From the Senior Tutor

Prof Seth Whidden, senior.tutor@queens.ox.ac.uk

3 September 2020

Dear Student,

I hope that this message finds your family and you healthy and well. As Michaelmas Term is
fast approaching, I wanted to write to you about the impact of coronavirus on living and
studying this coming academic year.

In College and across the wider university, a number of groups have been working throughout
the summer to address your education and your wellbeing. The university has published its
guidance online, at www.ox.ac.uk/coronavirus/students. I encourage you to familiarize
yourself with the information contained therein for your arrival in College and throughout the
year, should local and/or global circumstances change.

At Queen’s, we rely on a combination of government advice, common sense, and respect for
all members of the College community, and we are guided by several principles:

College operations will run to the fullest extent possible: not necessarily as they were
done before, nor for the sake of meeting any particular projections, but as is reasonably
possible, with regard to the related risks and challenges.

We acknowledge that living in the world incurs risk. The College works very hard to
protect students and employees. As we are also members of the wider community, we are
all mindful of the delicate balance between the College’s efforts and our own behaviour and
the concomitant risks to ourselves and to others, in College and throughout the city of
Oxford. Even in the best of times, the College cannot provide a risk- or illness-free
environment; this is no less true during a global pandemic.

We are responsible for ourselves. We always follow the law and government regulations.
When deciding on the best way to implement guidance for the safety and security of
everyone in College buildings, our preferred approach is the same one that informs
scholarly inquiry: we rely on the best knowledge available, we deliberate fully, we draw
reasoned conclusions, and we communicate them clearly and in a timely manner.

We must be ready and willing to adapt as circumstances demand. If I have waited

until now to send this letter — after the university circulated and posted its guidance, after
mountains of emails from all corners requesting feedback, spitting out rules, attempting to
decide everything — it is because it was impossible to know, in June and July, what the
Oxford coronavirus landscape would look like in October. Even now, we cannot predict
November or December. Attempts to do so would be futile, and they would only invite
corrections down the road and ultimately detract from what we should be doing: devoting
our energies to our jobs and our courses, living as safely as possible, adapting to new

The Queen’s College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AW T +44 (0) 1865 279120 www.queens.ox.ac.uk
Registered charity 1142553
From the Senior Tutor
Prof Seth Whidden, senior.tutor@queens.ox.ac.uk

information as it becomes available. The College will not send daily email bulletins, nor
inundate you with frequent announcements. Instead, we will follow the recipe I detailed
above — follow government guidance, use common sense, be respectful of the College
community — and my colleagues and I will contact you only when we have an important
reason for doing so.

We will support each other. Despite our isolation during the spring and summer, our
common purpose unites us. Getting things done during a pandemic is hard, but we can
make it easier on each other, and ourselves, if we extend a little more kindness than usual.
In a narrow staircase, wait and let someone else pass before you. Reread an email and
perhaps lighten its tone before clicking ‘send’. Take a deep breath and count to three (or
ten) before reacting to something you’ve read or heard. Smile even if you’re wearing a mask,
perhaps even say hello a bit more frequently. The College’s personal warmth is one of our
great strengths. We should take heart that it will be there when we need to lean on it, and
we should contribute to it so as to help others when they could use a lift.

In terms of your studies, these principles will most directly be felt in the different settings for
teaching and academic support that you are likely to see this year. Large group teaching such as
lectures will be delivered remotely. Tutorials and other small groups — such as meetings with
graduate advisors or moral tutors — will meet in person when they can be accommodated
safely in teaching rooms, and face coverings will be required (exceptions are made for students
and staff whose health conditions preclude them from wearing face masks). Tutors will likely
schedule some additional time so they can clean their teaching rooms between groups (the
College’s lecture rooms will be cleaned three times a day), and timetabling will need to be
staggered so that students do not hang around together while waiting for teaching sessions to
start or end.

This does not mean that you will have all of your tutorials in person. While the College prefers
that teaching be done in person, we recognize that it will not be possible in every situation. No
tutor who is supposed to be in self-isolation will teach on site. Additionally, tutors will decide
for themselves whether they will teach small groups in person or remotely. Their decision will
be based on the considerations explained above, i.e. balancing effective, rigorous pedagogy
with personal health and safety of self and others.

Please keep in mind that the College’s academic and non-academic staff members are generally
older than you, and thus more likely than you to be at risk. Some have underlying medical
conditions that put them at higher risk for severe illness, and/or live with one or several family
members who have health concerns. Other members of College staff commute via public
transport. While we will all do what we can, we will also extend to one another the respect of
determining the best workable solution to meet our individual obligations to our work for the
College while remaining as safe as possible.

The Queen’s College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AW T +44 (0) 1865 279120 www.queens.ox.ac.uk
Registered charity 1142553
From the Senior Tutor
Prof Seth Whidden, senior.tutor@queens.ox.ac.uk

To this point I have detailed the College’s position: I hope that it is clear. You will soon be
receiving, from the university, a Covid-19 Student Responsibility Agreement that goes into
considerably more detail about what you must do, in terms of following government guidance
and even matters of personal hygiene. You should know that the College’s Governing Body
strongly objected to key aspects of an earlier (but still quite similar) draft of this document, in
principle (it’s not the university’s place to create rules for what happens in College) and with
respect to its patronizing tone and its degree of minutiae. In the end, Governing Body agreed
to collect completed versions from you, and chase those of you who do not sign it, because
there was a real risk that you would be denied access to university teaching and spaces if we
did not go along with it. Ultimately the distance between our position on the government’s
guidelines and that of the university was not all that great, and while we still feel that it is our
duty to interpret guidelines for our buildings and our College, it is also our duty to ensure that
you have full access to the greatest education we can provide and support. This instance is
neither the first nor the last time that the College position will differ from that of the
university; on such occasions, please know that we are always guided by our responsibility, first
and foremost, to every member of Queen’s.

Unlike the university’s document, the one you are currently reading, from me, is not a contract,
a charter, or a pledge. It is not a binding agreement for you to sign or return. It is simply a
statement of facts: of what it means to be a member of The Queen’s College community
during the coming academic year. It spells out what the College expects of everyone, staff and
students alike: follow government guidance, use common sense, be respectful of the College
community. By welcoming you into this new academic year, I am also welcoming you to
benefit from its numerous opportunities, and to shoulder your share of our collective
responsibilities towards everyone at Queen’s.

I invite you to contact me if you have any questions or concerns, and I look forward to seeing
you in October.

Yours sincerely

Prof Seth Whidden

Senior Tutor

The Queen’s College, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AW T +44 (0) 1865 279120 www.queens.ox.ac.uk
Registered charity 1142553