What exactly does an in-person experience mean after months of remote education?
In March of 2020, students at McMaster University watched their academics get shifted to a virtual landscape. Now, after almost a year and a half, virtual learning appears to be coming to an end. On Oct. 21, Susan Tighe, Provost and Vice-President (Academic), announced that McMaster is currently planning for an in-person winter semester in 2022.
“As I announced at our Back to Mac town halls in June, McMaster is currently planning to resume in-person classes in the winter term with very limited exceptions. Teams across campus are also planning to ramp up on-campus student life activities so they are closer to, if not meeting, pre-pandemic capacities. This includes services and resources, events and student study and social space,” said Tighe.
On Nov. 18, Tighe will complete a State of the Academy address, a virtual event where students will have the opportunity to learn about the current state of McMaster University regarding academics and other matters.
Talking about how the decision of an in-person winter semester came to be, Tighe shared that the process had begun in February of 2021. Moreover, she explained how, as January neared, the McMaster community was on its way to be fully vaccinated.
“We were fairly confident that by the winter semester we’d be able to have vaccinations in place. We were recognizing they were on the rise and that we’d be able to return to an in-person [semester]. I really want to reinforce it was a collaboration with many people across campus and external to the institution to really help us with the planning,” said Tighe.
Tighe further explained that the mandates that McMaster had put in place were crucial to getting back to an in-person climate. This included the mandated use of MacCheck by students, faculty and staff. This digital tool enabled the McMaster community to log the presence or absence of COVID-19 symptoms in addition to their vaccination status. As of now, most areas on campus require clearance via MacCheck’s COVID-19 symptoms questionnaire.
“Health and safety have been the priority from the beginning. So I think that, what was a real differentiator for McMaster, we didn’t want to bring people back on campus if we weren’t confident that our structures and procedures and policies really promoted a very safe environment,” said Tighe.
While speaking about the way in which planning for an in-person winter semester panned out, Tighe explained how she heard from many students that they’d missed campus and in-person social interactions.
Although returning back to in-person classes may have its benefits, it can also pose barriers for students, especially international students who are currently not in Canada. Acknowledging how hard it’s been for these students to adjust, Tighe explained how the university is trying to support international students amidst the announcement.
“In order for us to get in front of this, the International Student Services and School of Graduate Studies have been working individually with our international students to assess when they are coming to Canada, how they plan to arrive and if they need to quarantine . . . So what we’ve actually encouraged, and suggested, is that all of our international undergraduate students are required to sign up for the iCent, to make sure they have the proper information to support them for their unique circumstances,” explained Tighe.
She explained further the ways in which McMaster has prepared to accommodate these students with services such as the vaccine clinic and quarantine spaces within residences. She also emphasized that McMaster ISS personalized support for immigration so that students can settle in better.
If a student is truly unable to come to campus, Tighe explained that professors are encouraged to use programs like Echo360 for lectures and to allow for virtual completion of courses. Moreover, she urged students that are facing barriers relating to the in-person switch for Winter 2022 to contact their academic advisors to get the support they need.
Jane Lee, a fifth-year commerce student and the Social Media Coordinator for the Silhouette, spoke about her own experiences with this transition. Lee currently has almost entirely remote courses, with one in-person lecture for one of them. She explained that when school does become in-person, it will take her over 40 minutes to commute to school. Lee was quick to admit that for her such a transition isn’t that much of a hassle, but for her peers, it could really be stressful.
“I really don’t know how [international students] are going to prepare on such short-term notice. Especially because I have a friend even down in Toronto, which is not even a whole country away and she is scrambling to try and find a house for winter term. You see the housing groups. There are so many posts with people . . . It’s not a good market to be in right now,” said Lee.
As a fifth-year student, Lee’s classes aren’t as frequent so she only has to go on campus once a week for three hours with 30-40 students. Lee explained that she was pretty shocked at how few regulations, including the use of MacCheck, were thoroughly enforced while she was there.
“Even though I’ve had one in-person class this fall, it’s very interesting to see the different attitudes people have towards safety regulations . . . I go to class and there’ll be people [with their] mask on with their nose sticking out or people eating food in class,” explained Lee.
