I’ve been waiting 18 months to write this student editor’s letter and to say this: we’re back. The full return to campus is in motion. It’s exciting to be back; in one sense, it feels like it’s only been a few days since I last walked the corridors of Camosun’s campuses. In another sense, it feels more dark and grim than the first week of lockdown did in March 2020 because both case numbers and vaccination rates are relatively high.
As a society, we can’t afford—emotionally or financially—to forever work from home and not see other people. But I can’t help but feel that that’s what might be needed again, and classes haven’t even started. Return-to-campus guidelines were reasonable before the Delta variant, but sitting in a classroom feels a bit like playing with fire in a high wind right now.
On August 28, 2020, BC reported 124 new cases. Classes were mostly online for that fall semester. Almost a year later to the day, on August 27, 2021, 11 days before the start of term, BC reported 867 new cases. Across the province, the amount of people in acute ICU because of COVID-19 was up from 59 cases on August 20 to 84 on August 27, an increase of 42 percent.
But is locking down further even an option? In May of 2020, a study from C.D. Howe Institute warned that Canada lacked the financial capacity to withstand another lockdown. The moment may be upon us where we simply cannot afford to take those measures.
In-person education is incredibly important. The re-implementation of a mask mandate was an incredibly important step in—hopefully—making sure that classes can stay in person this fall. But, in my opinion, anyone not thinking this could be another false start is kidding themselves.
I thought that writing an editorial for our first print issue since the start of the pandemic would be a more positive thing, and that the tone of it would be much happier. I wish I could sit here and tell you it will all be okay, that that’s what the numbers are indicating, but I can’t do that. If you’re coming to campus for in-person learning to better your education, good on you. But the need to take protective measures has never been greater, because, looking at it in the long term, being here on campus is so important to everyone’s education; I firmly believe that.
So let’s make sure we do every possible thing we can to stay here. Protective measures have never been more important.
Something else I also firmly believe is that we are currently losing the battle with this virus. A full return to campus is not safe just because we need it to be, or because transmission rates are low in classrooms. Classrooms are one aspect to college life, and our lives are as safe as the precautions we take. So be safe out there as we return to campus.
I hope this move back to in-person learning was made because it’s the right thing to do, not because of political pressure. I was waiting 18 months to be able to write that we’re back, but the words almost feel more like a threat whispered than a promise fulfilled.