Great Plains College has sent out a release announcing that they'll be following the lead of a number of other schools in requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for all staff and students.

Taking effect on Monday, any individuals that are not fully vaccinated will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test in order to enter any of the college's provincial locations.

David Keast, President and CEO of Great Plains College, said that while he was aware that the topic is contentious in the public consciousness at the moment, the decision by the board was unanimous in their support.

"There was certainly consideration of the different points of view that are out there on vaccinations. And I know that it's a contentious issue publically. But at the end of the day, the board of the college was unanimous in its decision to create develop and implement a full-scale policy on vaccination and negative testing."

He added that given their current circumstances and the direction of other post-secondary institutions, this was the next logical step to reduce the transmission of the virus and ensure that their colleges remain as safe as possible.

As a buffer for students who may be between their first and second doses or students who now find themselves needing to get their first dose and must wait a month for their second, Keast says that all college locations will be providing rapid antigen testing for the first thirty days on-site, courtesy of Canmar Occupational testing.

While the number of tests that will be required for such a task will be large, Keast says that there won't be an issue with rapid test supplies, as the shortage in tests that many have been experiencing, such as City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce, are not due to a lack of tests, but due to where those tests are being distributed.

"There's really no shortage of rapid antigen tests in the province. There are lots. The critical issue is who the Saskatchewan Health Authority has licensed to administer Rapid Antigen Tests in the province, and those happen to be private companies in the province."

In order for the test to be considered officially valid, it must be administered by a licensed agency, which in Swift Current's case is Canmar Occupational Testing, which will be providing the service for the first 30 days.

Early in the pandemic, when many institutions moved to online learning, Great Plains College followed suit, and while some courses still offer such options for students who may wish to not get vaccinated, the majority of learning has now switched back to an in-person experience, which according to Keast is the experience that this measure is an attempt to foster.

"Our intention here in taking these steps is to avoid the action of going back to online learning...there are options in some areas in a handful of our programs for studying online. But I don't think that is the first option for instructors and staff to be using that. But it is one that we can go to if all else fails. But our main goal is to continue to support primarily an on-campus experience for students and staff."

Keast reports that at the moment they haven't had much feedback yet about the policy change, but from the information gathering stage that they are currently in, he expects there to be the odd outlier; perhaps a handful of students and a couple of staff members that are not willing to provide their vaccination status, but those numbers won't be known until the mandate comes into effect on Monday.