Our good friends at BCIT have decided to voice their concerns regarding the early face-to-face learning return. We, nursing students at Langara, would like to also voice our concerns.

This petition has been created to urge Langara to delay the return-to-campus and in-person classes. We, the Nursing Students of Langara, feel extremely vulnerable and uncomfortable attending school in person on Monday, January 10th, 2022. Due to the widespread Omicron variant, we feel as though our safety and well-being are in jeopardy should classes return to campus. We are confused and disheartened that Langara has not followed similar precautions that other post-secondary schools in the province like UBC, SFU, and UVic have. Each of these institutions have committed to the health, safety, and security of their students and staff by delaying in-person classes by three weeks into January.

In regards to the COVID-19 Safety Plan at Langara, these measures are outdated and do not take into account how contagious and easily transmittable the Omicron variant is. As of January 5th, there are 27,106 active cases of COVID-19 in the province of BC. We are increasingly concerned that Langara cannot guarantee our safety with numbers so shockingly high. While teachers are protected by plexiglass and a 6-foot distance, students are crammed into small classrooms with no free seats. 

We ask that Langara considers delaying the return to in-person classes (expect skills) until the third week of January or longer. As a group, we unequivocally agree that our mental and physical health would suffer more in-person with the risks of COVID-19 compared to learning at home, virtually. We have a responsibility to protect ourselves, friends, roommates, and family members from the increasing danger of returning to campus on Monday.