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Unvaccinated Ryerson students to be removed from winter courses

by Nicholas Parker
written by Nicholas Parker
A student walking across the street towards the Rogers Communications Centre building (Ryerson University Facebook)

Ryerson students who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 or whose status is undeclared are in the process of being removed from their winter semester courses that are to be held in-person.

The action from the school comes after a notice was sent to students stating those who wish to not upload their status, or get vaccinated by Dec. 15, will “be removed from any in-person winter courses, and may lose access to key Ryerson systems, such as RAMSS.”

This decision may leave up to 3,600 students at risk of being unenrolled, according to numbers released in a Ryerson compliance presentation for winter 2022. The date of this document is unknown. Out of the 3,600 students, approximately 2,000 are undeclared and 1,000 do not intend to get vaccinated. 

According to a statement from Ryerson, about 300 students have been removed from their in-person courses as of last week. 

One of the students facing removal is a third-year dance major attending Ryerson. On The Record agreed not to disclose her identity. Before the deadline, she submitted a request for a religious exemption to Ryerson only for it to be denied. In her request, she stated that her beliefs and morals went against procedures such as vaccinations, which she had previously explained to the school in various emails. 

Aside from her religious concerns, she has other hesitations as well, which she says were also communicated to the school administration.

“I explained my living situation and I had basically said, ‘if I do get vaccinated, my parents would kick me out of the house.’ I had proof by my therapist, who I was speaking to for so long on how to deal with that stress, because I was so conflicted on what to do to prove that is an actual reality,” she said. “The school is kind of putting me in a predicament where you either choose your education, or you choose your family and your religion.”

Both of her parents had lost their teaching jobs due to similar vaccine mandates. “We have our power off right now just to save money and it’s getting really cold. And I am doing my homework in flashlight lighting. This is how severe it is,” she said.

Alexey, a second-year global management major, also submitted a request for a religious exemption for his Eastern Orthodox beliefs. His exemption was ultimately denied. On The Record agreed to not disclose Alexey’s last name. 

Currently, Alexey is still attending his winter classes, which have been moved online until further notice. He believes that it’s only a matter of time before he is removed from his classes.

According to Ryerson, unvaccinated students are still able to complete courses which have been deemed online for the rest of the semester. But the number of those courses is limited. Still, they state professors could make course-level decisions to provide materials for students to continue working online – but it is not expected that students will always have this option.

Many of the students interviewed who were removed from their courses said they felt unsupported by Ryerson, as the school did not attempt to offer any alternative solutions, such as a possible hybrid system for the remaining weeks of the winter semester.

“I’ve tried to ask if there’s some way to accommodate us,” said Bela Georgiev, a PhD economics student attending Ryerson. “If people see me as a threat, I respect that and I’m OK to do online schooling.”

Georgiev has yet to disclose her status to the school, as her rationale revolves around principle and not supporting the system. Currently, her RAMSS account has a hold on it which does not allow her to enrol in any courses. She was also a teaching assistant for Ryerson in the fall semester, but had been removed due to vaccine mandates at the university.

“I believe that if we start to pick people apart, depending on what type of medical interventions or procedures they’ve chosen to have, I think there could be a lot of problems with that,” said Georgiev.

Georgiev stated her friends at University of Toronto had livestreamed and recorded lectures for later use and questioned why Ryerson can’t implement similar processes.

Similarly, Curtis Heinen, a third-year urban and regional planning student, has not disclosed his status to the school because he believes that the mandates are not appropriate. Heinen said that he was given the option to declare and still maintain enrolment in online elective courses, though he would be held back from his required courses, as they would be in-person.

“I’m taking a principled approach. I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think the university has a right to take that information,” said Heinen.

Heinen stated he has no issue with any of the social distancing requirements and even the vaccines themselves, though he has an issue with the mandates and potentially delaying the education of students over their choice. 

When asked about how Ryerson plans to accommodate these students, a spokesperson in the communications office reiterated that students must be vaccinated in order to attend classes and encouraged students to reach out to their academic advisers for next steps. 

“Innocent until proven guilty, now you’re sick until proven healthy,” said Georgiev.

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Ryerson community members share their views on returning to in-person classes

by Julian Beltrano
written by Julian Beltrano
View of the Ryerson Student Centre from directly below the building (Scott Webb/Unsplash)

Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi announced Wednesday that the university will commence a gradual return to campus on Jan. 31 with the expectation to return fully in-person a month later. Lachemi hopes the university community will welcome this move and “see it as an opportunity to begin a post-pandemic way of living, learning and working,” but Ryerson community members have mixed feelings.

A contract lecturer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to  the precarity of their employment, is hesitant and fearful of this eventual Rams reunification.

“We’re scared,” they said. “Contract lecturers are precariously employed workers who don’t have much say in how things go. There is a general sense that our comfort and safety are not a factor in the university’s decision-making. All anyone wants is for our school community to be safe.” 

The contract lecturer believes that a full return to in-person learning could lead to a serious outbreak. “Some may be able to shake it off, but what about students and staff who live with immunocompromised family or roommates? What about those of us who wouldn’t shake it off?” they said. “We all miss life before the pandemic but cramming into classrooms would be unsafe. Let’s make in-person access work for those who need to be in labs or use on-campus equipment. Classes that can remain via Zoom should remain via Zoom.” 

Olivia Raponi, a third-year business management student, echoes the contract lecturer’s sentiments. 

“I feel that having one final online semester would be beneficial. We have already adapted to this way of learning, so why not just finish it off and start fresh when everything calms down?,” Raponi said. “Being anxious to go to class knowing that you can be exposed at any minute is an added stress to the already stressful school workload.”

