{"id":20726,"date":"2021-03-09T11:33:02","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T19:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=20726"},"modified":"2021-03-16T10:02:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T17:02:18","slug":"camosun-college-announces-return-to-in-person-learning-for-fall-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2021\/03\/09\/camosun-college-announces-return-to-in-person-learning-for-fall-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun College announces return to in-person learning for fall semester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, minister of advanced education and skills training Anne Kang issued a public statement saying that provincial health officer Bonnie Henry has contacted the presidents of all public colleges and universities in British Columbia to tell them to prepare for a full return to on-campus education in September. Today, Camosun College president Sherri Bell confirmed to Nexus<\/em> that the college\u2014which has been operating primarily online since March of last year\u2014is looking at a return to in-person learning on campus in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are planning on a full return to campus in September,\u201d says Bell. \u201cBased on the letter that we received from Bonnie Henry, it seems like it\u2019s safe to do so. So with the support of the provincial health officer, we can begin our planning. So we\u2019re at the beginning stages of looking at what could this look like, for us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell says that what it looks like depends on the updated Go-Forward Guidelines for post-secondary institutions, which aren\u2019t available yet. She was unable to comment on specifics, such as, for example, if there will be a CamFest or if cafeterias will be open in September.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An empty hallway at Camosun College during COVID-19 (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think a lot of it will depend on receiving the Go-Forward Guidelines, but what we do know through the letter that we received yesterday [is] that we will be using other safety methods other than social distancing in a classroom,\u201d says Bell. \u201cSo we\u2019ll have to wait to see what those are, but, you know, mask-wearing, hand-washing, all the protection mechanisms that have been in place will be there. I\u2019m not sure about the size of gatherings; we haven\u2019t received any indication yet, so that\u2019s what will come to us in the Go-Forward Guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell says that although the college is planning for a full return, she\u2019s also aware that things could change between now and September.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the message that we received yesterday, we are going to go forward planning on fully back to normal in September,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through a year where things just keep changing, so I\u2019m fully prepared to say we\u2019ll be back to as normal as we can in the fall but we also have to be prepared that there may be changes that are out of our control. But the good thing is this letter came at a time where the college is planning September, that students are thinking about registering. Now, will we have more classes that are blended or online? I\u2019m not sure. Each of the schools is looking at that exact thing right now. But I can tell you that our moving forward will look more like it was before than the way it is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her letter to the institutions, Henry said that \u201cGiven the expected timelines for immunization it is essential that we plan for a full return to in-person activities on campus in September 2021, including in-person instruction, with faculty and staff returning to campus sooner. Immunization will support what seems likely to become stable coexistence with COVID-19 as another manageable, seasonal ailment.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a statement on its website, Camosun said that \u201cWe are now looking at strategies to bring us all back safely,\u201d which will involve working with Island Health and WorkSafeBC to create more detailed safety plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is great for students that have been struggling online,\u201d says Bell, \u201cstudents that have had been isolated for a year. As [Henry] said in her letter, mental health has been a challenge for both employees and students, so having the ability to be back to face to face, even if it looks differently, even if we\u2019re wearing masks, even if we can\u2019t gather in huge numbers, it\u2019s a step forward in living with this virus. I\u2019m very happy about the timing and the opportunities that it will allow students to engage with one another and feel like they\u2019re back to somewhat of a normal educational learning experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nexus<\/em> posted on the Camosun College Student Society app this morning to see how students were feeling about returning to campus. Reactions varied from \u201cexcited and nervous at the same time\u201d to \u201cI like online and limited on-campus time\u201d to \u201cI\u2019m not a fan of online school\u2026 Not sure if it\u2019ll be safe but at least I can learn if we\u2019re in person.\u201d Roshni Roshni said \u201cLooking at the [COVID] situation currently, I don\u2019t find it safe to return to [c]ampus. I guess it\u2019s better to stay home and stay safe until [the] situation gets completely normal.\u201d Bell says that she understands that some students will share that feeling of unease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there will be some anxiety, there will be questions, there will be concerns about coming back to campus, but we\u2019ll work those through in the next number of months, because we have the time to do it,\u201d says Bell. \u201cWhen you think about a year ago, we flipped a switch and went from face to face to, in one week, being online. That\u2019s not the case now\u2014we do have time to be thoughtful and look at options and possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British Columbia Federation of Students, which Camosun students are all members of, issued a press release yesterday saying that it\u2019s optimistic that students\u2019 needs \u201cwill continue to be taken into account every step of the way\u201d during the return to campus.<\/p>\n

Bell\u2014who recently announced she will be retiring at the end of the year\u2014says that on a personal level, she was very excited to get the letter (which you can read here<\/a>) from Henry yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I was ecstatic,\u201d she says. \u201cI really was. I was so excited to see her letter and just to see the possibilities. This has been almost exactly a year and it\u2019s been a lot for all of us\u2026 Students have done their very best, and so have our instructors, and so have our staff and supports for students\u2014people have really pulled together. It\u2019s like, when you come close to that one-year mark, you wonder, how much more can we do? How much more can everybody take of being like this? And so when you see something that talks about at least the light at the end of the tunnel and mentions the vaccines and what we can be doing in September, I was pretty excited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, minister of advanced education and skills training Anne Kang issued a public statement saying that provincial health officer Bonnie Henry has contacted the presidents of all public colleges and universities in British Columbia to tell them to prepare for a full return to on-campus education in September. Today, Camosun College president Sherri Bell confirmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20726"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20728,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20726\/revisions\/20728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}