​

 

PSAC 610 commends Western’s decision to implement vaccine and masking requirements this September to safeguard the health of our campus community for the coming school year. We believe this decision will help to protect the health and safety of all students, staff, employees and visitors on campus.

​

From the results of our Health & Safety survey, 58.5% of respondents indicated that they did not feel comfortable with Western lifting its mask mandate on campus this summer. We believe that at a time when Ontario is experiencing thousands of active COVID-19 cases on a daily basis, and work-related absences related to COVID-19 are going unfilled at an unprecedented rate, Western’s decision to reinstate the mask and vaccine mandate is a step in the right direction. 

​

While we commend this decision, we continue to urge all members to wear a mask in all instructional and non-instructional public indoor spaces on campus. We also urge Western to re-introduce PCR testing centers on campus, which is important for students and employees who may have to travel to countries where a negative PCR COVID-19 test is still required for entry. 

​