Authors of covid policy complaint document dissatisfied with latest policy change
The Uni Health and Safety Task Force’s latest updates to Uni’s Covid protocol are not enough, according to three Uni seniors who have spearheaded the fight to make student voices heard regarding Uni’s Covid policies.
“There’s a lot to be done,” says Lara Marinov, current Secretary/Treasurer of Executive Student Council (StudCo) and co-author of the 5-page list of questions and concerns sent to the Task Force a week and a half ago.
Marinov, along with fellow StudCo seniors Doren Hsiao-Wecksler and Madeleine Keenan, drafted the complaint list as part of a tumultuous, ongoing exchange between Uni’s student government and Task Force.
The document focuses on six areas of improvement: transparency, lunch policy, Uni-sponsored events, reporting of COVID cases, absence policy, and communication with the Task Force. Among many other requests, the document asks for the end of the controversial split-lunchtime policy, an official Uni administration-sponsored hybrid plan to accommodate sick students, and improvements in the Task Force’s accessibility for students.
The only area that has seen a policy change by the Task Force was the lunch policy. Besides this, Marinov says, there is, “no improvements — no motion forward.”
The complaint document arose following the Task Force’s rejecting the students’ request for Task Force meetings to include a student representative, instead asking that any questions and concerns be emailed to the Task Force directly. However, since the three authors emailed their extensive list to members of the Task Force, various misunderstandings and miscommunications have frustrated meaningful progress.
With in-person discussion between students and the Task Force stymied, Marinov, Hsiao-Wecksler and Keenan are working on further email communication with the Task Force.
Marinov says students concerned about Covid policy should talk to their StudCo representatives so they can consolidate student concerns and more effectively bridge the glaring communication gap between the Task Force and the student body.
“StudCo should be responsible for taking on more serious issues within the school,” Marinov stated, and leading student involvement in Covid policymaking is just the start.
