The Rector's message.
Dear students and colleagues,
As you know, given the national evolution of the health emergency, a new Prime Ministerial Decree (DPCM) has been issued today, and some important provisions in it also concern the university system.
The Decree states that as of tomorrow, 5 November, in-class teaching will be possible only for students attending both the first year of the degree programs (first, second and single cycle degree programs) and laboratories regardless of the year of attendance. All other teaching activities will be carried out online following the schedule that was previously established. We are currently updating the Presente app in line with the indications of the DPCM. At the moment there are no changes to the provisions already in force regarding exams, office hours, graduation ceremonies, internships, PhD and medical schools of specialization. For the specialization schools in non-medical areas, the new DPCM envisages the same provisions applying to the degree programs. Finally, a specific communication will follow for professional programs.
The second provision of the DPCM interests to us closely and concerns Libraries. From tomorrow, November 5, all library services to the public will be suspended. The library services will remain active for teaching staff, research fellows, PhD students, interns and students writing their final dissertations; all these users will have to book the consultation service. The loan and return of exam textbooks (“testi d’esame”) will also remain active for all students. Finally, the study rooms of our University will stay open, obviously in full compliance with the security protocols that are currently enforced. More detailed information on library services will shortly be available on our website.
Being aware that the pandemic situation might worsen, in recent months we have worked hard with the University's Library System to put in place solutions that, at least in part, make up for this type of inconveniences. We expect to make more than 2000 e-books available online for our Libraries users by the end of November. The books have been chosen among those that are most requested by users and/or that are signalled as required in the examination programs of Unibo's teaching staff. Moreover, we implemented a platform that is available for internal use and allows for the secure diffusion of university press books. For the time being, we have reached an agreement with Carocci publishing, but we are confident that in the following months we will be able to close similar deals with other publishers. Indeed, we believe these agreements will play a strategic role in the future. Information about the available resources can be found on the University Library System website.
I'd also like to remind students that the third and last call for applications for receiving a 6-month SIM Card is open and that the ISEE threshold (a financial indicator of a family’s economic situation) has been raised to 50,000 euro. Read the call for applications.
We all need to step up and proactively as well as responsibly work as one to support our country's effort in containing the spread of the virus while safeguarding public health, the most precious good.
My very best regards
Francesco Ubertini