Lachemi explained in his message released on Wednesday that the school’s commitment to health and safety continues to guide their decisions. “Recent updates from Ontario’s chief medical officer of health indicate that the number of cases resulting in hospitalizations and ICU stays are decelerating and we are beginning to see a decline in test positivity slowing,” the message said.

“This progress, coupled with the practices and policies included in Ryerson’s multi-layered approach to safety on campus enable us to welcome back our students, faculty and staff.”

Similar to Raponi, Sara Martini, a third-year accounting and finance student said she’s not looking forward to the return to campus this winter semester. This is partly due to the comfortable lifestyle online schooling has provided, but she also has concerns around logistics.

“My biggest concern is whether those who test positive for COVID-19 will still have access to online classes to stay on track of their work,” said Martini. “I know I wouldn’t want to fall behind because I got COVID-19 from being on campus. A 10 day quarantine would certainly result in many students falling behind in their studies. Especially those who need to be at school to do labs.” 

While some are worried about the return to in-person learning, others are excited to get back to Yonge and Gould. Second-year business management student Adriano Santilli is thrilled about the prospect of going back to in-person learning. Santilli is already halfway through his second year at Ryerson and has never been on campus. 

While Santilli’s desire is to get the traditional experience, he would still tolerate another semester online. “Although it would be exciting, I would be happy to return to online school for the winter semester, even though I feel that I have missed out on the opportunity to meet new people and experience the city.” 

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Ryerson announces return to in-person learning

by Sydney Ingram
written by Sydney Ingram

Image info: Exterior of Ryerson SLC (Alex Guibord/Wikimedia Commons)

The university will begin a gradual return to campus on Jan. 31 and expects there will be a full return to in-person learning a month later, Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi announced Wednesday.

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 delayed Ryerson’s plan to return to on-campus learning for the start of the Winter semester.

The school announced on Dec. 16 that classes for the Winter 2022 semester would be held virtually until Jan. 30, in response to soaring COVID-19 cases in Ontario.

However, after being given assurance from public health officials that cases are projected to decline in the coming weeks, the university said it is “confident” that a full return to campus is safe for students, faculty and staff. It said a full return to campus is expected by Feb. 28.

“A return to in-person learning is in the best interests of students,” Lachemi said in his statement. “We know that the collaboration and conversation that happens in classrooms and labs, the access to in-person supports… and the community and relationships created by on-campus extracurricular activities are just a few of the benefits of returning to campus.”

The return to campus will be program-specific. The university said more information will be available for faculty and students in the coming days.

“I hope that many of you will welcome this return and see it as an opportunity to begin a post-pandemic way of living, learning and working,” Lachemi said.

More to come.

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Ryerson defers in-person return to end of January

by Elena De Luigi
written by Elena De Luigi
a blue building at on a bright blue day
Ryerson University’s Student Learning Centre (Alex Guibord/Creative Commons)

Most Ryerson University students will not be returning to the classroom until the end of January, according to new safety measures announced Thursday. 

Winter semester classes, which begin Jan. 10 for engineering and some architecture students and Jan. 14 for all others, will be held online until Jan. 30.

The university is expected to shift back to in-person learning and teaching the following day. 

President Mohamed Lachemi announced the new measure on Thursday as new reported cases of COVID-19 in Ontario soared above 2,000 for the first time since May 2021. 

It also follows a scathing On The Record investigation, which exposed the university’s proof of vaccination system as faulty. 

“We know the immediate weeks ahead will be critical in managing the spread of the Omicron variant,” Lachemi said in his announcement. “This move to a modified start of term will help ensure the continued health and safety of our community.” 

The university said more information would be sent to students and faculty in the coming days. 

Some exceptions are being made for programs that require in-person instruction. 

“We have been planning for a broader in-person return for some time now, and remain committed to in-person learning, while also prioritizing the health and safety of our community,” Lachemi said.

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Reduced TTC service and existing delays heighten students’ commuting concerns around wait times, overcrowding

by Kayla Zhu
written by Kayla Zhu
The interior of the TTC 506 Carlton streetcar. (Chelms Varthoumlien/Unsplash)

Fourth-year creative industries student Daniel Song commutes to work three times a week to the Jane and Steeles area, taking the York Region Transit’s (YRT) 91 Bayview bus and then the TTC’s 960 Steeles West Express bus.

He says the wait times for his hour-long commute to work are “really, really bad.” 

“When it says it’s arriving in four minutes, my expectations are already so low that I assume it’s probably coming in 10 minutes,” Song said.

Before the pandemic, Song would commute downtown by Line 1 regularly to go to class and hang out with friends on the weekends. But with frequent weekend closures on the subway, it would take him much longer to get home by shuttle bus.

“It’s unreliable and I think it’s pretty unacceptable for people who depend on public transportation to not have dependable service,” he said.

Now, during the pandemic, Song says there’s the added stress of getting infected with the virus on transit. He said he feels “a little bit more confident” using public transportation to get to work since getting his second dose. 

However, with the new Omicron variant and the recent service reductions, he said he doesn’t feel “completely safe” on transit.

Some Ryerson students, like Song, say they are anxious about returning to campus next semester with recent service reductions, existing delays and other COVID-19-related issues that riders say have exacerbated wait times and overcrowding on the TTC. 

On Nov. 16, the TTC announced service cuts across 57 bus routes, one streetcar route and the Line 2 Bloor-Danforth subway due to staffing shortages caused by the transit operator’s vaccination mandate. These reductions took effect on Nov. 22.

