David Gonzalez, president of the Melbourne branch of the National Tertiary Education Union, said many university staff were nervous about being in small working spaces, including classrooms, and would prefer to teach remotely.
“The vice chancellor and chancellor are determined to get everyone back on campus and they don’t want to hear anything but the implementation of their fantasy land of a return to campus,” he said.
First-year arts student Georgia Gillies supports the University of Melbourne’s expectation that staff and students wear masks in classrooms, but questions why it has abandoned its vaccination mandate. Credit: Justin McManus
Georgia Gillies, a first-year arts student, supported the push if she supported a full on-campus experience, saying she enjoyed her classes much more in person than online.
“It’s good that they’re doing something like this right now [expecting staff and students to wear masks]because I think there will be an increase in cases again,” he said.
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However, he questioned why the university had dropped its vaccination mandate earlier this month if it was committed to reducing the spread of disease.
“I’m lucky because I’m triple vaccinated and I feel confident that I can survive [COVID]but I don’t think it makes disabled or chronically ill people feel safe.”
The university’s chief operating officer, Allan Tait, said ending the vaccine mandate was “consistent with recent changes to Victorian pandemic orders”.
University of Melbourne speech pathology students Adele Stewart and Charlotte Scaunich said the expectation to wear masks was unworkable in their classes, with their emphasis on mouth sounds and movements.
“The teacher was trying to show us different sounds and how to make them with our mouths and he has to lower the mask every five seconds,” Scaunich said.
La Trobe University, meanwhile, has backed its own experts’ advice on vaccines ahead of the pandemic orders and will extend its vaccination mandate for students and campus staff beyond the winter to end of the second semester of October.
It is the only Victorian university to maintain a vaccine mandate this semester.
“With vaccination requirements now the responsibility of individual employers, the university has a duty under occupational health and safety laws to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace,” he said La Trobe
“Our public health experts have emphasized that vaccines against COVID-19 remain an important way to protect us from serious illness, hospitalization and death.”
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