Working on campus during Covid; Pic Getting Immunized for first time.

Computers were the lifeline of the USask campus during COVID - allowing basic essential institutional business to be conducted even while ~ 95% of staff and faculty were at home and not physically present on campus. Meetings went virtual overnight, thanks to technlogy that was already in place. However the technology had never been used previously to this extreme - putting a sudden enormous load on electronic collaboration services such as Webex, Teams, Sharepoint, and Zoom). Additionally many clients needed help getting their workstations setup to function with USask services remotely at home.

While the Usask campus was mainly closed during Covid, some Staff in ICT IT Support Services (such as myself) were permitted on campus (in a rotating schedule) to help with computers that needed attention, new computer setups, etc.

Campus was an amazingly stark and lonely place for the few staff that roamed its empty hallways and rooms during the Covid lockdown. Designated staff that had to be on campus were issued a special USask covid pass to carry  with them, which essentially gave them 'permission' to be on campus. Everyone else was asked not to be here and all buildings were locked.

In addition to traversing campus to restart and repair machines, staff in IT Support Services also had a couple rooms in the basement of Education Building opened to us - where we could deploy new machines and service existing machines for USask clients. We would then have clients come pickup their equipment in a sterile & covid-safe (health approved) manner - to take home.

Among the many measures taken to control the spread of covid, all the machines being setup or serviced by ICT in the Education Building had to be disinfected with wipes prior to being repackaged in prep for handing them to their owners. USask Clients called a phone number when they arrived at the dock of the Education Building to pickup their machines, and their products were brought outside to them by ICT staff. In this fashion, USask computing hardware continued to be rotated, repaired, and dispensed. Campus business was therefore able to continue during COVID.

My First Immunization: I drove out to the Langham Community Centre to get my first covid vaccine shot (June 29, 2021 see pic) - even though I was a Saskatoon resident. In the early days of Covid, the quickest way to get a covid shot when living in the city - was to book your appointment in the smaller towns around Saskatoon.