No matter what safety regulation McMaster implements, it is the responsibility of students to follow guidelines thoroughly.
As McMaster begins to prepare for an almost entirely in-person winter 2022 semester, the community is adjusting as well. Not all students may be able to return to campus with ease, but campus support services are available for those who require assistance.
By adhering to all necessary health and safety precautions, the university is hopeful that the community will do their part to return student activities to pre-pandemic capacities.
C/O Andrew Mrozowski
While there may be an explanation for unruly students, they sure aren’t blameless
By: Zara Khan, Contributor
University entails huge transitions, from moving out to becoming fully independent. Students become able to make their own decisions and set their own bedtime. They become able to make decisions on whether or not they spend the night out or stay inside. In the end, you realize that your day-to-day choices are now entirely up to you, with the only exception being the people around you who influence your decision-making process.. That sounds pretty exciting if you think about it, but what if this excitement leads to decisions that end up wrecking your entire future career?
Insert McMaster’s homecoming party, also termed FOCO. It was quite the scene when looking at it from an outsider’s perspective. From the perspective of a first-year student going with no experience of such an event, it may have looked intimidating, but perhaps also fun and enticing to be a part of.
Any students who may have missed out may well have silently thanked their decision after hearing about the events that occured. First-year Ashley Hogan’s car — a white Mazda — was flipped over and completely totalled. Ashley was away on a rowing competition and heard about the event on social media, with a GoFundMe page started by her friend having received over $10,000 in donations. During the unsanctioned celebration, people were disturbing homeowners and entering random backyards in the area. Others were ripping out street signs, jumping from tree to tree trying to cross the road, littering and lifting people with shopping carts inside them as well. Two individuals were charged under the Liquor License Act and five others for causing a disturbance.
The general motivation behind such an event was clearly hopes of enjoying the first homecoming event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. From my own observations, many off-campus houses were also throwing their own parties, though they didn’t come close to the degree of property damage that ensued at the ‘FOCO’ party.
While such rhetoric may be understandable to a certain degree, the extent of the damage and harm caused by some of the events at ‘FOCO’ are quite frankly way over the line. There were indeed many challenges faced by students over the past year, including online classes, but the fact that students are “back” on campus does not give them the right to engage in the destructive acts that took place during McMaster’s homecoming party.
This also applies to students at other universities. The effects of isolation on the brain are still being studied, with frustration and a decrease in mental health commonly discussed in studies. In fact, loneliness has been found to reduce brain volumes in the prefrontal cortex, a region important in decision making and social behavior, although other research suggests this relationship might be mediated by personality factors as well.
With all this being said, going out every once in a while because of the feeling of finally being “free” and not having to quarantine anymore is totally acceptable as long as you follow the law and stay safe. I’d advise not doing anything that would put your future at risk and tapping into that rational part of your brain that helps with making decisions in times like these. As students, we are becoming responsible for our own decisions and it is important to use this privilege ethically.
C/O David Menidrey, Unsplash
As fall holidays approach, the Ontario government releases guidelines for Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Halloween events
Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, last year’s Halloween looked very different than a regular year’s, as was the case for other fall holidays such as Thanksgiving.
In 2020, traditional door-to-door trick or treating was not recommended for York, Peel, Toronto and Ottawa public health regions. Although some other regions were allowed to celebrate Halloween trick or treating, the Ontario government asked that extra precautions be taken.
This #Halloween, traditional door-to-door trick or treating is not recommended for @YorkRegionGovt, @cityoftoronto, @regionofpeel & @ottawacity #PublicHealth regions due to high transmission of #COVID19. Stay safe & follow public health advice. https://t.co/eXAwIUuTz6 pic.twitter.com/rzXCHffTBc
— Ontario Ministry of Health (@ONThealth) October 19, 2020
This year, due to vaccinations and lower case counts, individuals of all age groups should find themselves able to celebrate Halloween this year. These precautions are important for McMaster University students to consider, whether they go trick or treating alone or with friends and family.
