Western’s affiliates, Brescia University and King’s University College, announced that they have cancelled all in person classes for this semester. Although Western will start in person classes after their reading week next month, the affiliates made this decision due to the COVID case count in Ontario.
“We made the decision after seeking the advice of the Government and the Middlesex London Health Unit, and we decided that we would not have any person to person contact this semester.” Explained Principal of King’s University College Principal Dr. Dave Malloy.
The decision was made by the affiliates themselves. Although they are tied to Western, the affiliate Colleges felt this was the best course of action for their students and staff.
“We did that in collaboration with Western, I think Western plans to open up after reading week. But we decided that we were closing down for the full semester. It was a decision made to put students and staff’s health first and to simplify what’s already become quite a complex learning environment.”
As this announcement was made a week into their semester, around 70 students had already moved back into the residence that would usually hold close to 300 people. As this is a difficult time for students, King’s increased their support for the students that are on campus.
“We’ve increased our counselling services for students, not just for academic counselling, but for mental health counselling too. Our cafeteria isn’t open so students have to come and pick up their food. And I think our residence assistance is second to none in Canada so they’re constantly trying to do online dances and online programming for them.”
As King’s has a smaller campus than Western controlling COVID on campus would seem to be tougher than on the main campus. But King’s managed to keep it’s COVID case count very low with no threats to their campus.
“I think we may have had up to eight cases where our students had COVID, but none of these studnets were actually on campus. They were in Toronto or here in London but at home and none of these students had any contact with anybody on campus… There was no outbreak on our campus or our residence whatsoever.”
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