However, according to TTC spokesperson Stuart Green, the proposed cuts never really “materialized” due to higher-than-anticipated vaccination rates and the TTC is offering “almost identical service” as before Nov. 22.

“As of [Dec. 7], we’re putting out around 95 per cent of the service that we were putting out pre-vaccine mandate, whereas we had scheduled 90 per cent,” he said.

When creating schedules for November, the TTC had planned service based on the prediction they would have 90 per cent of their employees vaccinated, but as of Dec. 7, the agency has a vaccination rate of 94 per cent.

Green said this means the 57 bus routes that were included in the Nov. 22 cuts are “not seeing the level of service decrease that was originally envisioned.”


However, Shelagh Pizey-Allen, executive director of transit advocacy group TTCriders said some riders have seen wait times double or triple since Nov. 22, when the proposed reductions took effect, even on bus routes unaffected by the cuts.

“Some riders have been reporting wait times of 30, 45, even 60 minutes. This is completely unacceptable and could have a long-term negative impact on transit ridership and the climate,” she said. “If people cannot rely on the TTC, more people will switch to driving, even if they can’t afford it.”

In addition to the recent service reductions, TTC buses have already experienced 26,772 recorded bus delays this year between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31, according to TTC bus delay data.

Cleaning was the leading cause of bus delays during this period, accounting for one-third of all delays, according to an On The Record analysis of TTC bus delay data. 

In 2020, cleaning only accounted for about six per cent of delays and was not listed as a reason for those incidents in 2019. The TTC recorded 26,953 delays between January and August 2020 and 44,279 in 2019. 

So far this year, the average timeframe of a bus delay was about 17 and a half minutes.

Since January 2020, the TTC has been cleaning and disinfecting “all public places with a focus on touch and grab points, such as buttons, railings, handles and straps” daily due to COVID-19. 

The Toronto Star reported in August that each TTC bus is cleaned twice a day, with the process usually taking about five to 10 minutes per bus. Cleaning protocols include spraying surfaces and common touch points with a hospital-grade disinfectant. 

Green says the TTC had taken buses out of service for a midday cleaning when most routes don’t have the “same level of service” as the morning. He said certain buses would normally be out of service at midday anyways because there was little demand for them and the operators would be working on split shifts – working separate sets of hours in both the morning and evenings. 

However, the TTC still logs these buses as having been taken out of service for cleaning, even though it technically wasn’t in service. Buses that were in service and scheduled for a midday cleaning would be temporarily replaced with a “run-as-directed” or RAD bus, before being taken out of service, according to Green. RAD buses do not appear on schedules.

“The service on the street was not impacted by the cleaning schedule,” he said.

Now, the TTC only cleans buses once a day and no longer pulls vehicles out of service for cleaning, as Green said the TTC now knows surface transmission “isn’t really a concern” for COVID-19.

August Pantitlán, a Ryerson aerospace engineering student who writes about transportation and urban planning on their blog, August Street, said they feel confident commuting knowing the risk of COVID-19 transmission is low on transit. They also mentioned the TTC CEO’s report released in October, which found 97 per cent of transit riders followed mask mandates properly.

However, Pantitlán said they do feel less safe taking the TTC for a different reason – there has been an increase in security incidents in the system. According to the October report, there was a 21 per cent increase in offences against customers in this year’s second quarter compared to the previous one.

“This isn't specific to transit, as many complex social issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic and its associated economic hardships across the city,” said Pantitlán.

Since they can’t drive, Pantitlán depends entirely on public transit to get to campus, their volunteer work and everything else. 

“It is convenient and frequent to use, although it is not always reliable,” they said. “Bus bunching, where multiple late buses show up together, overcrowding due to cut service and the lack of rapid transit access across the city are some of the major challenges facing the system.”

While the TTC has always experienced delays, issues that Pantitlán mentioned – unreliable service, bus bunching and overcrowding – pose additional safety concerns for riders during the pandemic. 

Pizey-Allen said while cleaning buses is important, increasing service and encouraging mask use is the best way the TTC can make riders feel safe.

“More delays means longer wait times and more crowding. The TTC should be focused on winning riders back with frequent service that we can rely on,” she said.

Third-year Ryerson urban and regional planning student Hayden Poon says he’s excited to go back to campus. But similar to Song, he is worried about regularly being in crowded transit environments in light of the new variant and the recent TTC service cuts.

His commute to campus from his home in Markham, Ont., takes more than one and a half hours one-way, and he needs to pay fare for both the TTC and the YRT.

Poon, who is also involved with TTCriders, said he anticipates the November service cuts will reduce the capacity of vehicles and result in longer wait times for his buses. 

“The buses will also be very crowded. I will get on the bus anyway as I don’t want to be late for class,” he said. “This could increase my risk of getting COVID-19.”

Poon said these delays aren’t a COVID issue and have always existed, but the problem of reliability and overcrowding is even more prominent during a pandemic.

“[The] TTC has serious reliability issues that [cause] you to never know if the next bus, streetcar, or subway will actually come,” he said. “We are playing a gamble when riding public transit.”

Pizey-Allen says reduced service on public transit impacts essential workers, women and racialized and disabled riders the most.

The 41 Keele and 102 Markham routes were included in the 57 bus routes affected by the proposed service reduction, even though the TTC identified these routes as overcrowded early in the pandemic.

Pizey-Allen said these routes serve working people who depend on transit and run through neighbourhood improvement areas and industrial employment zones.

“These cuts are unacceptable and unfair because they could have been prevented,” she said. “The TTC could have hired more operators months ago, but has been operating [with] ‘just enough’ service because of underfunding.”

