Many Ontario university students feel forced to return to in-person classes

Post-secondary students don't have a choice. Whether or not they are physically or financially able to return to in-person classes in the next month, whether they even feel safe doing so, they must.

If not, they say they'll be forced to drop their courses and delay graduation.

To Jwalit Bharwani, a Ryerson mechanical engineering student, the school's return-to-campus plan feels premature, inconsiderate even. All students are expected to be back Feb. 28, with some courses beginning in-person classes starting Monday.

Monday is also when restaurants and movie theatres, among other things, reopen at 50 per cent capacity. Bharwani said if isn't safe for him to watch a movie with hundreds of people, he shouldn't have to go to a lecture with hundreds of people.

Everyone in the classroom is vaccinated, but so is everyone in a movie theatre - what's the difference?" he said.

Being in a classroom, where he would be perpetually concerned for his health, would be uncomfortable, Bharwani said. So too would the journey there. For Bharwani, and thousands of students like him who commute to school, there would be daily encounters with people who could be infectious.

I had COVID before when school was on - it affected my academics, it affected my physical health, it affected my mental health," he said. I've been through it; I don't want to go through it again and I don't want other students to go through it."

For the many students who moved back home, out of the city, while school was online, returning to Toronto for just two months of in-person classes could be logistically nightmarish, and expensive.

Where are they going to find a lease for two months?" said Bharwani. How much money would they have to pay? No landlord is going to give them that, Ryerson residence isn't going to give them that. What happens to international students? They spend thousands on a flight for two months of school that could go back online at any time?'

But what choice do they have? Much as he would prefer not to, Bharwani is going back to in-person classes. It's that, or give up on the semester and graduate after his peers.

They aren't offering hybrid classes," he said. No one I know will drop their classes mid-semester. It's getting so late in the semester you wouldn't even get a refund on your tuition. And if I dropped even a single course, it would lead to me not graduating on time."

And what if he gets sick again? Bharwani said there has been no guidance from his faculty in this area. If he has to miss a week of school from COVID illness he risks falling behind. In-person school jeopardizes both his grades and health, he said.

Ryerson University did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The university acknowledged receipt of the Star's request Wednesday but did not return a response by publication time.

Bharwani's only recourse, he said, was to pen an open letter to the school, asking for an online winter semester. He soon noticed a similar letter circulating, written by associate professors at Ryerson's School of Occupational and Public Health, calling for, among other things, smaller class sizes and resources and support for hybrid learning.

We have a lot of international students who will have to travel far to get here and a lot of mature students, with young children, who live in multigenerational households who are worried about the safety of their family members," said letter signatory and associate professor Anne Harris. No institution or sector operates without interacting with the community. And what happens to community spread affects the whole population."

Another signatory, associate professor Ian Young, said almost 90 per cent of his class of 120 students said they would prefer to stay online this semester.

From what I've heard from my students, yes, remote learning has been challenging, but pandemic stressors are also affecting their mental health," he said. Now, they don't know what's going to happen - how are they going to get downtown, how are they going to find a place to live? That's affecting their mental health more than remote learning would."

Young said the university hasn't addressed concerns about what will happen if large portions of classes get sick at the same time. Nor what would happen if an instructor got ill.

With the health-care system overburdened, Harris and Young said case counts must be kept as low as possible, and for that reason neither feels comfortable with in-person classes, particularly with asking students who might be at higher risk to attend.

I also don't feel comfortable lecturing students about epidemiology if I'm not asserting my values in preserving health and safety," said Harris.

Bharwani is far from the only student concerned about returning, evidenced by nearly 11,000 signatories on a Ryerson petition to provide students an online option this semester and over 14,600 signatories on a similar York petition.

York University announced obligatory in-person attendance for all students beginning the first week of February, with students who are unable to attend being told that their only option is to drop out," said a York student who asked not to be named.

A York spokesperson said that while some courses will be offering hybrid options allowing students to learn online if they prefer, this does not work well for every course, and moving to an entirely hybrid option across the University is not being considered."

Students who are not able or choose not to come to campus this term have been encouraged to enrol in fully online courses, which comprise approximately 20 per cent of our total course offerings in winter 2022," said spokesperson Yanni Dagonas.

The student said she and many other signatories of the York petition don't feel safe going to class" with Omicron raging, and expressed similar concerns to Bharwani, Harris and Young about the difficulty finding housing for two months.

At the University of Toronto, most courses will have at least some in-person component beginning at the end of February, a spokesperson said. Students who registered for them will need to travel to Toronto to participate in those courses," however, the school has supports, including counselling and peer groups, for students struggling to adjust."

We believe that the continuum of education from pre-school through post-secondary is essential to the wellbeing of our society and as the Ontario Science Advisory Table notes, is vital to students' mental health," said U of T's spokesperson.

To Bharwani, the mental benefits of campus life are, at present, undermined by the risk the virus still poses.

I know people have been sitting at home, and it's tiring and depressing, but it's not as depressing as missing an exam because you got sick."

Ben Cohen is a Toronto-based staff reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @bcohenn