OCNews

Hello everyone,

Yesterday, Okanagan College’s Executive team had the opportunity to participate in a province-wide virtual town hall with Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, joining senior administrative teams from each public post-secondary institution, local and provincial post-secondary labour union presidents and student representatives. You can watch the recorded town hall livestream here.

Joining Dr. Henry on the call were Dr. Brian Emerson, Deputy Provincial Health Officer (acting) and Dr. Réka Gustafson, Vice President, Public Health and Wellness and Deputy Provincial Health Officer.

Drs. Henry and Gustafson provided an update on immunization in the province, along with the planning context and other factors that have guided their recommendations for a healthy return to campus this fall. They also answered questions regarding the Province’s recently released COVID-19 Return-to-Campus Primer, which precedes the new Go Forward Guidelines coming early this summer.

Return to Place at Okanagan College

Consistent with the direction we have received from the PHO’s office and the Ministry, I am pleased to report we are about to enter the next active phase of planning for the return of our community to campus. From my perspective, community is a vital word here, as these efforts will guide not only a return to place, but also to a healthy returned feeling of community and connection.

Structurally, this process will involve four teams to develop and implement the detailed transition plans that will address the pre-return, return, and post-return context from an array of health and safety, programming, services, and supports perspectives for our students and employees. These include:

• Programing (Learning and Teaching) Transition Team - focused on program quality and assurance of learning
• Student Life Transition Team – focused on the physical wellbeing and psychological resilience of OC learners
• Employee Transition Team – focused on the physical wellbeing and mental wellness of OC employees
• Facilities Transition Team – focused on ensuring that facilities are aligned to the “Return to Place Transition Plans” for students and employees and are in accordance with provincial regulations

The Chairs of the four transition teams will unite to form a Coordination Team and facilitate a Coordination Forum that will provide a formalized opportunity to consult with employee and student groups on a regular basis. The College’s Executive will also support the coordination of transition teams and work to create and facilitate planning to focus on leadership, employee and student mental wellness, resilience and engagement. The diagram below may help to visualize this structure.

As you would expect, these plans will continue to shift and hinge upon guidance from the PHO’s office and the Ministry. But above all, the plans will be designed and communicated clearly across all channels available to us, in order to ensure that employees and students know what to expect.

As Dr. Henry expressed on the call yesterday, COVID-19 anxiousness is still present and will be with us for some time to come. While I know that many are excited about a large-scale return, feelings of anxiousness are to be expected and we should feel comfortable talking about them. Know that those engaged in the planning process will do so with the utmost consideration to how we can ease, address and respond to uncertainties, feelings of anxiousness, or concerns of the unknown as we support our community throughout this transition. In many cases, the planning teams will be able to learn from the many successes that OC has achieved in providing place-based learning and services over the past year.

My hope is that these measures and the information to follow will continue to build back comfort and confidence as we re-adjust to a version of our previous way of working and learning, while simultaneously not losing sight of what we have learned over the past 15 months.

Stay tuned for more updates in the near future.

Neil Fassina,

President, Okanagan College