CW Chu College The Chinese University of Hong Kong eNewsletter

As the world is still battling the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all navigating the new normal amid uncertainties. The College's top priority is always the health and safety of all students and staff. Therefore, we are more dedicated than ever to maintaining a hygienic and safe campus environment. During this time of stress and anxiety, we have also been working tirelessly to render assistance to ease anxieties brought about by the disruptions of the learning, living and working environment. This has been one of our missions as a small College since our founding—to foster an intimate College community and develop close relationships with our students.

With the College vision in mind, we have stepped up our efforts in staying in close touch with our students, local and non-local, to address their concerns about the University or College's policies. For example, as there was an unexpected closure of the College hostel in early February 2020 and cancellation of some communal dinners, different adjustment items were shown in the statements issued by the University for their hostel and meal plan fees. To ensure our students' understanding of the statement presentation, we took a further step to explain the items, which were not in chronological order, in an announcement, and to answer their individual enquiries afterwards. Over 40 cases were settled for our students, who showed appreciation for these caring steps to sort out their billing matters.

We are also able to exercise flexibility when carrying out measures that help relieve their unease. When the College hostel was closed, no one expected that the closure would last for so many months. That brought about some issues that required the College and the students to handle together, for example, the hostel checkout schedule. Without sticking to our past practices, we arranged our students to move out in phases when the summer term started: those who were in Hong Kong first, followed by those who were not. Students away from Hong Kong could authorise the College to complete the packing and checkout procedures. Live surveillance by the students on Zoom was arranged when we helped pack their belongings, including valuables. We also relaxed the luggage storage limit for all students. Expecting the possibility of their return before the autumn term, the College arranged for their items to be stored in the Activity Rooms, under lock-and-key and CCTV surveillance, pending retrieval. We even allowed minor adjustments to our checkout procedures to cater to specific needs.

These strategies were a great success. We are glad that our students understood our difficulties and appreciated our efforts. We settled dozens of move-out cases of this nature, and received during the communication process many thank-you messages, appreciating the well thought out procedures, responsiveness and considerate follow-up in every detail. Their compliments have motivated the College team to devote their time and effort to planning thoughtful steps to fit future situations as far as possible.

Another challenging task ahead is to prepare for some students' return to campus starting from August. We are now contacting students who are currently out of town for early move-in and compulsory home quarantine arrangements. We are also formulating contingency plans and keeping our students updated on the new normal on our campus, which is subject to the development of the pandemic situation and government regulations.

In these challenging times, we keep every one of our students in our thoughts. We look forward to welcoming our students back and to a smooth start of the next academic year.