A financial update published for the TTC's Nov. 29 meeting mentioned a 2021 funding shortfall of about $103 million. The update said the financial impact of COVID-19 on the TTC has been primarily offset by government support at the federal and provincial levels.

Pantitlán similarly finds the TTC service reductions to be “unacceptable for Canada’s largest city” compared to transit systems in Montreal and Vancouver, the latter which has rebounded to 55 per cent of their pre-pandemic ridership numbers.

“When reliability falls apart, so does our city,” Pantitlán said. “The TTC needs to prioritize reliable, timely and sustained service if it intends to regain lost ridership. It is especially pressing to ensure transit remains an attractive option over cars in the context of climate change and rapid population growth.”

Pizey-Allen said the group TTCriders is calling on Mayor John Tory to reverse the service reductions by securing emergency transit operation funding and making the TTC conduct a hiring blitz.

To make up for the shortfall in labour, Green said the TTC has offered more overtime hours to employees, invited recently retired employees to work again and hired more staff.

As of Dec. 7, he said the TTC has hired “close to 300-plus operators” and will have about 450 by the end of the year.

“Come January, we should see all of that service back, in addition to all of the employees that are coming back because they have completed their vaccines,” he said. 

Song echoed the need for more funding for the TTC, from both the city and Ryerson. 

“I think as a school that has as many commuters as it has, the fact that we still don’t have a subsidized transportation program or pass is totally bogus,” he said. 

Poon said he’s even more concerned about the TTC’s operation in the winter with extreme weather conditions, anticipating transit will be even more crowded with vehicles breaking down more often in snow and frigid temperatures.

Ultimately, Poon said he will still take transit to campus next semester.

“I am dependent on public transit for my education at X University,” he said. “Public transit is critical to students who commute to campus. If public transit fails, students fail.”

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Majority of city workers in compliance with COVID-19 vaccine mandate

by Emma Kunzelmann
written by Emma Kunzelmann
Vaccine mandates have been put in place at many workplaces and schools. (tortensimon/Pixabay)

The City of Toronto has announced 98 per cent of its employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

A city mandate requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and staff must prove their vaccination status. 

A press release issued Thursday states 99 per cent of employees have disclosed their vaccination status of at least one dose, and 51 employees have returned to work after previously not complying with the mandate.

Employees were expected to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 13.  

Recently, the city extended status review meetings for vaccines to the week of Jan. 2 from Oct. 31.

Ontario’s Ministry of Health has advised eight weeks between COVID-19 vaccine doses.

This extension provides employees who reported getting one dose with enough time to get their second shot before the new year.  

According to the release, there are currently 31,627 fully vaccinated employees, 428 employees who reported being partially vaccinated and 550 employees who are on leave for not complying with the policy.  

Ryerson University also has a vaccine mandate in place.  

In August, the school announced staff, students, faculty and any visitors coming to campus must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Proof of vaccination can be submitted through the RyersonSafe app or website. 

By Oct. 18, anyone who planned to be on campus had to be fully vaccinated and prove it by the Nov. 1 deadline.

Ryerson has imposed more restrictions on those who still haven’t provided their vaccination information.

The university announced students who didn’t upload their vaccination status by Nov. 21 would not receive their winter timetables. 

By Dec.15, all students who either haven’t provided their vaccination status or aren’t fully vaccinated are expected to be removed from all in-person classes for the winter semester.

However, Ryerson’s proof of vaccination system has proven to be unreliable.

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Ryerson’s proof of vaccine system leaves room for errors, experts say

by Elena De Luigi
written by Elena De Luigi
The RyersonSafe app is where Ryerson University staff, students and faculty are required to upload proof of vaccination, which is necessary to be on campus. An On The Record investigation has found the app approves every single submission, regardless of whether or not the person uploads their real vaccine receipt or a selfie. (Elena De Luigi/On The Record)

Ryerson University’s proof of vaccination system is expected to be put to the test in full force come January when tens of thousands of people are expected to return to campus. 

The system came into effect in September to comply with provincial mandates, and allows students, staff and faculty to submit their vaccination status through the RyersonSafe app. 

Users can log into the app, select the type of vaccine they received, and the date of each dose.

They are then prompted to upload a photo of their government-issued receipt which specifies the person has received two valid doses.

Once a person submits proof, a green QR code with the word “approved” pops up, and a confirmation email is sent to their inbox.

LISTEN: What Ryerson isn’t telling us about the return to campus

The idea is that the QR code is used to quickly ascertain a person’s vaccination status on campus.

Want to go to a game? Show your code. Want to visit the library? Show your code. Want to go to the gym? Show your code.

However, a lengthy On The Record investigation has found the RyersonSafe app is programmed to greenlight every single submission — regardless of whether or not the person uploads actual proof of vaccination.

According to Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi, there is an internal auditing process to check the validity of each submission.

But a request for an interview with internal audit services was denied by university spokesperson Jessica Leach. She said she couldn’t say more, citing confidentiality.

The RyersonSafe app creator, AppArmor, did not respond to a request for comment. 

On The Record conducted an experiment with three people: two students and one staff member.

Each person was asked to upload false vaccine information along with a random photo to see if the RyersonSafe app’s software would recognize the difference. 

Screen recording shows a recreation of when teaching assistant Sarah Samuel submitted her false proof of vaccination to the RyersonSafe app for an On The Record experiment (she used editor-in-chief Elena De Luigi in lieu of her real supervisor). Samuel submitted false proof of vaccination twice, first with her first dose receipt and fake dates and second with a selfie, botched dates and vaccines. Both submissions were instantly approved. (Screen recording courtesy of Sarah Samuel)

In lieu of real proof, the three people uploaded a meme, a selfie, a view from a window, and a copy of one of the participant’s first-dose receipt.

