B.C. university staff and students ask for more clarity around COVID-19 protocols – CBC
Concerns around on-campus rapid testing, COVID exposures, and accessible remote learning supports
Oct 17, 2021
University staff and students in B.C. are asking for more clarity around COVID-19 exposures, rapid testing and remote-learning support one month into an in-person fall term.
Currently, none of the universities in B.C. have mandated vaccines for students, faculty, or staff, and exposure notices within universities are not posted publicly by health authorities.
Those who do experience symptoms at Metro Vancouver’s biggest universities — the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University — are not able to access on-campus rapid testing unless they have previously declared themselves unvaccinated or refused to disclose their vaccination status.
The lack of accessible on-campus rapid testing particularly affects disabled students, according to Hannah Sullivan Facknitz, a disabled graduate student and teaching assistant at UBC. There is a rapid testing study at UBC’s Vancouver campus, but that is only open to asymptomatic people.
