Brock University senior leaders will host virtual Town Hall meetings for faculty and staff in each of the next two months.

The first Town Hall will take place on Friday, Feb. 5 and will provide an update both on Brock’s COVID-19 response and on the University’s budget and financial health.

The second Town Hall will take place on Friday, March 26 and will provide a more detailed discussion of the budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

Both events will run in online-only formats and take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. President Gervan Fearon will attend both meetings, as will others from the senior leadership team.

The two areas of focus for the upcoming Town Halls have been central to the University over the past year.

Since making the first announcement on March 13, 2020 that all Winter Term classes would be moving online, more than 50 COVID-related mass emails have been sent to members of the Brock community, including over 25,000 student, staff and faculty. The Brock coronavirus web pages contain 181 frequently asked questions from across the University and have received more than 300,000 page views.

The pandemic has had a significant financial impact on the entire post-secondary sector in Canada. The University held a financial sustainability Town Hall in November and will provide an update on the current budget and planning for the future at the upcoming events.

The meetings will start with a short overview presentation, followed by a virtual ‘open floor’ discussion with questions being submitted to the speakers. They will be open to all faculty members, librarians, staff and students.

Instructions for logging into the Town Halls and submitting questions will be communicated to the Brock community closer to the events.