For children in Ontario, this means that trick or treating will be able to go ahead, but with some precautions.
These precautions include remaining outdoors as much as possible, wearing masks, avoiding crowds, maintaining physical distancing when possible, interacting with others for only brief periods of time and using hand sanitizer.
“Be creative; fashion a face covering into your costume design, but remember a costume mask is no substitute for a proper face covering,” said Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer, in his address to the province.
“Be creative; fashion a face covering into your costume design, but remember a costume mask is no substitute for a proper face covering.”
Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer
Disinfecting pre-packaged candies is not among the precautions necessary for those going trick or treating this year.
Along with Halloween-related guidelines, the province also released similar sets of guidelines for Thanksgiving and Remembrance day. These guidelines emphasize minimizing the number of people attending events, using outdoor spaces and sanitizing regularly.
Hosting #Thanksgiving dinner at your house this year?
— Ontario Ministry of Health (@ONThealth) October 9, 2021
Remember that knowing someone does not reduce the risk of transmitting #COVID19. Keep following good #PublicHealth practices: https://t.co/391DaQMi5I
#CelebrateSafely pic.twitter.com/3w2GkrpJN1
People should also adhere to the current provincial gathering limits set at 100 people outdoors and 25 people indoors.
If a gathering includes vaccinated and unvaccinated people, Moore advises that masks stay on even indoors. This is especially important for older people and those with chronic medical conditions.
For all three holidays, the province emphasized the importance of staying home and engaging in a virtual celebration for individuals showing any symptoms of COVID-19.
Moore noted that this applies to all individuals, regardless of the severity of symptoms.
“If you are sick, even with mild symptoms, you should not be participating in social events like Halloween,” said Moore.
“If you are sick, even with mild symptoms, you should not be participating in social events like Halloween."
Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer
As well, the province emphasized that, especially for those individuals who are unvaccinated or at an elevated risk for COVID-19, the safest way to gather continues to be on virtual platforms.
“We know from experience [that] it is exactly these kinds of events that can lead to spikes in transmission. But, provided we do our best to follow the guidelines in place, we can enjoy some well-deserved time with friends and family while also keeping our community transmission low,” explained Moore.
“We know from experience [that] it is exactly these kinds of events that can lead to spikes in transmission. But, provided we do our best to follow the guidelines in place, we can enjoy some well-deserved time with friends and family while also keeping our community transmission low.”
Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer
As of Oct. 8, the Ontario government has now administered 22 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Those who are not vaccinated can book their vaccination on the Ontario website at: https://covid-19.ontario.ca/covid-19-vaccines-ontario.
It is important for McMaster students to consider all necessary precautions as they plan their fall festivities. By remaining aware of government recommendations and regulations, students can ensure that they are protecting themselves and those around them.
C/O Ainsley Thurgood
McMaster’s potentially surprising welcome to the return of in-person learning this winter
By: Bianca Perreault, Contributor
Despite the excitement of a movement back to in-person functions, the return to pre-pandemic life could be a hindrance for many people. We’ve just been through over 15 months of change, with people developing new habits and experiencing a time of instability. At McMaster University, the school is looking forward to a Back-to-Mac plan for the upcoming semester. Through scares, stress and excitement, what should we expect for January 2022? Will it be welcomed? A disaster or a debate? McMaster might have to prepare for a variety of perspectives on the return of in-person learning this winter.
There’s such a diverse set of perspectives and those determine how the movement back to in-person classes will be received. Let’s look at the parents as an example, for whom it is essential that their students get a high-quality education. Many parents believe in-personal learning is highly valuable, the method by which the majority of the post-secondary studies have been delivered before March 2019.
But what about teachers? Since the pandemic affected our academics, we must always consider the opposite party and their perspectives. It would be a lie to say that I have never heard a teacher saying that they would rather work from home for their safety. Post-secondary education hasn't stopped through this global experience, so people like professors have learned to work with it throughout eLearning and found comfort in this way of teaching. For teachers who may not want the vaccine, made mandatory at McMaster, would either have to work from home or not at all.
