News

Former health minister Allan Rock, who is now the president of the University of Ottawa, was faced with a perfect storm this weekend: convocation, more than 1,400 students traipsing across a stage, handshakes all around as they received their diplomas and the H1N1 flu virus.

What to do?

“We actually decided to have some fun with it,” he said today.

At the convocations on Sunday - one was held in the morning and the other in the afternoon - Mr. Rock told the audience: “You know the public health authorities have put us on notice [about shaking hands] but we still have to communicate our sense of joy… So here are some ideas for you: You can wink or you can nod or you can wave or you can salute.”

He said it started to become “very funny” as students became creative. There was the elbow touch, the fist bump and then there was one student who suggested a chest bump.

“I said ‘Sure, what the hell.’ So this big burly football player just about knocked me over. I said ‘Take it easy, I was a violinist not a football player,’” Mr. Rock told The Globe and Mail.

“Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We had some good fun with it.”

Kidding aside, Mr. Rock and his team are managing nearly 37,000 students. There are no signs that the virus is on campus; he says they are monitoring the situation but have not yet noticed any major problems with absenteeism.

Public vaccinations for H1N1 began today in Ontario for those most at risk for the virus, including pregnant women and health workers.

And Mr. Rock's university has asked the public-health authorities in Ottawa for permission to have a vaccination site setup on campus.

“So far the public authorities have not come down with a final decision whether they are going to allow vaccination centres other than in the public spaces.

“We think it makes a lot of sense. We are the size of a small town,” he said.

The university, he says, has also been working on contingency plans to deal with an outbreak of the virus, including how to handle mid-term examinations and papers.

He said the university will be forgiving this year, not requiring a doctor’s certificate for anyone who says they are sick and therefore have to miss an exam.

“It would overwhelm … doctors who have better things to do than fill out certificates for us,” he said.

Mr. Rock, who is off to Africa this week to view youth and education projects he is involved in, is hoping to get vaccinated before he leaves. “I’m going to go in and say I’m pregnant,” he joked.