Each time, Ryerson’s vaccine approval system instantly accepted the submissions and provided green QR codes allowing each participant to get on campus.

However, even once internal audit services became aware of the false information submitted by the three volunteers, it did not appear to take steps beyond emailing the staff member to implore them to give the correct information.

The staff member kept getting that greenlight each time they uploaded a false photo and fake vaccine dates. 

Liam Ruddy, a fourth-year political science student who participated in the experiment, said he now feels that Ryerson’s system is operating in a way that is designed to “make it look as safe as possible, when in actual fact, it’s not.” 

“I got that little green approved mark for literally uploading a meme,” he said. “That does not convince me in the slightest.”

RELATED: Ryerson 1 of only 7 Ontario universities choosing not to publicly report COVID-19 cases — even as a new variant sweeps the globe

Sydney Brasil, a graduating journalism student who also participated in the experiment, said it’s difficult to trust what now looks like a system that accepts submissions assumed to be made in good faith when providing vaccination records.

“If it is an honour system,” she wondered, “then how safe are we?”

If the information uploaded is never verified, it could potentially make people less inclined to follow the university’s pandemic policies, said Vass Bednar, executive director of the master of public policy program at McMaster University.

Teaching assistant Sarah Samuel received this email after submitting false proof of vaccination information to the RyersonSafe app for an On The Record experiment. Samuel first uploaded her first dose receipt and fake dates. Then she submitted a selfie with botched dates and vaccines. Both submissions were instantly approved. (Screenshot courtesy of Sarah Samuel)

“The institution is doing as much as it can to ensure a safe environment,” she said, “But at the end of the day, if people are putting others at risk, they should be held accountable, not Ryerson.”

Twice, teaching assistant Sarah Samuel put the app to the test. 

During both experiments, the app accepted her false submissions — a first-dose receipt with botched dates, then a selfie with fake dates and different vaccines — immediately, giving her a green QR code.

Four or five days after Samuel made her second false submission, Brian Reny, an employee in the university’s internal audit services office, followed up, asking her to resubmit actual proof of vaccination.

She did.

“I don’t know whether to trust this app or not,” Samuel told On The Record. “In a world where [everyone] is so misinformed right now, in terms of COVID, having more robust security, or internal audit tracking would alleviate stress.” 

Submitting false proof of vaccination could lead to criminal charges and jail time.

Under the Reopening Ontario Act, forging false documents comes with a $750 fine, which is subject to change. 

“These are the real consequences for this kind of behaviour,” said Constantine Karbaliotis, a privacy lawyer at nNovation LLP in Ottawa.

Karbaliotis said the repercussions students, staff or faculty could face if Ryerson caught them submitting false vaccine information depend on how serious the institution views the behaviour.

(Lachemi previously told On The Record that he doesn’t see “a need for us to police our community members.”)

However, Ryerson has been tightening vaccine restrictions over the course of the semester.

In November it imposed limits on receiving winter term schedules for those who hadn’t shared their vaccination status. 

The next step, according to the school, is to remove students who do not comply with the vaccine mandate from in-person classes.

Students risk losing access to key systems like RAMSS.

Students could also be disenrolled or suspended under Policy 61, the student code of non-academic conduct.

Faculty and staff have until Jan. 7, 2022 to be fully vaccinated or risk facing non-compliance measures.

In a statement, a university spokesperson said employees could be subject to “confidential” disciplinary action if they were found to have submitted false proof of vaccination. 

On Oct. 17, Rebecca Thompson, a fourth-year urban sustainability student who previously uploaded real proof of vaccination, uploaded a photo of the street outside her window as new proof to the app.

She plugged in botched dates and vaccines and pressed “submit.”

Not even 30 seconds later, a green QR code popped up on her phone, and a confirmation email landed in her inbox. Thompson waited for an internal audit employee to follow up, but they did not. 

“As an employer, or as an educational institution, or as a business establishment, you want to make sure that it’s a safe environment,” said Karbaliotis. “If you’re not actually enforcing a policy, or [holding] people’s feet to the fire about it, it’s very hard to discipline an employee for breaching it.” 

According to Ryerson’s office of administration and operations, submissions to the RyersonSafe app are initially auto-approved to “ensure speed of approval and access for our large population of community members.”

In the app, everyone is required to legally attest to the accuracy of their submission, and there is an expectation and requirement of compliance, it said in a statement.

“If, during a review of documentation uploaded to RyersonSafe, there is concern about the validity of a submission, the affected community member is followed up with and non-compliance or false submissions are addressed accordingly,” the office said in a written statement. 

“Health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic is the individual and collective responsibility of all members of the university community.” 

The university said its internal audit services can forcibly change a green QR code to red if a person it identifies as having submitted false information fails to provide real proof.

It also says the app provides a red QR code for people who indicate they are not fully vaccinated. 

Throughout this fall semester, several students told On The Record that the university is rarely checking to see if they’ve submitted their proof of vaccination, or if they’ve completed the COVID-19 screening questionnaire each time they attend campus.

(The university said QR codes are checked at “certain campus locations before entry,” like the Mattamy Athletic Centre, the library, and others.) 

Lachemi previously defended the university’s COVID-19 vaccination policy, saying there are no plans to have campus security check people’s proof of vaccination as they walk through the door.

As of Nov. 25, 97 per cent of full-time employees have submitted their vaccination status. Of those, 97 per cent indicated they are fully vaccinated.

