ULSU Covid Statement

Download the Press Release HERE

To the University of Lethbridge community,

Like many of you, we at the ULSU have been closely watching the decisions made by the provincial government surrounding Covid-19 regulations in the province, and how our institution will respond to these new and unprecedented changes. We assure students that when it comes to matters of Covid-19 our top priority will always be the health and safety of students. 

We are incredibly concerned about the recent announcement of planned regulations including the refusal to test asymptomatic individuals, refusing to make asymptomatic but positive individuals self isolate, and the refusal to trace the contacts of positive Covid-19 individuals in our province. We are incredibly concerned about the harm these standards could cause to our province as a whole and especially our students as they prepare for their long-awaited return to campus. 

While we would never claim to be experts in infectious disease, and have the utmost faith in our public health officials and front-line health care workers, our concern is borne out of the fact that these are unprecedented regulations that have not been mirrored at all in similar locations to Alberta. As well as the fact that these regulations have received shard critique from many other public health officials in our province, country, and around the globe. Furthermore, we are concerned that these decisions are being rushed to try and insist a pandemic is over when it is very much continuing and poses a threat to many at our institution. These regulations are also not in line with what has been practiced and what has been recommended throughout the course of the pandemic and Alberta will largely be a guinea pig for this level of relaxed Covid-19 protocols. 

We at the Students’ Union will be pushing for decisions to be made with student safety as the first the foremost priority in any decisions surrounding Covid-19 regulations. In the coming weeks, ULSU President Holly Kletke and Vice President External Ryan Lindblad will be seeking meetings with both the Minister of Advanced Education, and the Minister of Health to discuss how these Covid-19 regulations could affect students and push for reconsideration in the rollout of these regulations. 

Additionally, the ULSU will be meeting and having ongoing conversations with the Upper Administration at the University to understand their plan for the upcoming return to campus and to make recommendations based around Student safety such as having a masking policy and the continued insistence that individuals who test positive should not be coming to campus, 

The ULSU is committed to doing all we can to ensure a safe return to campus this September. Further updates and information on these efforts will be posted to keep the student body informed and up to date with what they can expect come September.

Yours in solidarity,

Holly Kletke, President
Ryan Lindblad, Vice-President External
Amy Mendenhall, Vice-President Student Affairs
Rebecca Parkkari, Vice-President Academic
Mark Serebryansky, Vice-President Operations and Finance