As more establishments open up and restrictions start to ease in Ontario, COVID-19 cases are quickly rising. This is now becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated. 

The Ontario government has announced that “colleges and universities should prepare for all in-person classes and activities to resume this fall without capacity limits or physical distancing”. Many students at Sheridan College will be returning to in-person learning after 18 months of distance learning. How are we supposed to feel comfortable returning to campus and working with classmates when there are no capacity limits or physical distancing measures in place? How are we supposed to feel comfortable sitting next to our unvaccinated classmates for extended periods of time? What about faculty members that have children under the age of 12? Are they supposed to feel comfortable returning home to their family when there is a chance they could easily be spreading COVID to their unvaccinated children? 

We students, staff and faculty are demanding that Sheridan College make vaccines mandatory for all community members and visitors on campus (minus individuals who can not get vaccinated for health reasons). The only way we are going to get out of this pandemic and return to a semi-normal world is if vaccine mandates are made. 

Not only that, but there is a chance that we students who are doing distance learning this semester can have a semi-normal year and return to in-person learning next semester if more students are vaccinated. Without vaccines, COVID cases will rise, potentially putting us in another lockdown and put us back to full online learning.

Sheridan College needs to follow in the steps of the Ontario universities that mandated vaccines this past week and create their own vaccination policies. Mandating vaccines will make many students, staff, and faculty feel more comfortable going into a space where the risk of catching and spreading COVID is just that much lower.

We the undersigned request that Sheridan College take a leadership role and immediately institute a campus wide vaccination policy to address the concerns listed above.