For part-time employees, 84 per cent have confirmed their vaccination status, and 99 per cent say they are fully vaccinated. 

The university said the majority of employees who have not yet provided their vaccination status have contracts that expire on or before the end of 2021.

The rest are either pursuing full vaccination or are not working on campus as a condition of their employment. 

As for the full-time student population, 93 per cent have submitted their proof of vaccination, with 96 per cent of them indicating they are fully vaccinated. 

The university has repeatedly declined requests to share the number of medical exemption requests that have been made and approved, citing privacy and confidentiality reasons.

Lachemi previously said it is “a small number.”

Lachemi said the university is aware of who is fully vaccinated or not based on a list of students attending in-person classes.

However, he wouldn’t say whether the university solely relies on the RyersonSafe app data to curate that list.

If it does, that could mean that not everyone the university thinks is vaccinated, actually is.

“I got that little green approved mark for literally uploading a meme. That does not convince me in the slightest.”

Liam Ruddy, Ryerson student

Ryerson told On The Record it uses the RyersonSafe app to track the status of everyone’s COVID-19 vaccination record so it can follow up with those who are not in compliance.

Thompson, who uploaded the view from her home as “proof,” now counts herself among those feeling unsafe.

After participating in the experiment, she’s skeptical of whether the university’s COVID-19 policies are actually working.

“It definitely makes me question everyone else’s vaccination status … Literally anyone can say they’ve been vaccinated [even] if they haven’t with this system, which is a little nerve-racking because people could just be lying, going on campus without their vaccines,” she said. “The whole reason we have this system is to prevent that. So if the system is broken, or not doing its job, then what’s the point of even having it?”

Ruddy said he was “insulted and disappointed” when he saw the system accepted his false information.

It makes him feel like the university’s policies give its community members a false sense of hope ahead of January’s in-person return, he said.

It’s possible that the RyersonSafe app’s automatic greenlight in cases where a person falsely submits proof of vaccination is the result of a failure to thoroughly test parts of the app during product development, said Lakshmi Baskaran, vice-president of engineering for SEDNA Systems. 

“When you build the software, you [must] ensure that the software is thoroughly tested, especially in a product or an app like this where the product or an app deals with a user’s personal identification information,” Baskaran said. “The software should be tested to ensure that there are no loopholes.” 

She suggested the university subject the RyersonSafe app to more negative test cases to close the loopholes and make sure the app does not approve fake vaccine information and photos.

For example, Baskaran explained, a pending process could be put in place to give the university time to review each submission.

Then the school could ensure it is only approving vaccine certificates once they are verified.  

“We as software developers have to ensure that the products we build are safe, secure and reliable,” she said, calling it an “ethical obligation.”

The university did not respond to a question about whether it would consider implementing a pending process that does not automatically greenlight people who submit proof of vaccination even if the “proof” isn’t real. 

The easy fix, Karbaliotis said, is to use the province’s certificate.

That certificate also operates a QR code system. Businesses can use it, but they aren’t mandated to. Karbaliotis wonders if that might change. 

“It’s tied to your name,” he said, so it will “prevent the editing of PDFs approach, which is allowing this kind of craziness to go on.”

READ THE FULL SERIES: The great campus return?

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Ryerson is an Ontario university outlier for not publicly reporting COVID-19 cases

by Tess Stuber and David Warner
written by Tess Stuber and David Warner
(Via Ryerson Health & Safety)

Ryerson is an outlier among Ontario’s public universities when it comes to sharing information about confirmed COVID-19 cases on campus.

On The Record has found that 16 out of 23 public universities in Ontario report confirmed cases to their community with varying degrees of detail. 

Ryerson is one of only seven schools that don’t disclose any information. 

This has been the university’s policy since the start of the pandemic. And they’re sticking with it — even now, after a string of recent cases in November and as campus prepares to return in January.

There have been 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on campus since the pandemic began. But this information is not clearly displayed on any official university channels, leaving the campus community largely in the dark.

On The Record has been able to confirm case information only through internal CUPE 3904 union emails. CUPE is notified of cases through Ryerson’s Joint Health and Safety Committee. 

CUPE president Laurie Jacklin says their members are disappointed with the lack of information from the university. She says CUPE members ask for more data, such as the locations of infected persons. Doing this is possible without revealing personal or identifying information, she said. 

“Our members constantly ask for more data, such as the locations (buildings) visited by the infected person,” she said. “Universities promote evidence-based research and our members are keen to access this data to make their own informed decisions about their safety while on campus.” 

Most Ontario universities choose to report their cases, even though a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities confirmed there are no official guidelines for post-secondary schools, and that the institutions are directed to their local health authorities for direction on contract tracing. 

The decision hinges on finding a balance between maintaining people’s privacy and providing enough information for the broader university community to feel safe and adequately informed.

View an interactive map showing how Ontario universities track their COVID-19 cases:

*Confirmed cases on the RMC campus are not released on the school’s website, but are included in the overall Canadian Armed Forces numbers.

Health privacy is the specific reason Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi gives for the university’s decision not to make confirmed COVID-19 cases public.

“Given the small number of cases that we have had on campus, there is an increased risk of community members being able to determine the identity of an individual based on the location, date and/or circumstances of the case information,” he said.

That concern doesn’t seem to affect other Ontario schools. Both OCAD University and the University of Waterloo informed students and staff about their own COVID-19 cases. 

OCAD’s student population is nearly nine times smaller than Ryerson’s as of 2018, yet their website reports every positive case on campus. OCAD has had four positive cases since the start of the pandemic. Waterloo’s student population is roughly 3,000 more than Ryerson’s as of 2021. Their website also reports every positive case on campus. Waterloo has had 85 positive cases since the start of the pandemic.

