Everyone is on the edge of their seats: for the first time in two months, we’ve been shown there there is an end to all this… Well, “change” would be a better term than “end.” Nothing is ending. But some things could change for the post-secondary sector by the fall.
After finally getting settled into a routine, students and staff are once again having all feelings of comfort—however short-lived they might have been—uprooted by the thought of going back to campus.
Maybe you’re excited. But just because you’re allowed to do something doesn’t mean you should, or that you have to. Part of phase three of the BC government’s re-opening plan is to allow in-person classes to resume at post-secondary, and also to potentially have routine daily screening protocol for all staff and students. This detail is one of the reasons BC is the place to be right now. It’s measures like that, alongside physical distancing and hand washing, that have kept so many safe and healthy. But it could also mean getting on campus everyday will be a long, arduous process.
We don’t know anything for sure yet, but it demonstrates that being allowed to resume in-person classes and being able to are two different things.
Will all students file through one entrance in a massive line? You’d have to get school three hours early to do that. Plus, does the college have the resources or the time to do that properly and efficiently? Does it make returning to in-person classes even worth it? The post-secondary sector can operate fairly well online, after all.
Opening up will be incredibly complicated for Camosun, and my heart goes out to all those working 80-hour weeks right now trying to figure out the details of something that might or might not happen. And even if it does, it could all be shut down with the drop of some moist spittle.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll be staying at home, taking online classes, and making my life less complicated where I can. Maybe it’s worth it to keep learning remotely for a while longer, as long as it doesn’t impact enrolment too much. We’re seeing government money to post-secondary being cut in other provinces, so unless the government is going to pay for all the associated costs with routine daily screening for all staff and students, this might be a measure the college simply can’t afford to take.