Seneca College has 3 campuses around Ontario, one in Toronto, York Region and Peterborough. The school has announced that they will be following the guidelines that many universities in the United States have been following, which means each member of staff, facility and student need to be fully vaccinated if they want to enter campus.
Many might think that this may seem unethical and very hard to track but the Seneca facility has made an online form to show your vaccination and will be connected to your student card.
In-person, teaching, learning and working on campus requires you to be fully vaccinated, which means that if that is not your choice or you are uncomfortable going to campus you can still learn from home.
Seneca is the first Canadian school to require such measures. Many schools in the US have the same requirements like Harvard, MIT, Yale and Princeton.
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The facility has stated, “We just think that if we’re serious about protecting the health and safety of all of our community then it’s the right thing and the logical thing to do.”
This statement may be accurate in the health and protection of students, but compromising their education for vaccination may be unethical for a lot of students. Forcing a vaccination for in-person education might pressure students who do not want it into a very tough situation.
Maybe people have been on a downfall because their education has been online and they feel like in person is the way they should and need to be taught. Many students want to go back to campus and want to learn in person, but a lot of them may have reasons whether health or just opinion that are against the vaccine.
Other Ontario or Canadian Universities have stated that if you are a member of the residence then vaccination is a requirement, and that is something that is more realistic and understandable. Being amongst your friends and peers in residence is very different than being on campus.
With COVID-19 students educations have been compromised, from e-learning taking over and now requiring vaccination to go back to campus. Students are students, they are young, healthy and a lot of them cannot afford to pay for school that isn’t beneficial to them. E-learning costs the same in person, yet in person is more beneficial. This requirement by Seneca is an unright and unethical approach to keeping the health and wellbeing of those students who do not choose to take the vaccine.