A look at KPU’s pandemic response

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In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the lives of post-secondary students around the world. Many experienced campus closures, online classes, job shortages, and loss of community for two years. 

Kwantlen Polytechnic University underwent a large number of changes to ensure students were safe during the pandemic. This included shifting to online learning, increasing cleaning protocols, and mandatory masks when returning to campus. 

2020

Shortly after the first case of COVID-19 in British Columbia was announced on Jan. 28, representatives from various departments at KPU created a working group called the COVID-19 Action Team to respond to the pandemic. 

In an emailed statement to The Runner, then KPU special advisor to the president on strategic initiatives Adam Jaffer said the group met depending on the need ranging from several times a week to every other week when regulation changes were more stable. 

“The group was led initially by the Office of the Provost and later by the special advisor to the president on KPU’s Covid-19 response,” Jaffer wrote. 

On Feb. 25, KPU sent an email to students and employees providing free hand sanitizer bottles at the KPU Bookstore. 

KPU President Alan Davis announced the cancellation of any events at the university involving 250 people or more including the spring Convocation on March 12. Instructors moved their classes online shortly after but the university made it official on March 16, and campuses remained open with limited services. The Faculty of Trades and Technology, and level one and four horticulture classes still had in-person classes with exams online. 

To help the community, KPU donated 37 boxes of supplies that included lab coats, aprons, masks, and gloves to local hospitals in March. 

The Kwantlen Student Association joined the Capilano Students’ Union signing a letter on March 23 to demand the provincial government put a rent freeze and ban on evictions for all renters during the pandemic. 

“Students need stable residence to fully focus on their education. The risk of being evicted or being unable to afford rent payments due to loss of income from the pandemic is unacceptable,” wrote Lesli Sangha, KSA students with disabilities representative, in an email to The Runner. 

On March 27, KPU and the KSA each donated $100,000 for a combined total of $200,000 to ease students’ financial strain the pandemic had caused. Students who were registered in the spring term could apply for the funding and were eligible to receive up to $250. 

“With the sudden closing of the province, many students unexpectedly lost their jobs, incomes, or were evicted from their homes. This donation of $100,000 from the KSA was to ensure students would be supported during the pandemic so their basic needs could be fulfilled,” Sangha wrote. 

“As students, we often focus so much on our academics that we forget we are also human beings who need our basic needs met.” 

The intercampus shuttle bus hours were running on the summer schedule and library hours were reduced. However, the library began loaning out laptops on March 30 on a first-come-first-serve basis. Parking on the campus was made free with refunds granted to students and employees for the month of March. 

KPU also launched the 24/7 Mental Wellness Student Support program on April 3, which is a partnership between the university and keep.meSAFE. This provided students with support from professional counsellors to help with things like procrastination, time management skills, and loneliness or homesickness. 

The KSA’s Peer Support Centre was created to address mental health during the pandemic as well. 

“Many students from different universities have spoken about their declining mental health during the pandemic, so we knew it was important to continue mental health supports in the form of our Peer Support program and advocacy to the government for investments in mental health supports,” said KSA Executive Secretary Jeremy Law in an email to The Runner. 

The university extended the voluntary withdrawal deadline for the spring semester to April 9, making the transition to online classes easier for students. Many committees like the KPU Senate and Board of Governors shifted to meet online in response to the pandemic. Benefits such as the U-Pass and KSA Multipass were suspended on May 1. 

The summer semester was delivered entirely online, and KPU conducted a survey on students’ opinions on remote learning for the first time. 

Students expressed if they preferred asynchronous or synchronous learning, what they appreciated about remote learning, and suggestions on what instructors could do better in the future. 

In the fall semester, the majority of classes were online due to the provincial regulations at the time. On Sept. 1, the U-Pass was put back in place if students had at least one in-person class that semester. Many of KPU’s services like the Learning Centre, Financial Aid, and academic advisors were remote through Microsoft Teams or over the phone. 

The KSA began their partnership with SPUD, an organic grocery service, to deliver healthy food options to students during the pandemic. 

On Oct. 30, KPU emailed an announcement to students that non-medical masks would be mandatory on all campuses including hallways, washrooms, study areas, the libraries, and outside campus buildings unless “you can guarantee that you can stay at least two metres (six feet) from others at all times.” 

In November, KPU employees working on campus were required to complete daily active health screening, which required employees to enter the security office before their shift to confirm they completed the COVID-19 BC Self-Assessment Tool.

2021 

In January, KPU employees working on campus were still required to complete health check-ins before starting their shift. Students were also required to complete self assessments before attending classes in-person. 

