Put the damn powerpoints online
UVic's COVID policy is forcing students to make tough choices between their grades and coming to school sick
Making courses fully accessible for all has become a touchy subject for faculty, who are demanding that the University provide additional TA support before any kind of hybrid class mandate. Students, meanwhile, bear the brunt of these politics as hybrid courses remain part of a distant future.
“My profs don’t record lectures for sure,” said Computer Engineering student Niall Peck. “Which sucks [because] there is no way I am going in tomorrow…. [I have] either a mild Covid case or a really unfortunate cold.” Only one out of five of Peck’s classes is designed to be accessible to students who are isolating.
In theory, students with a Centre for Accessible Learning (CAL) concession can record lectures themselves. But that doesn’t help if the student can’t get to class because omicron is speedrunning its way through campus.
“We need alternatives for disabled and chronically ill students who are at high risk. That's not up for debate,” said Zackary Derrick. “Even for students with the recorded lecture accommodation, we often have to fight profs to get it.” Derrick is a member of Society for Students with Disabilities (SSD), the group leading a campaign called Access4All. The campaign demands that the University offer hybrid course access to students with disabilities and immunocompromised students who feel unsafe on campus.
Faculty are concerned about the additional workload and intellectual property risks of providing class recordings and online class access as part of a University-wide mandate. They want to see more paid TA support from the University. The University, for their part “feels like it has spent enough on COVID,” says one unnamed source in University governance.
“We are very tired of uncertainty, overwork, and having to be concerned about our safety and that of our families.”
~Faculty Association President Lynne Marks, in an announcement to faculty
The Faculty Association has joined the University in calling for instructors to clearly communicate what concessions they will offer to students through the term. This message was even (literally) highlighted in a recent announcement to faculty.
As students struggle, it’s helpful to remember the current political situation: our student union is running with 2/5 lead directors, and student interest in the University Senate is near an all-time low.
Maybe students will finally remember they have a union? Please? UVSS nominations open February 9th, and there will soon be a second call for nominations on the Senate, as we didn’t get enough nominations in the first call 👉👈
Sam Holland is a University Senator, Discord Repository Founder, and sometime Seagull contributor. You can reach him at samuelholland@uvic.ca about Senate stuff or find him on Discord.