oct 21 - oct 27, 2021
carillonregina.com | the carillon |
op-ed
13
Stress of early registration
Stress and uncertainty alongside a glimmer of hope for normal life Much to the surprise of University of Regina students, upon checking our emails in the past couple of weeks it had been announced that course registration for the upcoming winter semester will be pushed forward by an entire month. Registration in previous years began in November, much closer to the end of the fall semester. This year, course registration opened at the beginning of October, only a month into the new academic year and a full month ahead of schedule. Having course registration begin so close to the winter semester allowed for administration to have completely finalized details on course dates, times, and locations. Now with COVID, there is another important element to prepare for – whether courses will be delivered remotely, in person, or as a hi-flex option. It may be too early to decide how classes should be offered until we see improvements in our COVID numbers. Anxiety is rising with course selection starting earlier this year. If covid cases are as high as ever, how can the school ensure a safe transition back to the campus environment? If cases continue as they are, it may be safer to continue remote learning, but it’s still too early to say which will be the better option. Personally, I find the situation to be worrisome. When planning for course registration it appears that four out of the five classes I’m registered for will be offered in person. As someone who doesn’t live in Regina yet, this means big changes coming my way, and soon. I will be moving to a city where I don’t know anyone and am unfamiliar with my way around. If the campus closed again, it would be a very difficult time alone in a new city. If COVID cases continue rising as they are now, the courses
Behnam Nourouzi via Unsplash
Just because you fill in your calendar doesn’t mean you have your life together.
we are choosing may be changed back to online before the winter semester begins. However, the University of Regina has put in place many safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID and ensure everyone is able to make this transition a safe one. Masks are mandatory at the campus and must be always worn, and you must show proof of vaccination. If you aren’t vaccinated for any reason, the school will be conducting regular COVID tests and requiring negative results for those unvaccinated to be present on campus grounds. In a certain way, the earlier registration does benefit me as it provides an ex-
tra month for me to find an apartment in preparation for the second semester. There are many kids from my classes who come from out of town, so I’m certain the administration took this into account when making their decision. Furthermore, many students have most likely widened their work or volunteer schedules due to the flexibility of asynchronous learning. This way, students are offered ample amounts of time to reorganize their schedules and provide adequate notice to the other places that they are committed to. If things go smoothly with the return of students to campus, this could be
a turning point for the mental health of many students and staff. The isolation of online school has felt suffocating at times. I’m already in my second year, and still haven’t managed to make a friend due to the detached setting of zoom classes and asynchronous learning, which has been incredibly lonely. Not only that but asking for help on an assignment means emailing back and forth multiple times with your professor instead of them being able to explain any question you may have in person. For a lot of students, their grades may see vast improvements. This means that now more than ever, there needs to be a strong community presence within the University of Regina. There are two years of students who may have never stepped foot on campus, so there will be quite a big transition period. But having classes in person and perhaps even some clubs will help students meet one another and bring back a strong sense of community. Campus life starting back up again brings with it an air of excitement. We can only hope that the administration has not spoken too soon, and that courses will be able to be delivered safely in person as planned. Choosing courses so soon leaves the opportunity for many things to change on a dime making the experience stressful for all involved. However, hopefully seeing the chance to be in person among your peers will provide people the motivation they need to keep pushing through to the end of the year.
halyna mihalik contributor
Inconsistencies in Sask QR code checks
The government may have mandated QR codes, but nobody was prepared to implement Since October 1, the people of Saskatchewan are expected to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated to access a variety of businesses and services. While there is a list of places that are exempt as they are deemed essential services, this requirement has been received well by many as being essential to public health and safety. At the same time, no small number of people are concerned that this represents an overreach by the provincial government. While I do not agree with the latter, it can be emphasized that even if the government did not get this done, many private businesses likely would have done so anyway. Nevertheless, the government did act. True to their standards ever since the beginning of the pandemic though, they only did so in a manner than leaves much to be desired. Firstly, the list of places that are exempted from requiring a proof of vaccination made little sense to me. Why are restaurants supposed to check for one, but not hotels? In what way is my staying for one meal a potential public health risk, but if I am staying multiple days and nights, sleeping in a hotel bed, and using other hotel facilities, all is well? I certainly hope that hotels require such proof through their own initiative. The last thing we need is an outbreak in a hotel during a busy weekend when all rooms are booked. If I recall correctly, the policy about having to provide proof of vaccination was announced on September 15, to come into effect October 1. This means that the people of this province had around two weeks to create an online SaskHealth account
and obtain the document which included their vaccine information and QR code. Two weeks is already cutting it close, and it certainly was not helped by the excruciatingly slow and roundabout process of creating an online account. On top of this, the SHA announced that the machine-readable QR codes would take some more time to be made available online. I had to try four times before successfully obtaining the two-page document, with the QR code on the first page and the same information in a human-readable table on the second. During one of these four attempts, I saw an error message that I had not seen in the last decade – one about how
the server is unable to handle the number of requests it is currently getting. Based on the experience in my day job, I can tell you this is a problem that could have been foreseen and solved by spending at most a couple of hundred dollars. When the government tells a province of a million people that they will need to go online and obtain a document and gives them roughly two weeks to do so, the government better invest in some server infrastructure for the kind of demands they just set themselves up for. I did obtain the document eventually. I put it on my phone and walked into a restaurant, head held high. When asked Markus Winkler via Unsplash
So you’re scared of being tracked, but you have your phone with you everywhere you go... I see...
to provide proof of vaccination, I opened the file. The staff member scanned the QR code, and all the necessary information popped up. This person even cross-referenced the name with my photo ID. All was well, I placed my order, and thought that maybe the initial jitters of this proof of vaccination business are over. As I soon found out though, not all businesses are being as mindful. See, the QR code needs to be scanned by the relevant SHA app. The next time I was at a restaurant, the staff member asked me for proof. When I held it out for her, she looked at the QR code and nodded me in. Did you get that part? She just looked at it, with her bare eyes! Eyes that I am sure cannot read QR codes, let alone then interface with the SHA app to verify all the information. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe what I am concerned about was a somewhat lackadaisical human-robot equipped to read QR codes and go online all in less time than it takes me to say “Here you g-…” I guess I will never find out. However, I am now once again deciding to forego restaurants until I can be sure they are scanning QR codes and matching the name with a photo ID. Either that, or news that a certain restaurant has secretly been employing cyborgs…
hammad ali staff writer
