Media releases

• Brock to host Virtual Open House for prospective students

  Wednesday, April 22, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 22 April 2020 – R0071

  With the suspension of this year’s Spring Open House, the COVID-19 pandemic may temporarily prevent the next generation of Brock University students from experiencing its green campus, world-class facilities, student residences and friendly atmosphere in person. But a little creativity is going a long way in offering the next best thing.

  The University is hosting a Virtual Open House, which will go live for prospective students and their families on Monday, April 27. It will be hosted online until June 1, aligning with the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre (OUAC) deadline for accepting offers of admission.

  Matt Melnyk, Director, Student Recruitment, knows first-hand the important role visiting a university in-person can play.

  “Coming to campus is a huge deciding factor for prospective students, so not being able to host our traditional Open House is challenging — for us, but more importantly, for them,” says Melnyk. “The purpose of a physical Open House is for students to get a sense of what the Brock community and experience is all about.”

  Despite the physical challenges presented by COVID-19, the Recruitment team is working hard to provide prospective students with an online version of the community they’d be interacting with through a series of digital experiences.

  A virtual campus tour is already live featuring 360 degree views of the nature-clad campus, set atop the Niagara Escarpment within a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

  The Open House is set to include live chat sessions with staff from the Office of the Registrar in addition to ongoing chat sessions available from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, as well as Instagram Q&A sessions and virtual meetings through the video conferencing system Lifesize with recruitment officers.

  The team is also conducting webinars with designated themes such as finance, student awards and orientation.

  Melnyk says the first week of virtual meetings offered between prospective students and recruitment officers garnered more than 100 meetings in addition to the high volume of daily inquiries to [email protected]

  He says this demonstrates the growing interest high school students have in pursuing their academic careers at Brock and the passion they have when they come here. The Recruitment team has received a flurry of help from current students who want to convince prospective students why Brock is the right decision.

  “It’s no secret that our students are incredibly engaged,” he says. “We’ve received an outpouring of interest and enthusiasm from students who really want to share their Brock story and experience.”

  While the ongoing global pandemic has forced much of the Brock community to dramatically revise the way it operates, it has also shown its ability to be agile, resilient and innovative in a fast-paced world.

  “It’s been pretty clear every step of the way that the success of the students has been put first,” says Melnyk. “I’m very thankful to our team and the University as a whole. We’re always striving to be as available and accessible to our students, including prospective students, as we can be.”

   

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University [email protected], 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Canadians need to consider implications of COVID-19 surveillance, says Brock prof

  Tuesday, April 21, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 21 April 2020 – R0070

  Canadians need to be ready to make decisions about the kinds of surveillance they are willing to accept to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and for how long, says a Brock University professor and expert in digital privacy.

  “We must consider the ethical questions regarding a widespread surveillance program before these decisions are made from a position of desperation,” says Aaron Mauro, Assistant Professor with Brock’s Centre for Digital Humanities.

  “We are in the midst of a crisis, so we need to anticipate the next decisions the government will make so that citizens will be better able to voice concerns in an informed way,” he says. “We might make decisions during the pandemic that would ignore very pressing and important issues, so we need to consider them in advance.”

  These issues include the length of surveillance, who will be authorized to access the data, how the data will be used, the difficulty of ensuring anonymity, consequences of data leaks and the preservation or destruction of collected data once the pandemic passes.

  Google and Apple are rapidly developing a tracking system as part of their cell phone operating systems. Initially planned for use in the U.S., it will use Bluetooth technology to record the proximity of individuals for contact tracing.

  While this sort of tracing by public health professionals is often a time consuming, labourious and inexact process, the data collected through cell phone technology could quickly and anonymously notify individuals who may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. However, citizens must be willing to divulge their location as well as their social encounters continuously.

  Mauro points out the success of Singapore, which developed a voluntary model using the open source tracing app called TraceTogether. Cellphone tracking is also being used in South Korea and telecommunications companies in Italy, Germany and Austria have been sharing data with government authorities.

  A number of Canadian companies are reportedly in talks with various levels of government to develop similar tracking systems for use in Canada. Health Canada has already collaborated with a Vancouver-based tech company to develop the Canada COVID-19 app and self-assessment tool for voluntary reporting of symptoms.

  “Moments of crisis throughout history have been used as an opportunity to infringe upon civil rights and grant extraordinary powers to government,” says Mauro. “COVID-19 is similar to the 9/11 terrorist attacks because it is a genuine crisis in which a fearful citizenry is now willing to grant these exceptional powers to legislators in the name of public safety.”

  While the Canadian government has not committed to using cell phone surveillance, it also hasn’t ruled it out.

  “If Canadian governments choose to use this data, it will be important to include judiciary oversight to both limit the use of this information and eventually shut down these programs and delete their data after the crisis is over,” he says.

  Aaron Mauro, Assistant Professor with Brock’s Centre for Digital Humanities is available for interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University [email protected], or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases