Faculty Return to Campus COVID-19 FAQ

As of March 1, 2022, the university will no longer require regular rapid testing or vaccine declarations except as needed to comply with the relevant Public Health Orders such as in health settings. Please refer to the February 28 UBC Broadcast message for more information.

No. This is a breach of privacy. We cannot request or collect personal health data from our classes. 

January 24 Update - We continue to follow public health orders and the law school’s events guidelines. Organizers will be encouraged to move events to virtual format, where possible.

• Events that mirror classroom learning can proceed, after receiving approval following our existing procedure. Organizers will be encouraged to offer hybrid versions or to book classroom space so that students in the building have a dedicated space to listen in to virtual events.
• More elaborate events should be postponed or moved online for the time being.

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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 (March 18, 2022) (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. 
• The province’s vaccine requirement/passport does not apply to these types of events. 

Guidelines for Non-academic Events 

• Rooms can be at 100% capacity regardless of the number of participants.
• All non-academic events must comply with the Provincial Health Officer’s Order on Gatherings and Events (March 10, 2022) (PDF) and any other relevant PHOs.
• For all indoor events, 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 

Food and beverage is discouraged at events and must be authorized through Michelle Burchill. Food and beverages can be provided for event participants provided that they are consumed in the law school’s designated eating and drinking areas.

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Quite a number of you are planning to have guest speakers in your classes participate via Zoom. While this is a great use of technology, please remember that it can take 20-30 minutes to set up and test a full hybrid set up. Depending on when your class is scheduled and what room you are in, you may have to rely on slightly lower tech audio options – for example students type questions in the chat rather than the presenter being able to hear them speaking from the audience, or you may need to repeat the questions to the speaker, etc. Please contact UBC IT/AV as soon as possible to discuss the options. 

The BC Centre for Disease Control’s Return to Campus Public Health Guidance (January 28, 2022) specifies that “post-secondary institutions are not responsible for contact tracing, and should not provide notifications to faculty, staff or students about potential or confirmed communicable diseases cases (including COVID19) unless requested to do so by the local Medical Health Officer.” Any members of our UBC community who may be experiencing COVID-19 symptoms are asked to follow the guidance of the BCCDC. The current guidance advises individuals who test positive to contact their own close contacts.  

A close contact is generally someone who has been near a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes when health and safety measures (e.g., masks, distancing, physical barriers) were not in place or were insufficient. Based on the BCCDC guidelines, Allard Law in-person classroom and learning settings are not considered close-contact environments and are low risk. No notification will be sent by Allard Law unless deemed necessary by Public Health.

Private information about a person, including their health status, should not be shared without consent. See the fact sheet, Disclosing Personal Information for Health and Safety Reasons (PDF).

Students should be directed to follow the current Public Health guidance for individuals who test positive for COVID-19.

In addition, instructors should ensure that the student is provided with support as required to continue learning whilst unable to attend class (see the Allard Short Term Absence Policy).

Currently, any members of our UBC community who may be experiencing COVID-19 symptoms are asked to follow the guidance of the BCCDC. The current guidance advises individuals who test positive to contact their own close contacts.  

A close contact is generally someone who has been near a person with COVID-19 for at least 15 minutes when health and safety measures (e.g., masks, distancing, physical barriers) were not in place or were insufficient. Based on the BCCDC guidelines, Allard Law in-person classroom and learning settings are not considered close-contact environments and are low risk. No notification will be sent by Allard Law unless deemed necessary by Public Health. 

For more detail, see the answer above: "A STUDENT TELLS ME THEY HAVE COVID-19..." above.

If a student tells you they have tested positive for COVID-19, you may follow the points in the question above (A STUDENT TELLS ME THEY HAVE COVID-19 …).

Visit the BCCDC website to determine whether isolation or monitoring is the right approach.   

Please visit the SRS website for more information on contact tracing and reporting.

Please continue to monitor your symptoms and use the BC COVID-19 self-assessment tool to determine whether or not you need to get tested. 

Follow the directions from Public Health and/or the BC COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool.  

As of Aug. 23, 2021, if vaccinated you would normally self-monitor rather than isolate and can thus continue teaching in person. 

If you need to self-isolate, please inform Associate Dean Isabel Grant (adaa@allard.ubc.ca) and follow the options in the Short-Term Absence Policy. 

If a faculty or staff member informs you that they have been confirmed to have COVID-19, these are the steps that you should take:

• With their consent, inform Catalina Policzer, Senior Manager, HR and Operations (policzer@allard.ubc.ca), who will inform Human Resources – Employee Relations (Director, Employee & Labour Relations) or Faculty Relations (Director, Faculty Relations), as appropriate.
• Please ask for their permission before sharing any information with their team, and then only do so on an as needed basis. 
• Ensure the faculty or staff member is provided with support as required.
• Follow all instructions from Public Health.

Everyone must wear a mask in indoor public spaces, including classrooms, libraries, washrooms and hallways. Staff, faculty and student employees do not need to wear a mask in offices or in small meetings with colleagues that are held in non-public spaces (e.g., offices or boardrooms). Instructors 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 in Allard Hall classrooms for your reference.) In small rooms where this is not possible, we can erect physical barriers. 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). 

