Breaking News: Dalhousie Senate decides fall break will go ahead as planned

Dalhousie University’s Senate decided today that fall break will go ahead as scheduled from Nov. 10 to 14.

Fall break, a permanent fixture at Dalhousie since 2016, was previously up in the air. The university was undecided whether to cancel the break to make up for class time lost to Dalhousie’s faculty lockout.

“Given the duration of the labour disruption thus far, it is likely some programs/faculties will choose to cancel the fall break … to ensure course delivery can be completed for the term,” the university said in a Sept. 4 update posted to its website. 

Fall classes, scheduled to begin on Sept. 2, were suspended following Dal’s lockout of its faculty on Aug. 20 amid contract negotiations. The university’s board of governors and the Dalhousie Faculty Association ratified a new collective agreement on Sept. 17, with classes set to resume Sept. 23. 

Today’s announcement added, “Select professional and accredited programs will continue instruction over the break … to ensure academic requirements are met.”

Exam schedule changes

Classes that were suspended due to the lockout will now end on Dec. 10. Classes unaffected by the lockout will still end as scheduled on Dec. 3. 

“These changes have resulted in a small number of course scheduling conflicts on Wednesday, December 3,” the university’s website said. “Your instructors are aware of this and will afford flexibility where conflicts arise in the few classes that are affected.”

The university said that “the exam schedule for ALL courses will be modified to allow for more instruction time for classes that resume on September 23.”

Exams will now begin on Dec. 11 and end on Dec. 21. The university said the exam schedule will be available Oct. 17.