With the first semester of the new academic year nearly half over, several of B.C.’s leading universities have no coherent vaccine policies in place.
At the University of Victoria, staff and students are required to self-declare whether they have had the COVID vaccine, and an internal unit is randomly auditing these declarations.
But while management has threatened disciplinary actions for anyone found to have made a false declaration, or none at all, many staff and students feel this offers insufficient protection now that in-person classes have resumed.
At the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University, the process is even more sketchy.
As at UVic, everyone on campus is asked to self-declare whether they have been vaccinated, but neither school takes steps to verify these declarations. Some professors have submitted visibly false declarations to see what would happen. Nothing happened.
Both universities offer rapid testing, but again these tests are not required, and there is no enforcement procedure to back up this safeguard.
In fairness, part of the responsibility for this unacceptable situation rests with provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Henry has refused to make COVID vaccination a requirement for anyone attending class. She has also declined to permit universities to impose their own vaccination requirements.
In several respects, this is difficult to understand. At any number of worksites, large and small, vaccination has been made a condition of employment.
And university auditoriums are often built to accommodate several hundred attendees. Clearly, the risk of viral transmission is magnified in crowded facilities like these.
Moreover, universities in Ontario have already made vaccination a requirement for attending class. Henry’s unwillingness to follow suit further enhances the appearance that across the country there is no consistency behind the measures being taken to fight the virus, or the sacrifices demanded.
But there is a larger concern here. We look to universities for leadership in matters such as these.
Post-secondary institutions are about more than teaching. They are also meant to illuminate the issues of the day, and take informed positions on them.
We should be able to look to them for guidance on complex, baffling matters. And there are no more complex and baffling matters at present than those surrounding the management of the ongoing COVID crisis.
Instead, the picture we’re presented with is one of confusion, lack of preparation and, above all, unwillingness or inability to grasp a thorny issue.
We hear that plans are under way. We are told that discussions are being held and more information will be released in due course.
Need we remind university management that the COVID epidemic is now in its 22nd month, and showing few signs of abating. Worse still, the new Delta variant is proving more dangerous for youth cohorts than previous strains of the virus.
It will be a tragedy if sloth and indecision lead to the death of even one young student.
The best solution, by far, would be for Henry to reverse her stance, and make COVID vaccination a necessity for anyone attending a post-secondary institution.
At one stroke, the matter would be resolved, and resolved moreover in manner that would not pit universities against one another in a bid to see who takes the strongest steps.
For as things stand, there is a very real danger of that happening. With no leadership at the provincial level, it is a near certainty that we will end up with piecemeal policies, adopted with piecemeal enforcement measures and piecemeal consequences.
That will not only put lives at risk. It will bring our post-secondary institutions into disrepute at the very time they should be speaking with one voice, and that voice equal to the task.