Reporting cases publicly is generally easier when there are more cases each week, says Amy Fairchild, dean of the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University (OSU).

“Publishing aggregate numbers, particularly rolling averages, does not compromise privacy,” she said. “But if we had only a handful of cases a week, that could allow people to identify infected individuals fairly easily.”

For example, she says, if one student calls in sick to her class and that week there is one case, it would be obvious who it was. 

IN PICTURES: How time and a pandemic have changed Ryerson’s campus

Compared to most universities in Ontario, OSU provides comprehensive data surrounding COVID-19, such as vaccination rates, on-campus testing results, and even historical case counts dating back to August 2020.

Fairchild says she was involved in the decision-making process at OSU to provide this information and has been a “strong advocate for sharing data as extensively as possible.” Despite this, she says some people wanted even more details — case counts by faculty, case counts by program, case counts by residence buildings. 

“Although we tracked all of those patterns behind the scenes and took action if we found any clusters, much of that data simply couldn’t be shared because of the small numbers of cases in the majority of categories,” she said.

Of the 16 Ontario universities that choose to publicly report cases, 14 have web pages dedicated to tracking cases on campus in a whole manner of ways throughout the pandemic. 

Given how little of that information Ryerson chooses to share, how can members of the Ryerson community feel safe? Lachemi assured On The Record that impacted individuals have been notified, are being notified, and will continue to be notified in the future. 

“The university follows the protocols outlined by public health agencies with regards to who should be informed of potential risk based on potential exposure and the privacy of the individual,” he said in an interview.

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COVID-19Great ReturnOn CampusPandemicRams AthleticsSportsStudentsThe Great Campus Return

Sports governing body plays hard to get varsity teams back into the game

by Riley Fussell
written by Riley Fussell

The Ryerson Rams men’s soccer team kicked off its season with a home game at Downsview Park on a warm, early fall evening.

The Rams were playing against their crosstown rivals, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, and the stands were packed with supporters from both schools. After the game, Rams head coach Filip Prostran couldn’t give the enthusiastic fans enough praise.

“[The crowd] was fantastic, it was electric,” he said.

But there was another story being told by those fans that evening — and by protocols they had to follow just to get into the stands.

A handful of staff were stationed at the gates, controlling entry to the facility. To enter, fans had to show proof of vaccination and a completed health questionnaire. Then they received wristbands to wear as evidence that they’d been screened before entry.

It all added up to one small piece of a giant puzzle that intercollegiate sports governing bodies had to put together over the preceding several months in order to pull varsity teams out of the grip of the pandemic shutdown and push them back on to the playing fields.

IN PICTURES: How time and a pandemic have changed Ryerson’s campus

On March 12, 2020, USports — the national governing body for university sports in Canada — shut down all games. Roughly an hour after the end of a quarterfinal hockey game at the national championship, the players heard the news that there would be no semifinals. The season was over for both the men’s and women’s teams. The men’s and women’s volleyball seasons also came to an abrupt end that day. 

Between then and the return of university sports this September, it was up to USports and its regional governing bodies to figure out how they would get the games back on once it was safe to do so. It meant dealing with things ranging from scheduling games to restructuring leagues; from putting in place vaccine protocols to figuring out the rules for teams that would have to travel to away games. 

Ontario University Athletics (OUA) is one of the larger divisions of USports. Gord Grace, president and CEO of OUA, has been busy solving scheduling and logistical issues since the pandemic first reached Ontario.

Looking back on the first days he spent tackling scheduling, Grace said recently that he soon realized there was no one-size-fits-all solution — each of the 49 sports needed to be handled differently. 

“We have 11 football teams; that’s an odd number. That makes it challenging,” Grace said. “We now have 19 men’s hockey teams because Laurentian dropped out [and] we have 12 women’s teams.”

It wasn’t just a matter of figuring out how to make the schedules work.

It is also their job to keep the athletes and coaches safe, so they had to minimize travel and avoid overnight trips as much as possible.

As big a job as it was, OUA was fortunate in one respect. Even though Ontario is a large province, most of the schools in the league are situated along the same highway.

For USports’ western division, Canada West Universities Athletic Association (known as Canada West), geography complicated things. Their division stretches from Victoria to Winnipeg. The University of Winnipeg is closer to McGill University in Montreal, a whole division away, than it is to the University of Victoria.

Rocky Olfert, managing director at Canada West, said they did their best to keep games regional, but that wasn’t always possible.

Olfert says that while he and his team were able to keep play in certain sports contained to a relatively small area, that didn’t work across the board. He says the fewer number of teams in some sports, such as hockey, made travel necessary.

According to Olfert, everyone in Canada West met their vaccine mandate. But when it came to scheduling, they introduced buffer weeks. Buffer weeks are essentially gaps in the schedule where games can be rescheduled to if they are postponed.

“We cancelled and postponed three men’s hockey games because of COVID, just out of caution. MacEwan [University] had two cases (of COVID-19),” Olfert recounted. He said the buffer weeks built into the schedule meant, “if we need to reschedule, we can; so if we don’t have to play, why risk it?”

RELATED: Traffic safety experts worry about pedestrians as more people, vehicles return to downtown streets

Olfert says the result of all the planning was a seamless and safe transition to the new world of university sports during a pandemic. He says the fall sports season has gone extremely well and the return to sport has been invigorating for everyone involved, with athletes performing at a high level.

It wasn’t just the USports administrators who had to adapt and work hard to make the return to play successful. A lot of the work fell to the coaches.

