A Message from President – Nathan Cecckin
Welcome back to the Fall Term!
With the provincial government’s decision to grant an exemption to Universities and Colleges from COVID restrictions, we will be returning to in-person learning for the Fall. We are still discussing the interpretation of ‘instructional space.’ This would include lecture halls, seminar rooms, and labs. However, this would seemingly not include office spaces, hallways, and other non-instructional spaces. It is not clear how these spaces will be monitored. However, there are a few issues that members need to know with what to expect in the return.
First, the administration has adopted a mandatory vaccine policy as directed to do so by the provincial government. This would mean we need to have the first dose by September 1st and the second dose by September 28th. Currently, vaccine receipts need to be uploaded here – https://brocku.ca/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccination/. You can also find the forms here if you are unable to be vaccinated due to grounds protected under human rights legislation. For those who do not have an exemption and have not been vaccinated, the Executive Committee is working to get protections for members.
Second, we had received a lot of concern over shared office spaces, particularly in relation to the Administration’s plan to have them cleaned once per week. As we are in the midst of a global pandemic, and modelling predicts that variations could lead to a greater number of cases, it is unconscionable to not clean these shared spaces that we use to meet with students more often. The Executive Committee has put pressure on the Administration to revisit this issue. As a result, the issue was revisited and Custodial Services is undertaking a review of shared office spaces on campus. While we are still waiting for a full report, it appears that some high-occupancy spaces that we use will be cleaned daily rather than weekly.
We will continue to seek protections for members. If you have a concern, please email us
Moving into the Fall, we will still be active! We will resume GMMs to be held virtually on the third Thursday of the month at 5 pm, committees will be meeting and planning events, and we are relaunching our calendar and you can order a calendar with the link in this email!