We must also consider the perspective of students who feel that they work better and learn more efficiently in-person. Prior to the pandemic, very few educational institutions were offering online or hybrid options. However, online learning was always there through programs such as Cégep à distance and even online programs through McMaster Continuing Education. Countless people may have assumed that online learning would be straightforward as they would have less effort to do "physically." However, it has proven to be challenging for so many others mentally. Despite considerable rise in student enrolment in entirely online courses over the last two years, given the circumstances of the pandemic, most students have still said they would prefer continuing with in-person classes if they had the option.
Despite considerable rise in student enrolment in entirely online courses over the last two years, given the circumstances of the pandemic, most students have still said they would prefer continuing with in-person classes if they had the option.
As an out-of-province student coming from Quebec, it was less trouble for me to move to Hamilton, take a COVID-19 test and show my proof of vaccination while living in the same country where McMaster is located. However, numerous online students, including one of my roommates, haven’t been able to arrive in time for the start of the school year due to the rules and restrictions for international students. How are these students handling the challenge of being in a completely different country while only wishing to be in Hamilton? Is it naive of us to assume such restrictions won’t hinder the success of international students before the winter semester?
With all these questions and perspectives in mind, it’s difficult to fully understand the impact that the move to in-person learning may have.
C/O Yoohyun Park
As McMaster returns to in-person learning, second-year students are creating their communities in their own wa
Plain and simple, the 2020-2021 year was a hard year to enter university. In the time spent attending university from the comfort of our childhood bedrooms, staying connected had new barriers for everyone. For students entering their second year, meeting others took on a whole new form as they built connections and community for themselves through Zoom and Instagram DMs last year. After far too long, students now entering their second-year of university studies are finally able to return to campus, slowly but surely.
Although finding your community has its barriers in an online setting, the class of 2024 did their best with the resources available to them. Ibreez Asaria, a student entering his second year of health sciences, commented on what the process of building community looked like for him.
“In terms of first year being online, it was hard to really develop meaningful connections and meaningful communities. Overall I’d say it was a process that required time and effort in first year and a lot of us were dealing with other challenges, whether it be mental health or time constraints or geography,” explained Asaria.
Now, all getting to explore campus together for the first time, it can also be said second-years are finding a sense of community in this joint dysphoria and excitement using Google Maps to no end, getting lost on the way to the library, discovering favourite food and study spots; the second-years are fumbling through this weird time together.
"In first year, we faced the challenge of adapting to the university workload and online learning. Now, in second year, we face a different challenge—adapting to the university environment and hybrid-style learning. But this challenge is one that we're happy to face because it's made the university experience that much more fulfilling . . . Everything is familiar, yet unfamiliar in a way. But we all get to experience this unfamiliarity together and I think that really brings out that sense of community within our second-year cohort," said Jessica Ho, a second-year arts and science student.
One year following their Welcome Week conducted completely online, the university welcomed second-year students with a Second-Year Welcome day. The announcement that second-years would have some kind of in-person welcome was announced by the McMaster Student Success Center in late July, stirring up excitement amongst the second-year students. In late August confirmation arrived that Second-Year Welcome would, indeed, occur as everyone was hoping.
Second-Year Welcome was an opportunity for second-years to build the in-person community and connections they’d found online. They had high expectations, especially following the first years’ Welcome Week this year.
However, students were only able to sign up for their Second-Year Welcome events through OscarPlus a mere two days before it was scheduled to happen, and the rest of the registration process wasn’t exactly smooth.
“[Second-Year Welcome] started out a little tricky, signing up for events and not getting into them. Then your friends didn’t get into events and you could see them disappointed or stressed out on the day-of because they didn’t get into any of the events that you did. It put a damper on things but it was nice just to see people in-person at all,” explained Armaan
Kotadia, a second-year Health Sciences student.
Despite the technical difficulties, students were excited for the opportunity to finally arrive on campus and experience everything they missed in first year.
Students showed up to their morning events—rock climbing, tours of campus and the David Braley Athletic Center and more—with high spirits and an excitement to experience life on campus for the first time.
