COVID-19 Allard School of Law Community Updates

In-person instruction:

While we anticipate remaining in Step 3 of the province’s restart plan for September 7, in-person instruction is within the current public health guidelines and orders. We continue to look forward to welcoming students, staff and faculty back to Allard Hall for the start of term.

The health and wellbeing of our students and community remain our first priority. Following provincial public health guidance, UBC will continue to focus on communicable disease prevention into the fall. This includes regular and effective hand washing, using hand sanitizer, and coughing and sneezing into a tissue or your upper arm, and staying home when sick.

Public health controls for fall 2021 require on-going daily self-assessments prior to coming to campus. If you are experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms, or other symptoms of COVID-19, please stay home. Use the BC COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool and follow all public health directives.

The province also introduced two additional measures that will impact the return to campus, along with some additional measures UBC will be implementing on its campuses over the coming weeks to provide further assurance about the safety of our working and learning environments:

Non-medical masks:

The province introduced a mandatory non-medical mask order for all public indoor settings, effective August 25, 2021. This encompasses common areas of post-secondary institutions, including classrooms, libraries, washrooms and hallways, and extends to student meetings with faculty and staff throughout the building. More details on how the mask order applies in various situations is available below under Student Updates & Quicklinks and Faculty and Staff Updates & Quicklinks. If you forget your mask, don’t worry—extras are available at Reception.

Vaccines:​​​​​​

The province has introduced a proof of vaccination requirement for access to some events, services and businesses, including post-secondary on-campus student housing. Students should be aware that many on-campus services and activities will be subject to the new requirement. More information is available in the UBC President’s announcement.

In addition, UBC has announced that they are in the process of working out a plan for vaccination self-disclosure and rapid testing. When details about how this plan will be applied and the timelines for implementation are made available, we will update our community.

Together with the BC Public Health, we strongly encourage all students, staff and faculty to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Please visit the BC’s COVID-19 Immunization Plan or the Immunize BC website to register. For convenience, there is currently a COVID-19 vaccination clinic set up on the UBC campus. 

According to the terms of the recent Public Health Order, you must wear a non-medical mask in all indoor public spaces, including classrooms, hallways, faculty and staff offices and washrooms. Masks are available at Reception if you forget yours.

Faculty members do not need to wear a mask when teaching (the same applies to student presenters) if they have 2m of distance between themselves and the students. 

A small number of people are unable to wear a mask for medical or disability-related reasons.  To receive an exemption from wearing a mask, students should complete the Student Face Covering Exemption Form and review the online Face Covering or Mask Exemption information. The student will then be contacted by the Centre for Accessibility to verify the exemption. Students who receive a mask exemption should send a copy of the Letter of Accommodation noting the exemption to their Allard Law Advisor (Kaila Mikkelsen for JD Students, Tania Astorino for LLMCL and LLM Tax students, and Joanne Chung for LLM and PhD students) who will then inform the student’s instructors. 

All faculty, staff and students are encouraged to bring concerns about the implementation of COVID-19 rules or safety protocols or incidents of non-compliance to the attention of the Dean or, for staff, your supervisor. To bring concerns regarding COVID-19 safety to the Dean, please use info@allard.ubc.ca, which is monitored by the Dean’s Office.

Masks should be removed during class only to take sips of a beverage, and should be immediately replaced. Outside of classes, masks can be removed in order to eat and drink in designated eating areas only, and only when seated. Current designated eating areas within Allard Hall include any seating area with a table in any of the common areas throughout the building. 

Please replace your mask unless you are actively eating or drinking.  

With directives to stay home when feeling sick in order to prevent the spread of communicable disease, we are expecting increased short-term absences from the classroom for both instructors and students. To ensure that students who must self-isolate for short periods of time are not significantly disadvantaged, the law school has adopted temporary procedures for health-related short-term absences. Please review the information on our Managing Absences webpage to know what to expect and what to do if you need to self-isolate.

All JD- and LLM-hosted in-person events and meetings must be approved by the Associate Dean Academic Affairs (ADAA) and the Associate Dean Graduate Studies (ADGS), respectively. As allowed for by the BCCDC Return to Campus Public Health Guidance (September 21, 2021) (PDF), the ADAA or ADGS will approve an event either as part of a formal educational program or as a non-academic event. To be considered educational, both of the following criteria must be met:

• the event is open only to law students, law faculty and/or staff and not to the UBC community at large or to the broader public; AND
• the event supports students in completing their academic program OR is offered in relation to a service that is required by the accreditation of the JD or LLM-CL degree programs?

The first step in the approval process is to submit your event requests to Michelle Burchill, Allard Law Events Manager at burchill@allard.ubc.ca. Please do not email the ADAA or the ADGS your event request.  

Different guidelines and requirements apply to educational program events and non-academic events. All events that involve food and beverage must comply with the guidelines for food and beverages at events below. 

Compliance with Public Health Orders and UBC guidelines is expected. Non-compliance may result in a suspension of the ability to host events at the law school.