Rams men’s soccer coach Filip Prostran says managing all of the different policies was a challenge. “You had to stay up to date on all the policies the OUA implemented, your own university and also other universities,” he said.

This extended beyond wearing masks and social distancing. For example, teams in OUA’s soccer division could only travel with a party of 25, including coaches. For Ryerson, it was broken down to 20 players and five staff. And that meant that some team members couldn’t travel.

Prostran also said that as the team visited other schools, it seemed each one had different protocols. “With travel and games, that was a learning curve,“ he said. “But we just made sure our team was respectful and flexible. We were all just learning as we [went].”

Nick Asquini, the varsity operations co-ordinator at Ryerson, said he’s proud of what the school has done. The return to sport has had a lot of variables and they’ve been able to maintain an extremely high level of safety for all athletes, coaches and fans.

“Our utmost priority going into the fall was that everything was going to be safe,” said Asquini. “We’ve done our best to control everything around the games, to control the environment.

“From a Ryerson perspective we feel pretty good about how the fall has gone.”

RELATED: Ryerson 1 of only 7 Ontario universities choosing not to publicly report COVID-19 cases — even as a new variant sweeps the globe

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Skills learned through online study could benefit graduates in the post-pandemic workplace

by Kate Ng
written by Kate Ng

Lukas Bieri/Pixabay

As Ryerson students contemplate returning to campus in January, some are going to be looking even further into the future — and worrying about whether their interrupted in-person education is going to leave them lacking skills to enter the workplace.

RELATED: The great campus return?

After nearly two years without on-campus learning, what’s the cost they have paid for the missed opportunities to network, to socialize, to work face-to-face with colleagues? Will they lack the skills they need to find jobs and then perform well in them?

Some experts say it won’t necessarily be that bleak. They say that the online study may even set up some students quite well for the changes that are taking place in the workplace.

‘Remember to make eye contact‘

According to Contact North, a remote education organization, successful online learning relies on different pedagogical principles from in-person learning. Rather than copying a traditional classroom, online teaching uses the internet to deliver a distinct learning experience.

Even though students do not get the social experience, online learning may provide fresh graduates a skill their competitors lack: working independently, says Robert Clapperton, an assistant professor in professional communication at Ryerson.

“One of the biggest shocks for fresh graduates is not being told explicitly how to do something – you’re just expected to know. Asynchronous learning teaches you to be responsible for determining the scope, planning and performing,“ says Clapperton.

Assuming the student is motivated, pre-recorded tutorials, breakout rooms and multimedia resources are some examples of decentralized learning that give significantly more flexibility to the student, allowing them to learn at their own pace and in a way that best suits them, according to Clapperton.

He’s not the only professor who believes in the value of independent learning.

John Shiga, an associate professor in professional communication at Ryerson, believes that critical and informed thinking is the capstone that may set his students apart from the competition.

“The students make their own decisions, like [determining] whether a live presentation or facilitating a pre-recorded presentation is more effective. Presenting multiple options and making informed decisions will hopefully set them up to be successful in a hybrid workplace,” says Shiga.

RELATED: Skills learned through online study could benefit graduates in the post-pandemic workplace

The ability to connect with people in virtual meetings is another important skill that transfers to the workplace, says Peggy Nash, chair of the Centre for Labour Management Relations at Ryerson.

“Because you don’t have personal engagement or eye contact, I prepare visual anchors rather than speaking to a few points,” says Nash.

But while those who learned partly in an online environment likely have skills that will serve them well in the workplace, they may lack other necessary skills for in-person work.

Frederic Dimanche, director of the Ted Rogers school of hospitality and tourism management, worries that students will not be prepared for the social pleasantries of the workplace. He believes these are learned from spontaneous interactions and casual conversation, not the classroom.

“Grabbing coffee with a friend after online class, or small talk with a stranger are opportunities for real interaction,” says Dimanche. “I don’t want to say we have to relearn non-verbal communication, but some have not done it in two years.”

‘What can you bring to our company?‘

Experts say when they look at future workplaces changed by the pandemic, they can identify other skills that current students should work on.

“The pandemic is going to change a lot of workplaces, with the acceptance of some remote work,” says Kim Bates, an associate professor in entrepreneurship and strategy at Ryerson. “People are questioning the value of always staying in the office, but recognize that social engagement helps.”

This change may force students to take another look at professional writing, according to Catherine Jenkins, a contract lecturer who teaches professional communication. She says that even among her students, some have not refined this skill since high school.

“With more work done online, writing skills will become more important. There’s a lot more email traffic and shared documents that require professional writing skills,“ says Jenkins.


Technologies in online classes, such as shared drives, will likely directly translate to the workplace, albeit with colleagues instead of students. According to Katherine Feenan, senior policy lead from the Public Policy Forum, this edge may be one of the biggest strengths for students leaving online university.

“Today’s students and graduates have more experience with technology than those leaving the workforce,” says Feenan.

Today, more companies are embracing online collaborative tools, both from the pandemic and changing workforce demographics. (Garner, 2021)

What can we expect going forward?

For fresh graduates, knowledge of online collaboration software will likely become a common expectation. Tech consulting firm, Gartner, predicts that within three years the percentage of in-person meetings will drop, from 60 per cent to 25 per cent, due to remote work and changing employee expectations.

Similarly, consultancy firm Deloitte expects that post-COVID-19, higher education institutions will adopt a hybrid model based on employee preferences.

Should the hybrid office prove itself, the skills students developed from online learning will serve them well in the long run.

RELATED: 4 reasons life after online classes will be the worst thing to happen to education


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