After logging on to lectures online for the past three weeks, these Brock students were happy to return to campus last week.
“It’s kind of more of a community so it allows us to all bond over the fact that we’re all doing this during Covid,” said one student who was heading back into residence dorms.
Starting next Monday, in-person classes will resume in most Ontario post-secondary schools.
“The plan was never to push the entire winter term online but to take that hiatus of three weeks in January to allow for the surge of Omicron to peak and start to decline which it seems to be doing now. And for people to have an opportunity to get boosters,” said Lynn Wells, Vice President and Provost.
However, some students have grown to like e-learning. Nearly 1,500 students have signed a petition asking Brock to give students the option to continue remote learning.
“I work. I work part-time so for me, it was a lot more convenient not commuting from school,” said accounting student Lazar Vukicevic. “Staying online is a lot easier for me.”
Brendon Furlanetto is a third-year business student and says offering online classes is a great option for students living with immuno-compromised family members.
“Give students a choice for those who have vulnerable members at home. I was reading the comments in the petition and a lot of them have family members who have cancer for example,” said Furlanetto.
Wells says students have a 95 per cent double vaccination rate. Those in residence have to be boosted and masks must be worn inside. Despite all that, some students are still uneasy.
“No social distancing is really scary because that’s something that’s been drilled in our minds for the past year and a half,” said psychology student Nicole Delasllagas. “The thought of being with 50 or more students all packed into one classroom is really scary.”
The university says it just can’t offer that service right now. “Dual versions of each class is just simply not workable,” said Wells. “Unfortunately, we just can’t provide that degree of flexibility.”
Wells says the school is doing what it can to reschedule larger classes. Some have been deferred to the beginning of March.
Students scheduled to attend lectures will have no other option but to show up.
