Dalhousie University under fire for failing to fully enforce its own COVID-19 safety policy

Dalhousie University says gaps in compliance with its COVID-19 policy is partly behind the move to a vaccine mandate.

Nova Scotia’s largest university is moving forward with a proof-of-vaccine mandate for 2022 after sharing that its own COVID-19 safety policy hasn’t been fully enforced, or complied with.

“A lot of our members had agreed to do in-person activities trusting that the students there and other staff members would be compliant — either fully vaccinated or demonstrated negative test results,” said David Westwood, the president-elect of the Dalhousie Faculty Administration (DFA).

Westwood says the roughly 1,000 academic members represented by the DFA trusted that the Campus Check process would be complied with by everyone who returned to on-campus activities.

According to the Dalhousie University website, any member of the school community who failed to complete the Campus Check program wouldn’t be allowed to participate in on-campus activities, including classes.

This is why Westwood says learning from Dalhousie that only about 20 per cent of people who reported being unvaccinated or preferred not to disclose their status were regularly submitting the requirement of two negative COVID-19 tests per week through the program.

“There didn’t seem to be any consequence or enforcement and that was more than a bit alarming,” he said.

An interview request with Dalhousie University was declined.

An email statement from the university in part reads, “While we have been working through compliance measures to increase this percentage, it is one of several factors that have led us to consider a revised approach to the winter term,” wrote Janet Bryson, a media relations officer with Dalhousie University.