Students and faculty have mixed reactions to UBC’s decision not to reimplement mask policies for the fall term.
On August 25, President and Vice-Chancellor Santa Ono and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UBC Okanagan Lesley Cormack announced UBC would only recommend masks for the fall term, falling short of a mandate.
In the announcement, Ono and Cormack said UBC consulted in part with “internal experts.” When asked by The Ubyssey who these experts were, UBC Media Relations pointed to the “Deans, Senate Planning Committee and unions” who were “on Faculty,” but did not provide specific names.
Ono told The Ubyssey in September that he regularly contacts Dr. Sally Otto, Dr. Dan Coombs and Dr. David Patrick, who all work on the BC COVID-19 Modelling Group, on COVID-19-related policies.
In a written statement sent to The Ubyssey, Otto, a UBC zoology professor, said the modelling group found that the third Omicron wave has crested in BC, but personally predicted that infections could increase at UBC as students return from around the world and gather in classes.
She recommended “that the UBC community comes back in the fall wearing high-quality masks” such as the N95, in indoor crowded spaces.
Online, staff and faculty at UBC criticized the university’s announcement.
Dr. Alan Richardson, philosophy professor and president of the UBC Faculty Association, criticized the decision on his Twitter, writing, “We'll be safe for the first 15 minutes or so. So, that's a start.”
Richardson and the Faculty Association did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Ubyssey.
Meanwhile, Peeranat Tokaeo, a second-year master’s in computer science student, said they thought UBC’s COVID-19 policy reflects the general societal attitude towards the disease.
“I feel like … it should just be the choice for each person,” Tokaeo said. They echoed this sentiment when asked about their thoughts on a vaccine mandate — which UBC lifted at the end of April.
Tokaeo added they didn’t think UBC would be able to enforce a mask mandate if the university implemented one, especially since students were already used to the mandate being lifted.
While they agree with UBC’s decision not to re-implement a mask mandate, Tokaeo suggested UBC could implement other safety policies such as occupancy requirements in lecture halls. He said this would allow the university to manage “behind the scenes” by lowering the number of people in classrooms so that social distancing would be possible.
Tokaeo also said UBC’s decision was a step towards “normalization.”
“I think that's kind of the point, I suppose like, eventually, you want to maybe tone it down slowly to the point where you treat it as another common disease and people have an inherent kind of immunity to it through the vaccine.”