Guidelines for Educational Programs 

• Rooms can be at 100% capacity regardless of the number of participants. 
• Participants should remain seated throughout the event, and avoid congregating in any part of the event space at any point before or after the event. 
• The province’s vaccine requirement/passport does not apply to these types of events. 

Guidelines for Non-academic Events 

• Indoor non-academic events up to 50 people can be held at room capacity. Events greater than 50 people are limited to 50% of room capacity (i.e., if there are 51 people attending a non-academic event, it needs to be held in a room with a seating capacity greater than 102). For reference, please see the Allard Hall room capacities below. 
• All non-academic events must comply with the Provincial Health Officer’s Order on Gatherings and Events (July 7, 2021) and any other relevant PHOs, including but not limited to the following requirements:  
  • Access to the event must be controlled. 
  • The organizer must monitor the number of persons present and ensures that this does not exceed the maximum permitted for the event. 
  • Seating must be available for all attendees. 
  • For indoor events, participants must remain seated throughout the event (except to use a washroom, etc, and not move from seat to seat. 
  • The organizer must ensure that participants do not congregate in any part of the event space at any point during, before or after the event. 
• As required by UBC, event organizers need to submit a completed COVID-19 Event Safety Plan to Michelle Burchill. A template is available on the UBC COVID-19 Safety Plans webpage (under “Events and Gatherings”).  
• For indoor events over 50 people, effective September 13 there may be a requirement for a provincial vaccination passport for attendees. More information on checking passports is available on the BC Government’s Proof of Vaccination Information for Business webpage. Please contact Michelle Burchill if you need further guidance. 
• All student led events and meetings held after working hours (5 pm onwards) must have an Allard Law faculty member in attendance.

Guidelines for Food and Beverage at ALL Events 

• Outside of lunchtime programming, food and beverage is discouraged at events and must be authorized through Michelle Burchill.  
• For lunchtime programming, participants should eat at the start of the event, so people are not unmasked and eating throughout. Those who are eating must remain seated and must put their masks back on as soon as they have finished consuming their food. 
• If food is involved or allowed for in the event, programming should be delayed to allow participants who do not wish to be in the event space with unmasked participants to attend all of the programming. This should be stated on event materials.  
• If there is a food or drink station: 
  • alcohol-based sanitizer should be within easy reach of the station; 
  • signs reminding participants to wash or sanitize their hands before touching self-serve food, drink or other items, should be posted at the food/beverage station; and 
  • the event should be organized and managed to avoid participants congregating at the food station or multiple people handling the food 

Room Capacities at Allard Hall  

Room B101 – 44 
Room 104 – 94 
Room 105 – 94 
Room 106 – 77 
Room 111 – 20 
Room 112 – 20 
Room 114 – 24 
Room 115 – 20 
Room 121 – 50 
Room 122 – 50 
Room 123 – 56 
Room 335 – 20

Some of our courses involve student participation in spaces that are not controlled by UBC, such as a variety of courses in our experiential learning program. Students enrolled in these courses will be required to follow the COVID-19 safety protocol of the organization controlling these spaces, even if they are more stringent than what UBC might require for its students (e.g., mandatory vaccination). If you have any concerns or questions, please contact Barbara Wang, Manager, Student Experience (wang@allard.ubc.ca).

The following guidance relates to international travel by students (both JD and graduate) for UBC purposes during the 2021-2022 academic year. This includes travel by students to attend conferences, workshops, or meetings, or to participate in moots and other clinical or experiential learning opportunities. 

Due to the risks associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada has put in place an Official Global Travel Advisory, in which it is advising individuals to “[a]void all non-essential travel outside Canada until further notice”

Under UBC’s Student Safety Abroad policy (SSAP) (PDF), students wishing to travel for UBC-related purposes to destinations outside of Canada with Level 3 or Level 4 Canadian government travel advisories in place (e.g. Level 3 “Avoid Non-Essential Travel”) must receive special authorization to do so through the authorization process set out in the SSAP and managed by the Student Safety Abroad office. This authorization will only be granted in “exceptional circumstances” (SSAP, 5.1). The process through which students can seek authorization to travel internationally to a country with a Level 3 travel advisory in place is provided in Article 5.2 of the SSAP. Conditions that must be satisfied in order for this authorization to be granted are set out in Article 5.3 of the SSAP. One of these conditions is that “[t]he travel is academically necessary for the Student and if not carried out at the proposed location and time there will be serious negative consequences for the Student’s academic program” (SSAP, 5.3.4). This is a high threshold. While it may be met by graduate students doing time-sensitive fieldwork, for other students this threshold will be much more difficult to meet. For additional information about the SSAP, please refer to the Safety Abroad Website and contact safety.abroad@ubc.ca.  

Currently, students who have been matched to an exchange for Term 2 are set to move ahead. However, Go Global has decided that Term 2 exchanges will not move ahead to destinations where a travel advisory remains in place as of October 22, 2021. Students with questions regarding their term 2 exchange should contact their advisor at Go Global. 

