Announcements forthcoming for spring, summer and fall course delivery methods
By Krishna Shetye, February 11 2021—
With the 2021 Winter Semester ‘Zoom-ing’ by (forgive the pun), University of Calgary students have been eager for updates on the format of the fast- approaching Spring, Summer and Fall 2021 terms.
In a January 2021 update on the UCalgary emergency management webpage, an announcement was made that the format of the spring/summer semesters would be “delivered with a blend of online and face-to-face courses, with most courses online.” Specific course details won’t be available until Feb. 23, when students can check their student centre to verify their course delivery method.
The delivery method for Fall 2021 has not yet been decided by the university according to the webpage, but students will apparently receive an announcement sometime in April.
UCalgary students have expressed frustration over the ambiguous nature of these announcements, in particular over various social media platforms including Reddit and Instagram. Defeatist sentiments in terms of in-person delivery occurring at all for Fall 2021 have been expressed repeatedly on these platforms.
“There is very little hope of [the Fall 2021] semester being in-person, but I definitely feel like [UCalgary] has not been as direct in telling students as they could be,” said Sushrut Mohapatra, a second-year UCalgary student told the Gauntlet. This seems to be a trend in most Canadian universities including the University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, and Mount Royal University, with Fall 2021 delivery plan announcements pending until April 2021 at the very least.
Although many students feel that the university has not done enough to appease student concerns, some feel that leniency should be offered in the face of such a volatile global emergency. Second-year UCalgary student Simran Sadhwani told the Gauntlet that “an unclear situation makes an unclear delivery understandable, even though improvements are always needed.”
Optimism like this may be necessary to prepare for what is sure to be a very important announcement in April.