COVID-19 Allard School of Law Community Updates

Following the law school’s two-week period of online classes (January 10-21), Allard Law will return to fully in-person instruction on Monday, January 24.

As noted in President Santa Ono's January 12 Broadcast Email, Faculties and academic units across campus have made assessments about which programming can be delivered in-person, in keeping with Public Health guidance.

We are actively reviewing our safety measures to determine how they can be further strengthened to enhance the safety of students, staff, and faculty. Please check this page in the coming week for more information. 

Throughout the semester, we will continue to closely monitor Public Health guidance as well as conditions in the law school to respond appropriately to evolving conditions. Thank you for your continued vigilance in limiting the spread of COVID-19. 

A friendly reminder that classes Winter Term 2 classes begin on Monday, January 10. All classes will be held online from January 10-21, with the exception of some clinical and externship programs. Instructors will be in touch with their students with further information about course delivery. 

This decision to move courses online for a two-week period was made following President Santa Ono’s announcement on December 22 that UBC’s academic programs should move to mostly online instruction for the first two weeks of class as a precautionary measure, due to the uncertainties of the impact of the Omicron variant. On January 24, we plan to return to fully in-person instruction, continuing to monitor Public Health guidance.

Allard Hall and the UBC Law Library will remain open during this time. Please consult our contact page and the law library website for daily hours of operation. Note that Allard Hall will not be fully staffed in-person during this time, and no in-person events will be held.

Students who do not have a convenient place to take online classes are welcome to come to campus to use the Allard Hall classrooms that are assigned for their courses. Assigned classrooms are listed in the Overall Timetable (Spring) at the Upper Year Courses & Exams website or the First-Year Course Timetables, Course Listings & Exam Schedules website). (You can also see your personal timetable with classroom assignments at the Student Service Centre.) Please ensure that you bring functional headphones for your device. You must wear your mask and comply with all UBC campus COVID-19 safety protocols.

Student Services Staff is also available to meet with students virtually during this period. Please contact your advisor to set up an appointment.  

Upper-year students wishing to try out different courses in the first week of Term 2 should contact instructors directly for information on how to access those courses.   

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 

• As of October 25, 2021, Allard Hall rooms can be at full capacity for non-academic events and gatherings. 
• All non-academic events must comply with the Provincial Health Officer’s Order on Gatherings and Events (October 25, 2021) (PDF) 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 (i.e., the room capacity, or 50 participants if vaccination certificates have not been checked—see below). 
  • If the event is a seated event or has a seated portion, seating must be available for all attendees and participants should be seated throughout the room in such a way as to use all available space. 
• 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. 
• For indoor events over 50 people, organizers are required to check provincial vaccination passports 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 

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) during the 2021-2022 academic year.

As of December 15, 2021, due to the risks posed by the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Government of Canada has reintroduced a Global Travel Advisory in which it is advising individuals to “avoid non-essential travel outside Canada."

In response to this advisory, UBC has decided to pause university travel outside of Canada for students while the global travel advisory is in place. This includes travel for co-op work terms, conferences, and moots.

UBC has also decided to cancel all Term 2 Go Global exchange and study programs except for those in which students have been matched to exchanges in their home country. UBC is offering students the option of requesting deferral of the exchange spot (if they’ve maintained eligibility) to the 2022/23 academic year.

UBC’s Safety Abroad team will continue to support graduate students with academically necessary research outside of Canada that can no longer be delayed to apply for exemption through UBC’s Student Safety Abroad policy (SSAP). Under the SSAP, any student planning academic travel to destinations with travel advisories of “avoid non-essential travel” or “avoid all travel” requires an exemption through the high-risk travel protocol managed by the Student Safety Abroad team. The Safety Abroad team reviews each application before forwarding it to a designated department head for final approval. For additional information about the SSAP, please refer to the Safety Abroad Website and contact safety.abroad@ubc.ca.

If a student is (a) stranded in another country due to the imposition of travel restrictions; (b) forced to take a longer and more complicated journey back to BC due to a sudden ban on direct flights to Canada; (c) required to quarantine upon their return to Canada; or (d) otherwise delayed in their return to BC due to the imposition of travel restrictions, one factor to be considered in determining whether academic concessions are to be granted is whether the travel is for non-essential purposes.

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. For additional travel guidance during these exceptional times, please see the Government of Canada’s webpage COVID-19: Travel, testing and borders.

​​​​​​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.

UBC now requires COVID-19 rapid testing for all students, faculty and staff, with exemptions provided for those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. If you have not yet done so, please visit UBC's COVID-19 Rapid Testing site now to declare your vaccination status. If you have declared that you are fully vaccinated, you will be asked to upload your BC Vaccine Card to the declaration website to verify that you have been vaccinated.

Together with the BC Public Health, we strongly encourage all students, faculty and staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Please visit the BC’s COVID-19 Immunization Plan or the Immunize BC website to register. 

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 

• As of October 25, 2021, Allard Hall rooms can be at full capacity for non-academic events and gatherings. 
• All non-academic events must comply with the Provincial Health Officer’s Order on Gatherings and Events (October 25, 2021) (PDF) 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 (i.e., the room capacity, or 50 participants if vaccination certificates have not been checked—see below). 
  • If the event is a seated event or has a seated portion, seating must be available for all attendees and participants should be seated throughout the room in such a way as to use all available space. 
• 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. 
• For indoor events over 50 people, organizers are required to check provincial vaccination passports 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