Universities, colleges taking varied approaches to COVID-19 as students set to return to campus

Early this week, Western University in London, Ont., announced an updated vaccine requirement — mandating a primary series of shots plus one booster for everyone returning to campus — along with resuming masking indoors for the fall.

The news garnered an immediate reaction from students.

Ethan Gardner, president of Western's University Students' Council, has been fielding a barrage of communications from his peers. While some are upset with the timing — "They feel like it was short notice for the upcoming school year" — others have protested "the consistency of the announcements over the last year, including this summer," he said.

"Some students just want a definitive reasoning as to why this decision was made, backed by some body of science."

As students make their way onto Canadian post-secondary campuses for a new term, some may be facing starkly different pandemic protocols than when they last left.

A patchwork of approaches is emerging, depending on the college or university, with a rare few mandating booster shots, some bringing back masking and the vast majority — for now — simply encouraging the two, along with staying home when ill. 

At this point, very few schools have taken the same path as Western. According to university officials, Western's decision is part of its effort to do "everything we can to protect in-person learning and a great on-campus experience," Florentine Strzelczyk, the school's provost and vice-president (academic), told CBC News in a statement.

"Our approach is informed by consultation with our medical experts and the Western community, and mirrors several of North America's largest universities, including Brown, Columbia, Harvard and Yale per [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations."

Huron University College, a Western-affiliated school also located in London, Ont., followed Western's lead by updating vaccine mandates for this fall. Just a few weeks earlier, the University of Toronto announced booster shots will be required this fall, but only for those students living in its residences.

"The goal of the mandate is to support the health and well-being of students in residence and enable them to get the most out of their on-campus experience. Living in residence creates a unique set of conditions that require special precautions," U of T said in a statement in early August.

Bringing back masking indoors has been a touch more popular: Dalhousie University in Halifax, the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton and Saint John, and Memorial University across Newfoundland and Labrador are among the schools reintroducing it. According to The Canadian Press, masks are being mandated this fall at 14 out of 83 universities recently surveyed by the news agency. 

More broadly, the majority of schools are hewing to the general messaging from provincial health authorities — which encourage COVID-19 boosters when eligible and practices such as masking in crowded settings and staying home when ill. However, because schools set their own rules, this means post-secondary policies can vary within a region, a city or even a single neighbourhood. 

For instance, Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ont., is requiring masks for the fall term. But Durham College, which shares some campus space next door, paused its policy last spring. In Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba has mandated masking indoors this fall, but other post-secondary schools in the city have not. Colleges and universities across Nova Scotia are also split.

With her university having dropped vaccination and masking requirements by the end of the spring term, Madelyn Mackintosh is uneasy about the very different pandemic policies she'll find back at McGill University in Montreal this fall.