Over the past few weeks, the University’s leadership and key stakeholders have been working to refine contingency plans in the event that the Coronavirus outbreak would necessitate a shutdown of the University.

Following the Government directive that all institutions of learning should close to reduce the spread of the Coronavirus, and USIU-Africa’s compliance with the directive, we have put measures in place to ensure that the university continues to operate by providing and maintaining essential services on campus. Each department has developed rosters to ensure they continue running during the shutdown. It is important that the staff agree on how to meet deliverables and maintain productivity and efficiency.

The ICT Department is working closely with several vendors, including Zoom and BlueJeans to ensure that these telecommuting services are continuous and stable during this period of high demand from the campus community. We would like to encourage all staff members, where possible, to work remotely except for employees working in critical or essential services necessary for the operation of the University. These include:

• Management Board - Members will continue working as normal both online and where necessary come physically to campus. MB will hold regular virtual meetings every Tuesday and Friday mornings to review updates on the continuation of teaching and learning and the operations of the essential services. The MB will also hold meetings in case of any emergencies.
• Security – These services will continue to operate during this period.
• Finance - Financial Clearance, Daily Receipting of payments made to USIU-Africa, Payroll, Petty Cash, Cash flow Planning, Project Accounting, Payment Processing, Supplier Payments, Collection of Invoices, Bank Reconciliations, Journals, Budgets, Approval of Payments by Bank Signatories will continue to operate during this period.
• University Health Services - The medical center will remain operational with minimum staff and can be reached through 0730116759 or extension 760/761/762/763 or 0780 334668 or tyamani@usiu.ac.ke.
• Insurance – To get a list of approved hospitals, visit resource/madison-insurance-panel-list-. The emergency contact for any urgent insurance matters is 0748590729 or 0780640963 or mwanderi@usiu.ac.ke.
• Maintenance, cleaning and grounds – These services will be ongoing during the duration of the closure.
• Housing Services – Will continue providing support as students continue to travel back home.
• The Cafeteria- The team will work in shifts to ensure that they provide breakfast, 10 O’clock tea, lunch and dinner for essential staff on campus.
• ICT Department - All calls to various ICT support desks located at various buildings on campus (e.g. ext. 160, 714, 800) shall be diverted to 0730116333 located at the Call Centre. All Helpdesk tickets will be attended to remotely and onsite and monitored weekly using our Business Intelligence (BI) tool in order to re-purpose resources on an ongoing basis.
• Transport- A list of all staff providing essential services has been forwarded to the transport supervisor. Arrangements have been made to ensure pick-ups and drop-offs at designated stops.
• The Coronavirus Emergency Team will continue their training plan for the various teams and provide emergency services. Prof. Njeri Wamae and Dr. Tasneem Yamani will provide support during this period.

We continue to encourage the USIU-Africa community on the need to practice good hygiene during this time. All employees are advised to report any flu-like symptoms to the Health Services department who will be operating during this period. The University is in touch with the Ministry of Health for further guidance with regards to access to isolation and treatment facilities, should the need arise.

For any additional queries, please contact the Human Resources department through the Director of Administration, Night Nzovu on nnzovu@usiu.ac.ke.

For any additional information regarding the COVID-19 outbreak and the University’s communication about it, please visit: communication-to-the-university-community-regarding-the-corona-virus-outbreak/

I wish to thank you for the commitment and energy you have all taken to ensure that we continue providing essential administrative services to the University. It is this spirit of dedication and collaboration that will ensure that we manage the coronavirus crisis effectively and emerge from the campus closure stronger than ever.

Prof. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza

Vice Chancellor