Members of the Local Executive Committees for Local 417 (faculty) and Local 418 (staff) have been meeting weekly with the College’s Incident Management Team (IMT) throughout the pandemic. The mandate of the IMT has been to focus on issues related to COVID-19, consulting with local health units and peer colleges.
The focus of the IMT has recently shifted to the safe return of staff, students, and faculty to the college campuses for face-to-face learning this fall. While some faculty have been on campus and teaching face-to-face since last summer, this larger-scale circumstance will present major challenges. Many faculty may have questions and concerns about the return to campus. Some questions the Local Executive Committee have heard from members include
- What if I am not vaccinated in time?
- What if I cannot be vaccinated?
- Will students be required to be vaccinated?
- Will class sizes be smaller?
- Will classrooms be adequately ventilated?
- Can I work in my shared office?
- What if I feel unsafe on campus?
- Can I choose to continue teaching remotely?
- What happens if some or all of my students either aren’t on campus or do not feel safe coming to campus?
- If I am on campus, will I be supplied with personal protective equipment (PPE)?
If you have questions or concerns that you would like the IMT to discuss and/or address, please contact one of the LEC representatives meeting with the IMT.
Grant Currie, Local 417 President grant.currie@slcfaculty.ca
Gillian Axten, Local 417 Chief Steward gillian.axten@slcfaculty.ca
Sara Craig, Local 417 Secretary sara.craig@slcfaculty.ca
A COVID-19 Health and Safety Rights Guide for Education Workers has been made available by the Ontario Federation of Labour.