MRU Should Switch to Online Classes to Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

*UPDATE 1/4* They just updated the Alberta infection count to 19, and a student in my class straight up admitted that he was in contact with the ATB employee before she went into isolation. This is why we can't trust students to protect the rest of the student body, nobody wants to isolate themselves at the expense of their grades.

*UPDATE 2/4* As of 5:45PM on March 11, MRU sent out a communication stating that they are continuing operations as usual until the first student becomes ill, and they urge students to wash their hands and stay home if sick. THIS IS NOT ENOUGH. By the time the first student is sick, they will have had at least 5 days of walking around spreading the virus to everyone near them. We cannot wait until the first student risks their life and the lives of all students. We MUST demand that MRU closes its doors and offers classes online IMMEDIATELY.

*UPDATE 3/4 Addressing the most common criticisms*

- "You guys are crazy, this is blown out of proportion"

Based on what's being going on in other countries, cities, and communities, it is not a matter of debate that, without preventative measures, our ICU units and other resources will be overburdened. The average student will barely be affected because they will present with flu-like symptoms, but the real concern is how it'll affect the rest of the community. The news in other countries isn't "blowing things out of proportion," the people there are living through the reality that a lot of their community members are dying. We owe it to our community members who are at risk to take pre-emptive steps now to reduce the death toll.

- "MRU does not have the ability to make the decision to close, that's AHS."

MRU has full autonomy over whether it switches to online classes or not. MRU has stated that they are "monitoring the situation" and are following the guidance of AHS, this is true. However, those who sign this petition agree that we need to push MRU to take preventative measures more quickly. By the time the first student illness is confirmed it is too late and waiting for that to happen is irresponsible.

- "There are huge technical limitations that prevent the school from switching to online"

Will Blackboard be able to handle 14,000 students concurrently? Quite unlikely, however the professors already know this and are planning to utilize alternative services such as Google Classroom as many of you are already familiar with it. Services like Google Forms may be used for testing, and YouTube may be used for lecture distribution. They are well aware of potential technical limitations, luckily most of them are easy and free to mitigate.

- "My labs cannot be done online, we can't close the school"

We should clarify that we want MRU to take the lead in Alberta when it comes to precautionary measures and set a goal to immediately offer as many classes online as possible. Not necessarily that we want the school entirely closed. The classes and labs that cannot be done online are by far the minority, and the rest should be made available online immediately.

- "I struggle with online courses, it would hurt my GPA"

Many people struggle with online courses, I do as well. At this point it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, and if it's going to happen either way it should happen ASAP. Besides, doing classes online while sick with COVID-19 would be more difficult than doing it healthy.

- "You're just trying to get out of classwork"

Certainly some students are signing on with this intention, however we are under no delusion that the school work will continue, just in a different format. The likelihood of completely cancelling current classes are slim to none. Classes will continue online, we just want it to happen immediately, not whenever AHS gets around to instructing it.

*Update 4/4* MRU has previously stated they are acting in lockstep with other universities such as U of C. This afternoon U of C has announced they will resume classes utilizing alternative forms of course delivery until the COVID-19 situation has stabilized. What an excellent idea. In keeping with their word, we eagerly await MRU's email informing us that they will also be resuming classes utilizing online course delivery methods.

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Today, March 11th, the World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 (Corona Virus) to be a Pandemic. In only 5 days Calgary's Corona Virus count has reached 14, many of whom failed to isolate themselves until they started showing symptoms. The ATB employee was serving customers for a week before isolating herself, what are the odds that multiple MRU students had contact with her? Probably very likely.

Mount Royal University needs to demonstrate its awareness of the current political, economic, and health environment by switching all classes to online. For the health and safety of all students and staff, MRU should follow in the foot steps of Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, Ohio State, U of Washington, Duke, and many other universities by switching to online classes as quickly as possible.

Given the pressure students feel to get good grades and maintain a good relationship with their professors, even if a student starts showing symptoms the odds that they'll self isolate is very low. MRU currently doesn't allow for students to succeed without physically attending classes. One sick student can easily infect their entire class, which would infect every class that each of those students attends afterwards, causing an exponential outbreak among MRU's student body.

Mount Royal is a huge risk for viruses such as COVID-19, and we shouldn't wait until half the student body is sick before doing something about it. MRU MUST switch to online classes NOW.