Life in Magdalen – Michaelmas 2020

Welcome, and welcome back!

For those of you returning to the College, Michaelmas term will be very different from your
experience in the past. And for those of you new to Magdalen, the first days and weeks of
your time here will doubtless be very different from what you imagined. There will be difficult
times ahead – we cannot pretend otherwise. But we will get through them, and we hope that
life will be back to normal soon.

In the meantime, we need everyone to work together to look after the wellbeing of our college
community. Even if you do not consider yourself to be at risk from COVID-19, there will be
students in residence who are not so fortunate, and many more for whom the virus is a
significant source of anxiety. There are also many members of staff to whom the virus poses
a much greater risk than it would to the average student. And if conditions here prevent
members of staff from coming into work, all aspects of College life will become much harder.

The most important thing you can do is to follow the regulations issued by the Government,
the University, and the College. These will be updated regularly, and we will endeavour to
provide a summary of these rules as they change at https://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/internal-
pages/. It is also important to note that the rules may become significantly more restrictive in
the event of a local lockdown. Under such circumstances, the College will follow instructions
from the local office of Public Health England.

The University has produced a COVID-19 Student Responsibility Agreement (a copy of which
is attached to the email communicating this letter), which you will be required to sign when
collecting your room key, or if already in residence or living in private accommodation by
9am on Monday of 0th week, 5 October, and return it to the PA to the President who will be
collating our response for the University. Please send it to her via Porters’ Lodge or scanned
email to limara.bertram@magd.ox.ac.uk. The Agreement sets out eight commitments which
you undertake to follow in order to protect and support the community’s health and
wellbeing during the pandemic. If you have any concerns about this Agreement, please
contact the Senior Tutor/Tutor for Graduates, Mark Pobjoy (senior.tutor@magd.ox.ac.uk), as
soon as possible.

So that the University’s COVID-19 Testing Service can contact you as quickly as possible, it is
important that your mobile phone number is included in the Student Record. Please log in to
Student Self Service and check that your mobile number in the ‘my contacts information’
section is up-to-date.

The rest of this letter explains how we hope the next few months will work in Magdalen.
Please make sure you read it carefully. Undergraduates will receive further information about
College tutorials and classes in advance of the start of term.
1. Households
As you will already be aware, the student body is being organised into households during the
pandemic. These are based around shared facilities – crucially, bathrooms and kitchens. The
boundaries of different households will be signposted.

Communication within households will be very important, and communal living this term
will require a greater degree of discussion and consideration than might usually be the case.
It would be sensible for members of households to ensure that they can communicate with
one another easily (e.g. a group on WhatsApp or Messenger). The information below sets out
the College’s expectations for behaviour, but you should also discuss your own ideas for
communal behaviour amongst yourselves.

In cases of tension within households, the Deans will be happy to mediate a solution. We
suggest that sources of friction are best resolved as quickly as possible, so that arguments do
not get out of hand later in term.

2. Guests
Guests are allowed to come into College under the current guidance, but they will have to
sign in at the Porters’ Lodge for the purposes of Test and Trace.

Wherever possible, socialise with your guests outdoors – including the Tent in the Deer Park,
in Addison’s Walk, and other outdoor communal areas with plenty of space. If they do need
to come into your household, then they should not use any common facilities (i.e. bathrooms
or kitchens); they should go straight to your own room. Only one guest is allowed in a room
at any one time. The OKB/Gothics toilets and those on the ground floor of St Swithun’s VII
are not part of households and can be used.

Guests may not be taken into Hall or the Old Kitchen Bar for meals by any member of College.
Guests are not permitted in the College libraries.

Remember to follow social distancing regulations when meeting anyone from outside your
household, including Magdalen students from other households. Rules about guests may
become stricter in the event of a local lockdown.

3. Self-Isolation
A separate document sets out what you ought to do if you suspect you have COVID-19. If the
Early Alert Service instructs you to go into self-isolation, you (and everyone in your
household) will be informed of the need to do so by email and text message, and you must do
so immediately. If you receive this instruction, you should inform other members of your
household via group messaging at once, to ensure the message reaches everyone as quickly
as possible.

