by Kelly Chia, Staff Writer

We are more than halfway through the semester and there is still no way for students to know how many COVID-19 cases there are on campus. According to SFU, when Public Health confirms there is a positive case on campus, they use contact tracing to reach out to anyone who was in close contact with the carrier. However, this does not account for people they might not know, such as the strangers they sit beside in lectures. Otherwise, the information is confidential. While I understand medical information is private, it would make me feel safer on campus to know if there are any exposures in classrooms. SFU should share exposure information with students to be more transparent with how COVID-19 is being managed on campus. 

COVID-19 safety is already tenuous at SFU: masks are mandatory, but class occupancy has returned to 80–100% this term, which makes classrooms crowded. 

Returning to nearly full capacity with a vaccination declaration that only encourages partially vaccinated and unvaccinated students to be rapidly tested makes me uneasy. A university is a place where sickness can travel quickly. It only makes sense for universities to be more transparent about exposure rates to students. Knowing whether cases are happening is only one part of the picture, but it feels significant when COVID-19 measures seem to barely be reinforced. 

While I do see sanitizing stations on campus, and reminders of public health notices, I would feel safer knowing the COVID-19 cases happening around me. I’m not asked to verify my vaccine status when I eat in the cafeteria in the Maggie Benston Centre, despite SFU needing proof of vaccination at all dining facilities. Instructors should also be encouraged to record their lectures so students have more autonomy in making decisions for their health and education. Students deserve more transparency about their health. 

In response to the similar lack of exposure information at UBC, a UBC student created a tracker to sort COVID-19 exposure cases by date, time, and place. While Vancouver Coastal Health will not verify these cases, UBC’s media relations director of university affairs, Matthew Ramsey, said in an article for The Ubyssey “exposures and cases are not unexpected” among the community. 

This isn’t something students should have to do themselves. And surely, across three campuses with the number of students transiting to them, exposures should be expected. Ideally, we’d have access to public health notices when cases happen in classrooms immediately, and public health will direct us on further instructions. If possible, SFU could publish COVID-19 case reports across their campuses intermittently so students have a direct understanding of how it’s being managed. 

Currently, the SFU Return to Campus website states SFU will be conducting an audit in November to verify the accuracy of the submissions on the vaccine declaration website. They are asking for proof of vaccination by November 5.