Director's Message
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue4 1–31 May 2020
We have all been working from home for over a month now. Does time fly or drag for you when WFH? People's situations differ markedly, as I’ve discovered in the drop-in sessions I’ve been holding with various groups of staff and students - and I’m sure those situations will evolve over time, both for better and worse. If you are finding WFH difficult for any reason, please don’t hesitate to contact your supervisor, the School Manager or me if there is anything we can do to help. There is also the ANU Community Wellbeing Team, which can provide a wide range of assistance and access to support programs from both the university and government.
One welcome recent development is that RSAA has received permission to re-start a few critical research operations, namely: the SSO telescopes (AAT, 2.3m, SkyMapper, UKST), in limited modes; the AITC National Space Test Facility for some urgent satellite testing; the SERC adaptive optics laser guide star programs; and some essential manufacturing, assembly, integration and testing capabilities in the AITC workshop and labs (the links give details of exactly what’s proposed to be re-started in each case).
Note that re-starting these activities depends on agreeing appropriate health safeguards. Roger Haynes is leading that work for the AITC (with help from relevant people from the three AITC activities) and Chris Lidman is doing the same for SSO (with help from Rob Brookfield and Zoe Holcombe). We expect resolving these arrangements will be completed this week and that the activities will gradually begin to re-start some time next week. Although it’s likely to be a while before we are all back at work and RSAA is fully operational again, this is a very welcome step in that direction.
I can also foreshadow another initiative relating to COVID-19. A new ANU Staff Urgent Relief Fund is being launched that will provide support to ANU staff who, for one reason or another, have fallen through the gaps in the university and government programs. This new fund uses private donations from ANU staff to help other ANU staff in need. It is not a university-funded scheme, except that the university is kindly allowing us to use their financial/HR expertise and systems to administer the funds (which of course means that all the donations flow to people who need them and none go to running the scheme).
Details of how to donate or apply for support will follow soon, but I hope that those of you who feel in a position to do so will donate to this fund (and/or the corresponding ANU Students Urgent Relief Fund) and that anyone at RSAA who is experiencing financial distress will apply for relief. These funds are by no means a panacea, but I hope they can take the edge off difficult situations for some of our colleagues and students and contribute to building even greater community spirit throughout the university.
