It appears there is quite the academic workload either being done at home or waiting for catch up for post-secondary students in this area.

The wave of the H1N1 pandemic, and other flu-like symptoms, has impacted students and instructors, at varying levels, in all three of the local college and university institutions. However, the response as been pretty much the same.

Administrators are making it quite clear they want anybody experiencing flu-like symptoms to stay at home and help prevent the spread of the virus, while they will do whatever they can to help lessen the impact of missed instructional time.

Keith Goulding, principal of Academy Canada, joked the only real positive to come out of all this was a resolve to his lack of parking at the school located on University Drive. On a more serious note, he said his student absenteeism reached close to 30 per cent at one point.

One of the challenges Academy Canada faces is the number of mature students enrolled there. Goulding said it isn’t just students being sick they have to worry about, but, with the number of parents there, they are also seeing people miss instructional time because their children are sick.

Fortunately, he said staff hasn’t been impacted to the same degree as the students have.

“What is important right now is our student body has to keep us informed,” he said. “They can’t be in this building spreading it, that will make matters worse, so they need to take that time to stay home.”

He recommended students stay in communication with instructors and administrative staff through electronic mediums like email.

If that is done correctly, Goulding said assignments and lecture notes can be transferred to absent students, who can put more focus on getting well.

As for the in-school curriculum, the principal said staff are well prepared to deal with any personal and students sickness. Lesson plans have to be done in advance and the programs can proceed based on theoretical training, with practical teaching to be made up at a later date, if need be. Tutoring and after school and weekend instruction will also be offered on an individual basis, if required.

College Days cancelled
Meanwhile, the College of North Atlantic is experiencing similar impacts. That institution cancelled its College Days event this week.

Keith White, Corner Brook campus administrator, said the college is implementing plans put in place by an H1N1 committee that was struck and takes directives from head office and deals with issues as they arise.

He said student population has declined by about 20 per cent because of students experiencing flu or flu-like symptoms. Instructors have also been off the job at rate of about 11 to 14 per cent, he said.

“We do what we can in terms of trying to mitigate the risk of causing more infection,” White said.

Strangely enough, the city’s largest post-secondary institution, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, appears to be the least affected. That may be surprising given the fact it also contains a significantly sized residence, which could present more challenges in the quarantine of infected students.

“Obviously, we have had some illnesses here,” Bill Iams, the acting vice-principal, said. “I can’t honestly say there has been any significant, serious impact on us, at this point.
“We have had a bit of an increase in class cancellations in the last couple of weeks, but, even there, it has been very light.”

As part of its preparedness plan, Grenfell has a self-reporting mechanism for students and Iams said last week just 38 people reported being off sick with flu or flu-like symptoms.

“Given the time of year, the fact there is a flu going around and there’s the seasonal bug going around, the H1N1 doesn’t seem to be reflecting very much in the numbers we got,” he said.

In dealing with those who are sick, in terms of academics, Iams said it’s really not much different than any other time a students is sick. He said faculty tend to do whatever they can to accommodate any student who misses an amount of work, an assignment or exam.

“Obviously, we are just holding our breath that we continue to not be impacted too badly by it,” he said. “Up to this point, we’ve been pretty lucky.”

That appears to be significantly different than what is being reported at the main campus of Memorial University in St. John’s. The pandemic planning committee there is saying the university has been hit hard by flu-like symptoms in recent weeks — reporting 680 students at the two campuses have experienced symptoms since September, with more than 250 students and faculty sick the week of Oct. 26.