“Having that excitement of knowing that I can finally meet pretty much everyone I’ve been seeing on these Zoom calls was really cool, even despite COVID-19 regulations. I finally put a face to peoples’ profile pictures and it made me feel like part of that little close-knit family community within my program,” said Kotadia.
“We shared jokes and conversations about classes; talked about professors we really enjoyed. It was a really intimate, familial sort of feeling,” said Asaria.
Although Second-Year Welcome had its ups and downs, students left feeling satisfied in the experiences offered to them.
“I think after [Second-Year Welcome] I finally felt comfortable in Hamilton for the first time, whereas before I was still adjusting. [Second-Year Welcome] was like the final step before thinking ‘yeah, this is my new home-away-from-home’ . . . It helped me feel ready to start school more prepared because I felt like I had that support network,” explained Kotadia.
After a year of patiently waiting for a proper welcome, Second-Year Welcome didn’t quite make up for the in-person Welcome Week experience they missed, but it helped in the second-years’ transition back to campus. Finally able to experience university life to its fullest, the class of 2024 is building community both in-person and online in this hybrid year, their own way.
C/O Yoohyun Park
Being so far away from McMaster can make you feel alone and disconnected
By: Bianca Perreault, Contributor
Along with COVID-19 came a million other things that made life that much more confusing. The stay-at-home lockdown, the safety protocols and a lot of self-learning were part of many people's journeys. To learn by yourself is already a challenge, but to figure out everything on your own hundreds of kilometres away was even harder. While university was online for all of us, I definitely didn’t feel as close to McMaster University as I felt I should have by my second year.
When a student is accepted to their first choice university program, you’d think that they would be immersed in feelings of accomplishment, of course and a sense of belonging. In the province of Quebec, the studying system is not the same as in Ontario. When one graduates from high school, they have two main options. They could either pursue a CEGEP program or a diploma of professional studies. People interested in getting into university must work hard on their grades while in CEGEP, whether it takes two years or more, your grades are the priority.
McMaster's requirement to get an offer to the faculty of humanities is a minimum 85% average.
As an out-of-province student who really wanted to get into this program, I had to work diligently over the past few years.
When you finally receive an offer from your dream school and are willing to make a huge change to your life (to the tune of living six hours away from your hometown), you go through many emotions. A new town, a new life, new people and a significant adaptation overall. Until, COVID takes that away from you and you find yourself studying at home. I can only imagine what international students have had to deal with since the beginning of the pandemic.
As exciting as it was to begin university in person this year, there were still pros to our online semesters. An optimistic person can find the positive through almost everything; learning in your pyjamas in the middle of winter was welcomed. The real problem was the feeling of not belonging to the university while studying in a completely different province.
Before getting into McMaster, my priorities were to work on my English, explore my field of study and to grow as an individual in a new town.
However, after being distanced from not only classes but potential friends, I was now distanced from the culture of Hamilton as well.
University is a lot of self-work already; students need to be diligent, aware of their schedule and now, we need to be a lot more patient. Softwares would crash, the temperature in Hamilton affected the Wi-Fi of some instructors, classes were delayed, people were working at the same time as their class or had problems understanding the concepts taught in online classes.
I wondered more than once how long I could have studied that way and I asked myself if it was fair for me to pay the same tuition fees as if I was in class. Even today, I still have some classes online, but at least I get to go on campus sometimes.
Once I moved to Hamilton, it was an unknown city. While I am getting adjusted to the city, it’s still difficult for me to feel like I fully belong. Trying to discover a whole new city while figuring out hybrid university and adapting to every health protocol quite honestly makes me dizzy. All I can do for now is try to get my perspective out there and connect with each one of you that’s feeling the exact same thing.
C/O Rosie Merante
The Silhouette: Please introduce yourself.
Rosie Merante: I'm Rosie Merante. I'm doing nursing at McMaster [University] and it's just the basic Bachelor of Science for your RN [Registered Nurse certificate]. I've had placement every semester, except for one that got pushed to the summer because of [the COVID-19 pandemic]. But I've been in placement for the full three years. . . First year I was in long-term care, second year I was at Joseph Brant [Hospital] in Burlington and I was in the orthopedic surgical unit. Then I had Idlewyld Manor for long-term care. I was in the secure unit there, so it was kind of the [more agitated patients] with dementia or Alzheimer's. Now I'm [in] mental health and forensics.
