Brandon University seeks normal fall on campus

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This article was published 04/03/2022 (1523 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon University students, faculty and staff will start the upcoming fall term on campus with minimal COVID-19 public health measures in place.

The university is moving forward with cautious optimism, said marketing and communications director Grant Hamilton. The move to “Phase Gold” of the campus re-opening plan was announced Thursday and will take effect on April 28.

“We think that spring and summer is the best time to make this kind of transition. First of all, we committed and we’ve always committed to giving as much notice as possible,” Hamilton said. “Switching gears in the middle of a teaching term is very difficult.”

During the spring and summer, there are fewer students on campus, classes are typically smaller, longer and meet more regularly, so there is less mixing of students. Hamilton said these factors make it the optimal time to explore easing restrictions and giving people time to adjust.

Under Phase Gold, Brandon University will unlock its doors to the public, a vaccine mandate will no longer be in place, physical distancing will no longer be enforced, no capacity limits will be set and the use of masks will be encouraged while inside.

The school will continue to use enhanced ventilation, require self-monitoring for illness or COVID-19 symptoms and continue to provide sanitization stations.

Hamilton noted the opening of BU’s doors to the community is important because of the critical place community connections hold within the university’s recently completed Strategic Plan.

“The campus is not itself when the doors are locked. We want to be open as a campus and we’re excited about that opportunity,” Hamilton said. “It will be fun, but it will definitely be a bit of an adjustment.”

The university was in the middle stages of finalizing its Strategic Plan when COVID-19 first arrived in Manitoba. Hamilton said staff were able to pause the project and incorporate lessons learned during the pandemic.

“It upended so many expectations. It presented new ways of doing things and we learned really what worked and, in some cases, what didn’t work,” Hamilton said. “We’ve now got this new Strategic Plan that includes all of those lessons.”

In terms of what health measures to keep in place, the school focused on what was feasible for the institution to undertake and relied less on policing individual behaviours. Hamilton noted BU also looked to practices in the broader community to align with what people are experiencing and expecting in terms of health measures.

The re-opening under Phase Gold will be a unique experience, he added, because every faculty and staff member and student will have individual expectations of what normal life looks like on campus.

“From a university perspective, we listened as much as we can and we’ve always been a smaller campus and pretty tight-knit, cosy community,” Hamilton said.

Brandon University is not focusing on any one metric or any particular numbers when it comes to the easing of health measures on campus. Hamilton said BU will lean on the availability of rapid tests in the community and other practices that have been learned over the past two years in terms of promoting safety.

“We’ve learned a lot about how you can support your team and your colleagues and work from home if you’ve got the sniffles,” Hamilton said. “We’re really, really happy with the massive success of vaccinations … I think there’s going to be a real support for wearing masks long-term.”

The fall semester will be a memorable experience, because the university will see a mix of students arrive who have not had a typical campus life during the pandemic and recently graduated high school students who are coming to university for the first time.

“There’s going to be students who haven’t set foot on campus but are second or even third-year students.”

The institution is still planning out what the fall semester will look like. Hamilton said they remain ready to pivot because of the ongoing uncertainty around COVID-19, while remaining confident it will be more social and a fuller experience than what has been possible in the last couple of years.

For many alumni, some of the most important memories made during their post-secondary careers have been the relationships they developed. Hamilton said the social aspect of campus life has been missed and people are hungry for inter-personal contact — BU is exploring ways to support this as measures are relaxed.

Brandon University is currently considering what student orientations will look like in the fall, Hamilton said. He expects the experience will include expanded cohorts. The school is also debating having extended orientation to allow for smaller groups that are spread out over the longer term.

» ckemp@brandonsun.com

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