More generally, anyone considering international travel should check the travel restrictions of their destination on the Government of Canada travel advisories webpage and check UBC's travel guidance. Those who must travel outside Canada are advised to follow the Government of Canada’s official travel advice. For additional international travel guidance during these exceptional times, please see COVID-19: Your safety and security outside Canada. 

You need to wear a mask in indoor public spaces, including classrooms, libraries, washrooms and hallways. You do not need to wear a mask in your office or in small meetings with colleagues that are held in non-public spaces (e.g., offices or boardrooms). You also do not need to wear a mask when teaching (the same applies to student presenters) if you have 2m of distance between yourself and the students (This is marked with tape for your reference.) In small rooms where this is not possible, we can erect physical barriers, although they may not be in place for the first week. If you choose to teach in a mask, you may find it helpful to wear a wireless microphone or use the podium microphone to ensure students can hear you.

Students need to wear masks in indoor public spaces (classrooms, libraries, washrooms, hallways, etc). The mask order extends to meetings with students in offices, too. Both students and faculty/staff must remain masked when meeting together in offices and meeting rooms (although these are otherwise non-public spaces).

Masks may be removed when seated to eat and drink, but we are advising students to limit themselves to quick sips of liquid during classes. For lunchtime events with food, we ask that food be distributed and eaten at the start of the event, so people are not unmasked and eating throughout.

All in-person events at Allard Hall must be approved by an associate dean or the Dean:  

• the Associate Dean Academic Affairs (ADAA) for JD student-focused events;  
• the Associate Dean Graduate Studies (ADGS) for Graduate Program events;  
• the Associate Dean Research and International (ADRI) for research-related events; and  
• the Dean for external bookings and anything else.  

As allowed for by the BCCDC Return to Campus Public Health Guidance (September 21, 2021) (PDF), we will approve an event either as part of a formal educational program or as non-academic event. To be considered educational, both of the following criteria must be met:

• the event is open only to law students, faculty, and/or staff, not to the UBC community at large or to the broader public; AND
• the event supports students in completing their academic program OR is offered in relation to a service that is required by the accreditation of the JD or LLM-CL degree program.

The first step in the approval process is to submit your event requests to Michelle Burchill, Allard Law Events Manager at burchill@allard.ubc.ca. Please do not email the ADs or the Dean directly with your event request.  

Different guidelines and requirements apply to educational program events and non-academic events. All events that involve food and beverage must comply with the guidelines for food and beverages at events below. 

Guidelines for Educational Programs 

• Rooms can be at 100% capacity regardless of the number of participants. 
• Participants should remain seated throughout the event, and avoid congregating in any part of the event space at any point before or after the event. 
• The province’s vaccine requirement/passport does not apply to these types of events. 

Guidelines for Non-academic Events 

• Indoor non-academic events up to 50 people can be held at room capacity. Events greater than 50 people are limited to 50% of room capacity (i.e., if there are 51 people attending a non-academic event, it needs to be held in a room with a seating capacity greater than 102). For reference, please see the Allard Hall room capacities below. 
• All non-academic events must comply with the Provincial Health Officer’s Order on Gatherings and Events (July 7, 2021) and any other relevant PHOs, including but not limited to the following requirements:  
  • Access to the event must be controlled. 
  • The organizer must monitor the number of persons present and ensures that this does not exceed the maximum permitted for the event. 
  • Seating must be available for all attendees. 
  • For indoor events, participants must remain seated throughout the event (except to use a washroom, etc, and not move from seat to seat. 
  • The organizer must ensure that participants do not congregate in any part of the event space at any point during, before or after the event. 
• As required by UBC, event organizers need to submit a completed COVID-19 Event Safety Plan to Michelle Burchill. A template is available on the UBC COVID-19 Safety Plans webpage (under “Events and Gatherings”).  
• For indoor events over 50 people, effective September 13 there may be a requirement for a provincial vaccination passport for attendees. More information on checking passports is available on the BC Government’s Proof of Vaccination Information for Business webpage. Please contact Michelle Burchill if you need further guidance. 

Guidelines for Food and Beverage at ALL Events 

• Outside of lunchtime programming, food and beverage is discouraged at events and must be authorized through Michelle Burchill.  
• For lunchtime programming, participants should eat at the start of the event, so people are not unmasked and eating throughout. Those who are eating must remain seated and must put their masks back on as soon as they have finished consuming their food. 
• If food is involved or allowed for in the event, programming should be delayed to allow participants who do not wish to be in the event space with unmasked participants to attend all of the programming. This should be stated on event materials.  
• If there is a food or drink station: 
  • alcohol-based sanitizer should be within easy reach of the station; 
  • signs reminding participants to wash or sanitize their hands before touching self-serve food, drink or other items, should be posted at the food/beverage station; and 
  • the event should be organized and managed to avoid participants congregating at the food station or multiple people handling the food 

Room Capacities at Allard Hall  

Room B101 – 44 
Room 104 – 94 
Room 105 – 94 
Room 106 – 77 
Room 111 – 20 
Room 112 – 20 
Room 114 – 24 
Room 115 – 20 
Room 121 – 50 
Room 122 – 50 
Room 123 – 56 
Room 335 – 20