What do you do [in that placement]?
I just started last week . . .but I got a really good grasp because I was there for 14 hours. Those are the shifts once a week. It's not as much physical head to toe assessment that I would have [done] last year because it's more focused on mental health and these patients have been there for a long time, years even. . .But the majority of it is vitals, doing rounds. It's high security. We have to watch them since they're all coming right from the court system and they weren't deemed fit to stand trial due to their mental illness. It's mostly just that and then most of the assessments we do are mental status examinations and things along [those lines]. We're making sure that they're not going to be a danger to themselves or others and that they're taking their meds and everything's okay.
Do you know how it would have been different if it weren't for COVID-19?
I think now that the regulations are lifting, I'm already noticing some differences from my past placements. We no longer have to wear face shields or get tested every other shift. One thing that I noticed is relationships with people. Obviously, with the pandemic, people are still always going to be paranoid about getting close together and having visitors. So the visiting policy is way restricted right now. They allow one visitor per day for each patient but it's still a big difference from what it was before. I think that's such an issue, especially for mental health. I feel they should lessen the restrictions or increase the amount of visitors allowed because these people are already going through so much, and even if a lot of them don't have family or friends, the ones that do and can receive that support. I feel it would be as beneficial as medical treatment if they could actually see people they love and care about. A lot of them are depressed too because they can't really go out as much and do things that they used to. And they're confined [and] they get privileges to go out, to go around the hospital, to go outside to do things if they're on good behaviour. There's obviously a lot of precautions we have to take but they're allowed to leave. And now, with [COVID-19], that's reduced a lot. A lot of them just end up at the front desk and they're like "Do I have my privileges? Yeah? Look, I want to leave. I'm so bored." That's also kind of what I noticed. At least in the mental health aspect, I think the biggest impact is on the visitor policy . . .At the long-term care homes, I was at three of them, I noticed a big shift with [COVID-19] because of the visitors, privileges to go outside, and for even people from outside to come in and do activities with them, as well as just the residents being close around each other, it's not as good as it used to be. There's a lot less socializing and togetherness, there's a lot more confusion because they don't necessarily understand what's going on and that actually increases some of their behavioural symptoms. They can be very agitated because they don't fully understand why they need to wear a mask, why they need to stay inside, why certain people can't come in [or] why their family stopped visiting. It's hard for them to grasp these concepts on top of the memory loss. That's also what I noticed at some long-term care placements. I'm seeing, just observationally, what seems to be a higher incidence of depression in the elderly.
Is there anything that you're really looking forward to in your current placement?
I'm really looking forward to getting to know [the patients]. The patients aren't in and out, they've been there, so knowing their stories, knowing them more personally, so I can help care for them better.
Do you have any big takeaways from your experiences in your program or your placements?
I don't know, there's so many of them. One of them is to treat the patient or think of them, not in an unprofessional way, as someone from your family or as a friend. Be empathetic. Remember that they're not just a patient. They're a person with dignity and they're your client. It could be your mother, your grandmother. You need to treat them with respect and dignity. I know that the culture of long-term care homes, at least, is very poor quality care. They [the patients] need so many more RNs and [personal support workers] so that they can be more valued and treated with more dignity and respect.
C/O Yoohyun Park
In order to protect McMaster community members, McMaster created its own digital platform to enforce its COVID-19 precautions
On Aug. 16, McMaster University confirmed that it would be requiring vaccination against COVID-19 for all students on campus. This information was shared in a letter from the President and Provost, which also stated that an online platform would be developed to validate the vaccination information of students.
This online platform, called MacCheck, officially launched on Sept. 7. Since its launch, all McMaster students, staff and faculty have been required to upload proof of vaccination. Further, students, staff and faculty who are accessing McMaster’s campus must answer a series of COVID-19 screening questions on MacCheck beforehand.
