Dear Colleagues,
I am writing regarding your planning for the delivery of in-person instruction in the Winter 2022 academic term. I understand that some instructors are being approached by students requesting that they be excused from in-person attendance in courses in which they have enrolled and are scheduled for in-person delivery, such that they can participate in an in-person course entirely remotely.
The purpose of this communication is to assure you that where a course is scheduled for in-person delivery, as the instructor for that course, you have no obligation to make exceptions for students by delivering the course to them remotely or in dual format. While technologies make it easier for a student to catch-up on an in-person meet for which they were legitimately absent, this is clearly different than an exception for the full length of the term. Instructors are encouraged to make materials available through eClass generally so that students who miss a class for any reason don’t fall behind, but there is no obligation to deliver the course in more than one mode.
In order to uphold our commitments to health and safety on our campuses, instructors are especially discouraged from making any special arrangements for students who are not in compliance with the University’s vaccination mandate, including those whose requests for an exemption have already been denied after careful review at the University level. Those students are no longer permitted to access our campuses under any circumstances, and may enroll in online courses only for the winter term.
Instructors continue to have the normal discretion to provide flexibility in exceptional cases to individual students with special circumstances and where they feel well equipped to assist a student in the completion of a course or requirement. Instructors may consider this where feasible and where such support would have been provided pre-pandemic.
De-enrolment for winter term for students who are not in compliance with York University’s vaccine mandate will begin very shortly.[1] If you have already made arrangements with individual students who have special circumstances to be excused entirely from in-person attendance, please indicate so here by no later than Thursday 9 December 2021 and sooner if possible, so that we can ensure those students are not de-enrolled if they should not be.
If you do not complete the form, any student who is not compliant with York’s Vaccination Mandate policy will be de-enrolled from your course. The expectation is that any such permissions will be limited to individual and exceptional cases. Submissions of entire class lists will not be accepted, and in circumstances where the number of exceptions granted will adversely affect the experience of those students who have enrolled for and are expecting an in-person learning experience, your Dean or Principal will revisit this matter with you.
We count on your assistance to convey to students that:
- exceptions are at the discretion of the instructor and that there’s no obligation for instructors to make exceptions where they feel is it not feasible or in-line with course learning outcomes. The decision of one colleague to grant exceptions to students with special circumstances should not become the basis on which another colleague feels compelled to do the same.
- anyone not in compliance with the vaccine mandate for any reason must not come to campuses for any reason, and violating this requirement will have disciplinary consequences for the student.
It is important as faculty members and course instructors that you are informed about matters related to student compliance with the University’s Vaccination Mandate. I therefore strongly urge you to review the information captured in the document attached to this email.
As always, thank you for upholding a community of care on York’s campuses, and for continuing to complete daily screening when coming to campuses. Please continue to visit the Better Together site for the latest updates on York’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sincerely,
Lisa Philipps
Provost & Vice-President Academic
[1] Note that Osgoode Hall Law School is implementing the de-enrolment of students on a different timeline and the Dean’s Office will be in touch separately with Osgoode instructors.