During self-isolation you are not to leave your household for any reason. This means you
should not leave your room other than to use your household’s shared bathroom and kitchen.
Meals can be prepared and delivered by the College, and need to be ordered in advance.
Details on how to do this were provided in a circular from the Catering Department in late
August. If you need other important supplies, please email the Deans at deans@magd.ox.ac.uk
to see what can be arranged. It would be sensible to have a small stock of basic medicines in
your room, as it will not be possible for College staff to buy or deliver medicine on your behalf.

During self-isolation, no other members of College will enter your household. Cleaning
supplies will be left for your use, and cleaning responsibilities for common areas should be
divided equitably between members of the household, e.g. on a rota system. It is up to you to
decide how to do this, and please try to do so in a spirit of mutual support.

Each person in self-isolation will be allocated a member of staff involved in student welfare
for regular check-ins. In the event of disputes, please contact the Deans.

4. Social Distancing and Socialising

When not in self-isolation, all students must respect the rules on social distancing around
College. For the time being, this requires leaving at least 2m between you and anyone not
from your household whenever possible, and always using a face covering when indoors.

The two main social spaces available to students are the Common Rooms and the Tent in the
Deer Park.

 The capacity of the JCR and MCR will be clearly displayed outside each room.
Wherever possible, these spaces should only be used by members of two households
at any one time. Where members of multiple households are gathering, they must
remain at least 2m apart at all times. For the benefit of others, please remember to wipe
down and disinfect any hard surfaces after use.

 The open-sided Tent in the Deer Park counts as an outdoor space for social distancing
regulations. Wherever possible, groups meeting in the Tent ought 1) to be comprised
of members of no more than two households; or 2) to be comprised of groups of no
more than six individuals from any number of households. Multiple such groups may
use the Tent at one time, but they must keep their distance from each other. The Tent
will be available from 9am until 10:30pm each night, at which point a member of the
Decanal team will ask anyone still there to leave. On some evenings, the Tent will be
in use for special functions. Most of these will be listed on the MCR and JCR term
cards.

5. Hygiene and Precautions

In addition to the University’s face coverings policy:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/coronavirus/health/face-coverings, which you should comply with
whenever indoors (except when in your own household), you ought to take the following
precautions:

 Wash your hands whenever you return to your household.

 Use hand sanitiser as necessary before and after touching surfaces that are likely to be
used on a regular basis by people outside your household (e.g. door handles).
  Wipe down surfaces in common areas within your household whenever you have
finished using them.

6. Domestic Matters
All staff activities have undergone a risk-assessment in light of COVID-19. On this basis, the
College has put in place a range of measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. Staff have
been issued with appropriate personal protection equipment (PPE), and a number of
adjustments have been made to create safe working practices. Over 200 hand sanitiser units
have been installed around College. For the benefit of yourselves and others, please use them
each time you pass one.

The following services will be noticeably different from previous terms.

a) Cleaning
 Scouts will be cleaning communal areas such as landings, hallways, stairs, communal
bathrooms and toilets, and kitchens daily Monday to Friday. They will not be cleaning
your room, but the equipment and materials required will be left in each household to
do so yourself.

 If recycling and general waste bins are put outside your room in the morning (Monday
to Friday) they will be emptied. Scouts will not enter your room to retrieve bins.

 Fresh bed linen will be left outside your door on a day of the week advertised on your
staircase/house noticeboard, provided you have left the dirty linen outside your door
by 11.30am.

 Kitchens and communal bathrooms will be cleaned daily Monday to Friday, but it is
really important you clean after each use. Disinfectant, disposable cloths, disposable
gloves, and washing-up liquid will be provided. If you have an ensuite bathroom, you
will have to clean it yourself. A supply of toilet paper will be provided outside your
room.

 If you run out of any supplies, please email the Steward linda.norton@magd.ox.ac.uk.
Scouts will ensure on Fridays that there are sufficient supplies for the weekend,
including the sanitiser units.