According to Kevin de Kock, Director of Enterprise Solutions and Applications, there weren’t any online platforms already available that suited McMaster’s needs.
“A lot of the other applications didn't really have the ability for somebody to go in and validate the [proof of vaccination], so it was clear to us that we were going to have to build something ourselves,” said de Kock.
Once the announcement was made on Aug. 16 that proof of vaccination would be mandatory, McMaster was left with only a few weeks before their Sept. 7 deadline to develop a digital COVID-19 screening platform.
According to de Kock, MacCheck’s launch has been very successful so far. With over 34,000 people who have already submitted their proof of vaccination, many students seem to understand the importance of MacCheck.
Gayleen Gray, Assistant Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, added that, despite the initial success of MacCheck, there is still more work to be done. According to Gray, McMaster needs proof of vaccination from around 47,000 individuals, meaning there are about 13,000 people who still have to upload to MacCheck.
“It's really important to us that we provide people with their privacy obviously, so only authorized individuals are able to see the information, but there is an intention to, as we get closer to October 18, push harder to remind people [that] this is necessary,” Gray said.
In the comments of a post on the Spotted at Mac Facebook page, some individuals raised concerns that MacCheck isn’t enforced on campus.
When discussing McMaster’s approach to ensuring that the daily COVID-19 screenings are completed by individuals accessing campus, Gray emphasized the importance of creating a culture where everyone understands the importance of MacCheck for community safety.
“What we were trying to do is get away from a policing kind of approach, where anybody at any time can say ‘show me your green check; I want to see if you’re okay to be on campus,’” Gray explained.
“It's impossible to police this, and the intention was never to police it, but MacCheck is meant to be your one-stop shop to prove that you've been cleared to attend campus,” de Kock said.
According to Gray, the McMaster community has embraced this culture of community protection, with MacCheck averaging over 7,000 COVID-19 screenings per day. This, Gray says, speaks to McMaster’s wider culture of health and safety, as well as its culture of empathy.
“In terms of validating whether students have or have not done that, there's a huge amount of respect and trust that our students will do the right thing. They know that this is something that they're required to do,” said Gray.
Along with McMaster’s own mandatory vaccine policy, Ontario has also begun requiring proof of vaccination for those wishing to access indoor dining, athletic facilities, theatres and other non-essential services. This policy came into effect on Sept. 22.
In order to comply with the provincial rules, McMaster’s COVID-19 guidelines have been further tightened. Students wishing to eat in the McMaster University Student Centre or access indoor athletic facilities are now required to show proof of vaccination and identification. As well, multiple food service areas on campus have limited their seating.
C/O Yoohyun Park
Although many hoped for an in-person year, hybrid learning continues to have mental health impacts on students
Since March of 2020, almost all McMaster University students have been unable to attend in-person classes, access on-campus services, or engage in extracurricular activities on campus. However, this fall, for the first time in over a year, students finally have the ability to return to campus for some in-person activities.
“[McMaster is] focusing our planning on providing safe and meaningful in-person experiences for you this fall,” said a fall 2021 update for students published on April 30.
Avery Kemble, a second-year student at McMaster, expressed an appreciation for the reopening of campus, citing the mental health benefits of learning around others and being able to access communal study spaces.
“I think the vast majority of students want to be on campus. It is so isolating to be by yourself, doing school in your room for twelve hours a day. Being able to go on campus is so helpful for me, and I’m way more productive in a library than I am on my own,” said Kemble.
For Camille Lisser, a first-year student, this hybrid learning environment is her first experience learning at McMaster. Lisser explained that even though she only has one tutorial in person this semester, being in residence and having access to spaces on campus allows her to learn with other people.
“My roommate is also in [Arts & Science], so we’ve been trying to join a lot of the online [classes] together, and that’s been really helpful because one thing that I’ve really missed was being able to [attend class] sitting next to someone,” said Lisser.
Lisser and Kemble both noted that along with the mental health benefits of learning alongside other students, there are also mental health benefits associated with being around other students in a social context too.
