It is certainly true that SFU must follow the BC Ministry of Health directives. It is also clear that the ministry does not require vaccines for universities. But is not clear that it prohibits requiring them. The ministry keeps telling people and institutions to act following their own level of risk assessment. The universities have decided that requiring masks or vaccines (or even asking. as opposed to requiring, your students to wear a mask in your class) violates some principles of freedom or privacy. It is hard to believe that, while US universities are doing the rational thing, ours are aligning themselves with people like the governor of Florida.
There is movement out there to oppose this
madness
It would be great if SFUFA joined.
Martin
Regarding frustration with the university's lack of a vaccine requirement: my understanding, which might be incorrect, is that SFU must follow provincial direction on any vaccine mandate. That direction comes from the Ministry of Health and the Min. of Adv. Education, or whatever it's called these days.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
So if faculty and staff want to pressure the university to implement a vaccine requirement, pressure would have to be applied to the university and to the relevant levels of government.
Such requirements are common in the US.
BestChris
On Jul 29, 2021, at 10:46 AM, Lyn Bartram <lyn@sfu.ca> wrote:
Dr. Lyn Bartram
Professor, School of Interactive Arts and TechnologyDirector, Vancouver Institute of Visual AnalyticsSimon Fraser University | SRYC
250 – 13450 102nd Avenue, Surrey, B.C. V3T 0A3
v 778 782 7439 f 778 782 9422 m 604 908 9954http://www.sfu.uca/~lyn | Skype: drlynb<OutlookEmoji-15753042296078dab3b27-0b5a-41a0-b6d6-ebe6e14c0dc9.png>
**************************************
Christopher Pavsek, Ph.D., MRM-Planning
Associate Professor of Film
Simon Fraser University
149 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1H4
Canada
cpavsek@sfu.ca
I respectfully acknowledge that I work on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.