The St. George campus will be shutting its doors for four days due to safety concerns arising from the G20 summit. From 6 p.m. on Wednesday June 23 to Sunday June 27 all buildings will be closed, including student residences. From Monday June 21 onward all events have been cancelled and vehicles will be barred from Hart House Circle and King’s College Circle.
The decision was made after concern from local residents forced the official G20 protest site to be changed from Trinity Bellwoods Park to Queens Park. In an email to The Varsity, Provost Cheryl Misak defended the administration’s decision to close the university.
“It is simply the safety concerns for our students, staff, and faculty that drove this decision,” she wrote. “Previous G20 meetings have brought with them some chaos and … had serious and unhappy implications for many of the students who happened to be nearby. It is simply our duty to ensure, to the best of our ability, that these kinds of things do not happen to University of Toronto students.”
In addition to the closure, the faculty of arts and science has also decided to reschedule the exam timetable after too many conflicts resulted from moving exams scheduled for later in the week, according to Richard Chow, associate faculty registrar. All exams have been rescheduled to three time slots throughout the day: 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Asked if the university would make exceptions for students for whom the new schedule interrupts work, Chow cited a section of the calendar stating that “no special consideration is given and no special arrangements are made in the event of conflicts” for those who make personal commitments during the exam period.
Chow went on to say, however, that due to the unusual circumstances, the faculty will accept work conflicts as support for formal petitions to defer F section final exams.
Residents being displaced have been offered the option of either relocating for the four days to one of three other sites or accepting a $125.00 sum, the average cost of a four-night stay in residence. Misak said her office did not perform a preliminary assessment of the costs of the closure but assured that all claims would be paid. In total, about 500 students have chosen to move in to the alternative residences while 800 have elected to make their own arrangements, according to professor Cheryl Regehr, Vice-Provost Academic Programs.
Trinity College, for example, will be closing its residences and relocating students to Mississauga residences, according to Trinity College Provost Andy Orchard. Orchard added that Trinity has had to cancel three weddings scheduled to take place in Trinity’s chapel, though other university officials say their colleges are not experiencing similar disruptions.
While some students have said the closure represents an unwarranted inconvenience, others say they understand the university’s decision. “I think that while unfortunate and inconvenient, closing down the university for safety reasons is not a ridiculous notion,” said Annum Bokhari, President of the Woodsworth College Students’ Association. “Perhaps it’s because I come from countries where it’s very easy for things to go wrong very fast, but I don’t believe it is our university overreacting. I believe they’re looking out for our safety.”
The last time closure occurred on this scale was in February 1, 2008, when a severe winter storm forced the university to close all three campuses.