Most classes in the spring and summer semesters remained online while others were in a blended format. However, the spring semester was the first time the university offered courses in this type of format. 

To accommodate the loss of study exchanges to other countries, KPU offered virtual study exchanges for students. KPU’s Learning Centre still offered virtual tutoring services through TutorOcean to book a half hour or hour long session. 

On May 25, the provincial government released its Restart Plan, a four-step plan to gradually return to an economic recovery and social connections. 

As the Restart Plan continued and the rates of vaccination increased, KPU was in discussions of how students and employees will return to campus through June to August. 

KPU and WorkSafeBC developed the Communicable Disease Prevention Plan on Aug. 25, which “details the infection control practices and protocols that are in place to minimize the risk of communicable disease transmission on our campuses,” reads KPU’s website. The plan applies to everyone from students to visitors. 

Jaffer says the Communicable Disease Prevention Plan was created to create a more general guideline in addressing different illnesses. 

KPU released the official return to campus plan on Sept. 3. The plan followed Step 3 of the Restart Plan, which meant classes could be offered virtually and on campus with careful social contact. 

KPU’s plan discussed recommending students and employees to get vaccinated, regulations on mandatory masks and where to find them if needed, and what non-essential services people can access when vaccinated. 

Vaccination clinics were offered at the Surrey, Richmond, and Langley campuses in collaboration with the Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health Authorities until Oct. 27. 

Although proof of vaccination wasn’t required to attend class, KPU required it for non-essential activities that fell under the government’s mandate such as indoor sporting events, fitness centres or gyms, and organized indoor events like meetings. 

On Sept. 10, KPU updated their plan to include more specifications on their mask requirements and the scenarios on when a mask does not need to be worn. 

For example, a mask did not have to be worn by instructors while delivering a lecture or presentation, people communicating with a person for “whom visual cues, facial expressions, lip-reading or lip-movement are essential,” or while sitting in the cafeteria while actively eating or drinking. 

Free masks were offered at security stations and hand sanitizing stations were placed at entry ways, and KPU improved cleaning procedures and ventilation systems in campus buildings. 

In response to the Omicron variant in December, KPU closed its fitness centres and gyms on Dec. 22 until Jan. 18 next year to limit the spread. 

The Ministry of Education and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry made an announcement on Dec. 29 that the K-12 education system would have a phased return to the classroom following the winter break. The next day, KPU made an announcement saying they would be doing the same. 

2022

Phase one was a delayed start from Jan. 5 to 10, with phase two consisting of moving scheduled in-person classes that could be taught online from Jan. 10 to 23. Classes that couldn’t be taught effectively online continued as planned. 

The last phase consisted of continuing their plan of a mixed course delivery of 70 per cent of classes online or blended, and 30 per cent remote starting Jan. 24. 

When students and employees returned to campus in January, KPU placed six-person table limits in all cafeterias in accordance to public health regulations and still required masks on campus. 

On March 10, KPU announced that masks would become optional at the end of the spring semester on April 27. 

As the 2022 fall semester approaches, Jaffer says it will look similar to what we had in the summer semester. Unless there are significant changes to the current pandemic situation, KPU can adapt if provincial health orders change, he says. 

“It’s a balancing act of what does the community want, what’s most appropriate, what’s permitted for each program, and then also what the climate looks like from a pandemic perspective in the future,” Jaffer says. 

For the KSA, Law said they are still in discussions about what specific supports will be offered in the fall. However, he said the KSA encourages students to share their experience with the continued effects of the pandemic and what supports they still need to guide the association’s approach. 

Challenges faced and going forward in-person 

One of the biggest challenges during the pandemic for KPU was keeping up with the changing regulations, Jaffer wrote in a follow-up email to The Runner. 

The KSA experienced similar challenges when moving online on how to continue offering their services and reaching out to students while working remotely. 

“The pandemic challenged us to be creative with continuing our services while still engaging students. We opted for an appointment or time slot-based approach to offering our services to ensure all students could safely engage with us regardless of their accessibility and health concerns,” Law wrote. 

Some of the things the KSA learned from the online transition was the flexibility and accessibility of the structure. 

“Not all students are fresh from high school without accessibility needs, so the online infrastructure we built during the pandemic will be crucial in our approach to accommodating mature students and students with disabilities,” Sangha wrote. 

“Moving forward, we hope to see many online courses continue to be offered to allow a wider range of students to access education. We are also excited to see in-person classes return for students who prefer that option for learning.”