U of T has recently introduced the UCheck Ambassador Program, which aims to encourage community members to fill out the UCheck health screening questionnaires regularly. Ambassadors will visit a variety of spaces on all three campuses to monitor if U of T community members are completing the UCheck screening questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of questions about vaccination status and COVID-19 symptoms.
Students must have a green UCheck status to come to campus. Some have criticized the university, saying that the university’s vaccine mandate is not genuine, considering that community members’ UCheck status is not regularly monitored.
“These trained ambassadors will ask every individual approaching a building entrance or space if they have completed their health screening in UCheck,” reads an FAQ on the new program. If a community member encounters an ambassador, they will be asked to show their UCheck green screen or their paper form.
In an email to The Varsity, a spokesperson for the university wrote that program coordinators will assess class and work schedules in U of T buildings to identify high traffic times and determine where ambassadors will go. So far, mornings and afternoons have been found to be high traffic times.
There are currently more than 30 ambassadors across all three U of T campuses and they typically work in groups of two to four at each post. The ambassadors were mainly recruited from outreach programs like Ask Me, a program that answers students’ questions at booths on campus. If needed, the university will recruit more ambassadors.
“The program has already started across the three campuses and will likely scale up while classes are in session this fall, and into the new academic term, as campuses return to more in-person classes,” wrote the spokesperson.
However, the program will not replace existing check-ins at some settings across campus such as libraries, eating areas, and recreational spaces.
