University of Alberta drops mask mandate, surprising students and profs
CBC
Students, staff and visitors at the University of Alberta will no longer be required to wear masks after the school announced Friday that it's dropping the mandate as of March 16.
The university posted the update on its website, three weeks after the president said masks would be mandatory until the end of the winter semester, mid-to-late April.
"We strongly recommend that you continue to wear masks in high-traffic or high-capacity spaces, and in other areas where you are in close proximity to others," the update says.
The change in policy took professors and students by surprise.
Jillian Buriak, a professor of chemistry at the university, said students have had to deal with enough changes throughout the pandemic.
"If they have to attend in person, this is nerve-wracking," Buriak said in an interview Friday. "I worry about the students and that level of stress because it's just been back forth, back forth, back forth."
Buriak said it's better to be consistent and finish the semester with the same policy.
"We told the students we'd be coming back with masks. Let's just finish this off," she said. "If this makes my students feel better, feel more comfortable — makes me feel more comfortable, then this is a minor inconvenience."
Andrew Sharman, vice president of facilities and operations and the lead of the school's public health response team, said the university made the decision late Thursday.
"There is never a good time and we will hear negatively from part of our community, I'm sure, on this," he said.
Sharman said the team has been talking about the mandate since the province lifted nearly all COVID-19 restrictions March 1 and the City of Edmonton repealed its face-covering bylaw this week.
The fluid situation of the COVID-19 pandemic has required changing policies along the way, he noted.
"The decisions have always been hard, but we take them with the best information available and we make them at a point in time."
Sharman said the mandate is suspended only and they can bring back the mask requirement depending on what happens.
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