Student Housing and Community Services (SHCS) has amped up its COVID-19 protocols this semester at the Orchard Commons dining hall.
These changes come as UBC doubled the number of residents in first-year dorms from first semester. In September, Orchard Commons made masks, hand washing and physical distancing mandatory in the dining hall. Seating was also reduced.
“The [residence] life team, food services team and front desk team have worked incredibly hard from March onward and particularly through the fall term to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to create the safest possible environment for students,” said Andrew Parr, associate vice-president of SHCS.
During first semester, Orchard was at 50 per cent resident occupancy. Now, Totem Park Residence has opened for term two but its dining hall remains closed and its residents eat at the Orchard hall.
Coupled with a changing environment due to new protocols from Vancouver Coastal Health and provincial health authorities, Parr said that SHCS has adapted several times.
“Moving a population, both a residential and a dining population, to a low 560 students to as high as 1,250 students means that we need to have different regulations in place and different systems in place to ensure that the larger population is equally as safe as the previous smaller population,” said Parr.
This term SHCS purchased over $40 thousand in plexiglass shields for Orchard’s dining hall and surrounding areas to increase the amount of people who can dine at each table.
Currently the Open Kitchen and the adjacent Hero Café operate at extended hours to help spread out crowds. Nutrislice, an online menu system, helps speed up the queue process in the dining hall by letting students order food more quickly to decrease the number of people in lines.
SHCS has also extended the student meal plan discount to other campus eateries and opened two new food trailers outside of Orchard Commons as a way to lessen the volume of students in Open Kitchen.
Parr said that SHCS is focusing on communicating COVID-19 rules to students, but there are consequences in place for non-compliance such as documentation by residence advisors. He added that SHCS works closely with Campus Security and the RCMP.
“Our job is to provide education and awareness and urge students to do the right thing. But when they don’t there’s systems in place that could include punitive action,” said Parr.
SHCS sent an email to residents on Thursday saying that there have been cases of large gatherings inside and outside of dorms and warning students of punishments, including RCMP ticketing.
“We need to monitor those if possible where we see that happening — either in residence or around residence — to break those groups up, remind them of the importance of social distancing and wearing a mask,” Parr said.