To members of the Faculty of Information community:
You may have already learned this earlier this week – either from the news or social media – but let me make it official: As long as strong vaccination rates and improving public health indicators continue this summer, the provincial government is allowing Ontario colleges and universities to fully reopen this fall with no capacity limits for classes or physical distancing requirements for students.
As much as this is good news overall, it will not have much of an immediate impact on our plans for the fall here at the Faculty of Information. Since the winter we have been planning to provide as many in-person activities as possible during the coming academic year, and that remains our goal. The easing of restrictions just helps make things easier for all of us as we continue down that path.
The last time I wrote to you at the end of June, our timetables had not yet been posted, but they’ve now been available for more than a week and students have been working to set up their schedules. Online courses remain online and in-person remain in-person. Today’s news does not in any way affect the timetables.
That said, we remain prepared for the unexpected. If there is a severe fourth wave in the fall, we will take the necessary steps and pivot. However, our working assumption is that a fourth wave will likely be significantly different from the previous waves because it will be hitting a vaccinated population.
Typically, I send these update letters at the end of the month so this is just a quick update with more information to come in late July. Meanwhile if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to get in touch with me or the team at Student Services.
Sincerely,
Wendy Duff
Professor and Dean