Despite the mental health benefits of the return to campus, there are also mental health challenges associated with the return to in-person learning.
After a year of online learning, returning to campus has created challenges such as COVID-19-related anxiety, stress associated with a change in routine and increased social exhaustion.
“During Welcome Week, I was super tired, and I couldn’t figure out why I was so tired. What I think now is that it’s because there [were so many social events], and it was coming from a very non-social [time period] to a very social [time period],” explained Lisser.
Kemble pointed out that, for second-year students specifically, another significant mental health challenge is the lack of social connection between students because they spent their first year online.
“A lot of us still don’t know anybody in our program,” said Kemble.
According to Kemble, McMaster’s second-year welcome events were seen as an attempt to combat this mental health challenge. However, due to the low registration capacity for those events, many second-year students were not able to access them.
C/O Daniel Schludi
Immunocompromised populations can now receive the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario
By: Anna Samson, Contributor
On Sept. 10, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization released new guidelines regarding the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to now include immunocompromised people. Based on this recommendation, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam has advised that immunocompromised individuals should receive a third dose of the vaccine to build a stronger immune response to the COVID-19 virus. Eligible individuals will be contacted by their doctors and given a referral form for the third dose. This additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccine can be administered a minimum of eight weeks after receiving the second dose.
The decision to include immunocompromised people for third dose eligibility supplements the previous month’s announcement to add a third shot to Ontario’s one or two dose vaccine series rollout plan. However, the third dose is only available for specific vulnerable populations. Previously, the vulnerable groups eligible for the third vaccine dose consisted of transplant recipients, those with hematological cancers undergoing active treatment, recipients of an anti-CD20 agent and those in high-risk settings such as long-term care homes and First Nations elder care lodges.
Now, immunocompromised individuals are added to the list. This includes those undergoing active treatment for solid tumors, those in receipt of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell, those with moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency, Stage 3 or advanced untreated HIV infection and those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and those undergoing active treatment with immunosuppressive therapies.
For the general population, receiving the recommended one or two doses of the vaccine offers sufficient protection against the COVID-19 virus and its variants, including the highly transmissible Delta variant. However, immunocompromised individuals have a lowered immune response to the recommended one or two dose vaccines and require a third dose to build up adequate immunity.
Matthew Miller, a member of The Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, the McMaster Immunology Research Centre and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, reiterated this.
“We actually consider this third dose a way for them to complete their primary immunization series and the reason for that is because the immunocompromised people and some frail elderly people like those who live in long-term care settings just don’t mount as good of an immune response as the general population,” said Miller.
Miller went on to explain how a third dose for immunocompromised people is equivalent to the two doses that others receive.
“[B]y giving them a third dose, what we’re trying to do is just get them to the same level that everyone else is at after two doses. It’s not that we’re really boosting them, it’s just we’re trying to get them up to the same point as everyone else because of the way that their immune systems [respond] more poorly to vaccines in general,” said Miller.
There are fewer COVID-19 antibodies in fully vaccinated immunocompromised people than in fully vaccinated non-compromised people. These antibodies also wane faster in vulnerable populations as compared to the general population. Immunocompromised people are more likely to be adequately equipped against the COVID-19 virus when they have received a third dose of the vaccine to assist their immune response.
Following the provincial guidelines, Hamilton is now offering immunocompromised residents a third dose of the vaccine. The additional dose can be received at any Hamilton Public Health Services’ community clinics, St. Joseph Healthcare Hamilton and most pharmacies. To receive the third dose, individuals must bring a completed referral form given to them by their doctors.
According to Miller, additional vaccine doses are not available on the McMaster University campus because a third dose is administered after verification from a physician.
“[T]hose additional doses are normally procured after talking to a physician who knows your medical history and if you fall into one of those [eligible] categories,” said Miller.
The pandemic has been especially difficult for immunocompromised people and other vulnerable populations at a higher risk of infection. Many of whom have had to be extra vigilant to protect their health during the last year and a half. Receiving a third dose of the vaccine offers a better chance for these vulnerable groups to armour themselves against COVID-19.
