With the pandemic picking up speed due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19, Squamish’s has announced a hybrid return to classes in January.
Quest is planning for a return to campus for students, staff and faculty on Jan. 8, with an online return to classes on Jan. 10th.
In March of 2020, Quest also moved courses online due to the pandemic but was
The not-for-profit school works on a rotating block system. Students take one course at a time and each course is about a month long.
The first January block will be online, with the intention of returning to in-person learning in February for Block 2.
“Given the distance many of our students travel to get back to Quest campus, the rapidly evolving challenges associated with the Omicron variant and the impact on students missing classes in our block system, Quest will move Block 1 courses online. This decision will provide space for students travelling to campus to continue their studies if they are asked to isolate. It allows students to rejoin their community on campus and get back to learning together with no delay in your studies,” reads a letter sent to students from Quest president George Iwama and forwarded to The 麻豆社国产 by the school.
Quest is the latest in a series of B.C. post-secondary education institutions that have made the decision to alter its upcoming semester operations due to COVID 19.
At Capilano University, the 2022 spring academic term will begin with a delayed start on Jan. 10, rather than Jan. 5 as scheduled and will also be moving some of its courses to online instruction.
SFU, the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia also earlier announced classes would temporarily .
Most students who attend Quest come from out of town or even outside Canada, with 200 living on campus. The school administration is encouraging students to return to campus as scheduled on Jan. 8.
“Residence, the Meal Hall, the Library and other campus spaces will remain open to students. We welcome all students to move back to campus,” the letter reads.
Quest told The Chief that all students have their own rooms in the dorms with only a shared washroom.
“We have isolation rooms in place if we need to move a student and we will deliver meals and other essentials,” Quest staff said.
“Our Student Life team will do daily check-ins with the students in isolation as well to support their mental wellbeing. Residences are sanitized regularly and masks are worn in all shared spaces. All students in residence must be fully vaccinated as per the [provincial health authority] guidelines from September.”
Changes
There have been a series of changes to the person representing in its relationship with the school.
Primacorp, which bought Quest's land and facilities in 2020, relieving the university of its considerable debt, is the university’s landlord and was also contracted by the school to perform administrative and other services, including fundraising, admissions and marketing.
Primacorp specifies someone to serve as its ‘designee’ to facilitate communications — the person to whom Quest can direct inquiries.
Scott Fehrenbacher served as Primacorp’s designee from July 2020 until he resigned from his role in late November 2021.
Patricia Cuff, who had been Primacorp’s lead at Quest related to fundraising, development, and general administration and was serving as an alternate designee, became the designee following Fehrenbacher’s departure.
During the transition, , the former chair of the University of British Columbia’s board of governors, assisted in an administrative capacity, school staff told The Chief.
“The relationship between Primacorp Ventures and Quest University Canada, which is stronger than ever, remains unchanged,” reads the statement from Quest.
“Quest is looking forward to a number of new initiatives for 2022. We will continue to build on the strong, unique educational model Quest is known for and are eager to celebrate our spring graduation.”
**Please note, this story was corrected after it was originally posted to reflect that Primacorp bought Quest's land and facilities, not the school itself.