 Public areas such as the Longwall Library and seminar rooms will be cleaned daily.

b) Launderettes
The capacity of each launderette will be displayed on the door; please wait your turn if it is
full, respecting social distancing as you do. These will be cleaned daily, Monday to Friday.
Please also clean as you go. Disposable cloths and gloves, and disinfectant, will be provided.

c) Post Room & Deliveries

The capacity of the Post Room will be displayed on the door: please wait your turn if it is full,
respecting social distancing as you do. The room will be cleaned daily. Please wipe any
pigeonhole other than your own that you touch. Materials are provided in the room.
Please note that parcels are held at the Lodge for you to collect. After 11th September we will
not forward any more that arrived here in error, but they will be held for you.

d) Catering
A separate document (first sent to continuing students on 28 August) gives details of the
catering services on offer in College. It is attached to the email communicating this letter for
the benefit of freshers. Any updates or changes will be communicated in due course.

You are encouraged to use the College service which includes the option to take away as well
as eat in Hall. Buttery prices have been adjusted to help and encourage you to use the College
service and reduce the pressure on staircase kitchens.

Which student kitchen you should use is marked on the entrance to your household area and
on the door of the kitchen itself. It is vital that you adhere to the highest standards of food
hygiene and cleaning, and avoid borrowing each other’s utensils. We are hiring two
temporary kitchens (for the Grove and New Building) which will help further distribute the
numbers potentially using each kitchen. In addition four rooms have been converted to
temporary kitchens and the JCR Dining Room will become a temporary household kitchen.

7. Libraries
Until term begins, we will be offering the following services:

 The library will be open for study and for borrowing and returning books.
 Staffed hours will be 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday.
 Self-service printing, photocopying, and scanning will be available. Please wipe the
machine down after use with the materials provided.
 The library team will be able to answer enquiries in person as well as remotely,
including requests to scan material, as before.
 For those who prefer not to enter the library, books can be requested via Click and
Collect (using SOLO) and collected from the Longwall Library foyer.

In order that we may open the library safely, we ask that:

 You abide by social distancing rules whilst in the library. These will be clearly
indicated throughout the building.
 You wear a face covering at all times whilst in the library.
 Hands are cleaned using sanitiser on entry to and exit from the library and on a regular
basis whilst in the building. Sanitiser will be provided.
 All possessions are removed from the library overnight to allow for cleaning.
 You clean surfaces you have touched before and after use, including the self-issue
desk, the photocopier and printers. Again, wipes will be provided.
 You clean the desk you have been using when you leave.
 You wait in a queue 2 metres apart from each other to enter or exit the library and to
use the self-issue desk when necessary.
These measures should ensure that the library is a safe and amenable place to work for the
community, but they are dependent on each individual’s taking responsibility for the health
of all library users. They will be treated as library regulations for the foreseeable future and
any persistent breaches will be treated accordingly. Please also note that:
 Many of the desks in the Longwall Library are already 2 metres apart. Some desks will
be marked as not in use to ensure social distancing whilst readers study in the library.
 The rolling stack area will be closed to college members. The library team can fetch
books from the stack upon request.
 Books will be quarantined after loan for a period of 72 hours,
following recommendations from the Health & Safety Executive. Library books that
have been used extensively in the library but not checked out will also be
quarantined. If you are likely to need an item again within 3 days, please check it out.
 The cleaning team and the library team will routinely be cleaning door handles and
stair rails throughout the day.

We expect to alter these measures as Michaelmas term approaches, responding to increased

demand on the library and to new directives from the Government and the University. We
will be in touch as plans for the new term are finalised.

8. Sports facilities
Where National Governing Bodies of sports have reached agreements with the Government,
we will operate that sport according to their COVID-19 protocols and risk assessments.
Captains will be responsible for reviewing NGB guidance for their sport, and for completing
the documentation and then having it approved by the Home Bursar before any facilities are
used. The list currently includes squash, tennis, hockey, football, and rowing. Others will be
added as demand is identified.

9. Chapel
The Chapel intends to offer its full schedule of said and sung services in the coming term,
through a combination of recorded midweek services offered online via YouTube and social
media channels, and in-person weekend services with limited congregation. Tickets for live
services will be bookable online and details will be made available on the College and Choir
websites in due course. The Choir and Consort of Voices will be divided into smaller groups
for both recordings and live services, in order to comply with current guidance on numbers
of singers and social distancing. Details of all chapel events will be posted on the High Street
board, on the Chapel notice board, and online.

The Covid-19 Working Group (President, Vice-President, Deans of Arts, Senior Tutor, Home Bursar,
and Bursar) with the Library and Chapel teams.