Eating will no longer be allowed in classrooms. Students must wear their mask at all times inside a classroom. Occasional sips of a beverage (with immediate replacement of mask) are permitted.

Indoor eating is restricted to designated eating areas only: the Lew Forum, the seating in the Law Cafe, and the tables in the 1st floor wing facing the reflecting pool.

Instructors and other presenters may remove a mask to teach or present if physically distanced from others or behind a physical barrier. If you wish to teach while masked, consider using a microphone if your voice does not carry well with a mask on. 

It is important to recognise that some people may have health or other conditions that inhibits their ability to wear a mask. Guidance from BC’s Human Rights Commissioner is clear: if a student identifies that they are unable to wear a mask based on a protected ground under BC’s Human Rights Code (such as a disability or a medical condition) they should be accommodated to the fullest extent possible.  

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.

Otherwise, inform the student that masks are mandatory, as per the Public Health Officer’s orders. Masks are available in every classroom and at reception. 

The instructor leading the class should ask the student to wear a mask for the safety and comfort of others in the class, and to comply with the PHO mandate. Emphasize collective responsibility and refer to the syllabus and any other former discussions with the class about masks.  

If they refuse, tell them that they cannot remain in the building until they wear one. If they refuse to leave when asked to do so, remain calm and contact the Dean's Office for assistance (604.822.2818), or, if it is after hours, call Campus Security (604.822.2222). We will dispatch someone to your classroom and help manage the situation. 

Mask Wearing Guidance from BC’s Human Rights Commissioner 

Non-academic misconduct calendar entry

Eating will no longer be allowed in classrooms. Students must wear their mask at all times inside a classroom. Occasional sips of a beverage (with immediate replacement of mask) are permitted.

Indoor eating is restricted to designated eating areas only: the Lew Forum, the seating in the Law Cafe, and the tables in the 1st floor wing facing the reflecting pool. Once you finish eating, please find another place to study or socialize to make room for others who need a space to eat. 

Implications for syllabi: consider including language such as the following 

Example syllabus language: “COVID-19 Safety: You are required to wear a non-medical mask during our class meetings, for your own protection and for the safety and comfort of everyone else in the class. For our in-person meetings in this class, it is important that all of us feel as comfortable as possible engaging in class activities while sharing an indoor space. Non-medical masks that cover our noses and mouths are a primary tool for combating the spread of COVID-19. Further, according to the provincial mandate, masks are required in all indoor public spaces including lobbies, hallways, stairwells, elevators, classrooms and labs. There may be students who have medical accommodations for not wearing a mask. Please maintain a respectful environment. UBC Respectful Environment Statement.” 

Start with an educative approach; remind them that every student is required to do a COVID-19 self-assessment before they come to campus each day. Coming in sick is a violation of the student code of conduct and you can ask them to leave. If they feel they are experiencing viral-like symptoms they should leave the class. 

In a broader sense, the way we are responding to sick people is no different than our approaches pre-pandemic; however, people certainly have a heightened sensitivity to it. Pre-pandemic, many students would come to class sick. We should do things to discourage this. For instance, make allowances for this in participation grades and record lectures or provide note takers.  

Just because someone coughs or sneezes does not automatically mean they are sick (e.g., chronic coughing not related to being sick), and these issues should be recognized. We should encourage students to come forward with these issues so you (i.e., the student and instructor only) can discuss them. If a student has identified a condition such as this to you as an instructor and others are indicating discomfort, you can find an opportunity to remind students that there are examples of, e.g., non-contagious cough, and that they should not assume that others are sick. 

No. This is a breach of privacy. You can ask the student if they feel they meet the standards of the daily personal health assessment, and encourage them to complete the health assessment if they have not done so. 

A student should hopefully never be put in this position. We should try to make it clear to students that we will – as we always have -- make concessions for illness.  Please remember that at Allard Law all requests for concessions are handled centrally. Tell the student to immediately contact Student Services. 

These types of situations are an unfortunate part of teaching every year. You’ll want to handle this fairly and consistently with the past.  

Tell the student to stay home. Ask them if they have notified their group members, if applicable. Ask the student to contact Student Services about concessions that allow the student to complete the assignments. An option is to have the group present, knowing that the part of the presentation will be missing. Tell these students that their grade will not be affected by this. If the concession is approved, have the student who can’t make it send you a video of their part of the presentation to assess. 

If these are symptoms that are common to you and you know they will disappear, you are fine. For instance, some people have a chronic cough/throat clearing caused by post nasal drip. This would be good to disclose to your class. Or you may have seasonal allergies that are recognizable to you as such. 

In the case that you actually feel sick, follow the instructions in the Short Term Absence Policy. 

You can ask students to pick an area of the classroom and sit there each day. Or ask them to fill the rows so no one has to push past others to the last empty seat. 

Please make sure that you finish your classes on time or even a little bit early. It is helpful to have everyone from the first class exit the room and the area around the doorway before the next group enters, and it will give the next instructor time to set up comfortably. If students want to chat with you after class, please move to the lounge or your office. 

If you want to hold a zoom or phone office hour, feel free to do so, but remember that students will be taking classes from within the building, and may not have any private space in which to meet with you. Please also provide a mechanism for students to meet with you in person. This can be by appointment rather than drop-in. The mask order applies to meetings with students in offices.