As the holiday season approaches, I want to remind you of the extended University holiday closure period. All our campuses will be closed as of Thursday, December 24, 2020 until Thursday, January 7, 2021.  We are very pleased to be able to provide you with a few very well-deserved extra days off, to thank you all for your continued service and dedication particularly in light of challenges due to the ongoing pandemic.  We would strongly encourage you to take full advantage of the holiday break and set aside York work commitments.  We would also like to give a special thanks to all those employees who are required to work or provide instruction over the holiday period.

With the University closed for the holidays, and in order to minimize the number of staff required to work over the holiday closure, please do not plan to come to campus or book meetings during the holiday closure, even if you have previously received approval to access campus. A very few limited exceptions apply to this request, such as students in residence and research that cannot be suspended for the holiday period. Only absolutely exceptional requests for access for anyone with a demonstrated need will be granted and can be submitted here.

To ensure requests are processed and the necessary arrangements are finalized, exceptional requests should be submitted before end of day on Friday, December 11th, 2020.

The University will reopen on January 7, 2021, and restricted operations under the current Toronto Public Health guidelines will resume on that date, with classes resuming on Monday January 11, 2021.  Anyone who was pre-approved to attend campus during the fall, will automatically have their access restored as of January 7, 2021. No further request for approval to come to campus will be needed in the new year.

If you receive exceptional approval to be on campus during the holiday period, and you do not have a working key/card, you can sign one out at any time during the holiday period from the Security Control Centre located at the northeast corner of the William Small Building (opposite the Petrie Science and Engineering Building). Please note that the key/card provided by Security Control are for building access only, so please make sure you have your office key/card with you. All persons signing out keys/cards are required to provide photo identification.

Anyone on campus now and/or during the holiday period should continue to follow our COVID-19 screening procedure prior to attending campus and our health and safety protocols, including the wearing of mask or face coverings indoors, physical distancing and practising good hand hygiene.

The York community has worked incredibly hard in the face of an unprecedented transition of our teaching, research, and professional endeavours to remote formats, while the safety and well being of our community continues to be our first priority.

Thank you all and I hope you have a restful holiday.

Sincerely,

Carol McAulay
Vice-President Finance and Administration