team met in person for the last time on Tuesday. Last week, the medical faculty was the first to decide to discontinue physical education and exams.

08:37 – A quick recap to yesterday:

• Peak hour at the Erasmus Student Service Center
• What happens to the library books you have at home?
• EUC found a solution for the 22 exams scheduled for this week