Christopher Yip, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering (FASE), issued a statement on June 7 detailing three possible scenarios for undergraduate students and two possible scenarios for graduate students regarding the upcoming academic year. The scenario to be put in place during the fall semester will depend on the public health guidance and restrictions in place, come fall.
The best-case scenario for both undergraduate and graduate engineering students will be primarily in-person course delivery. Though Yip anticipates the continued use of non-medical masks indoors and outdoors, he says that this scenario is contingent on “[no] physical distancing or significant gathering limit restrictions imposed by public health guidelines.”
If public health guidelines do not match the conditions of the faculty’s best-case plan but allow gatherings of up to 50 people with no physical distancing guidelines, first-year and second-year undergraduate students will be segregated into “pods.” Timetables will be organized so that each pod of students completes their in-person activities and leaves at the same time.
In this scenario, the FASE will give precedence to labs and tutorials over lectures when they determine which activities will occur in person. Third-year and fourth-year students will not be divided into pods due to the more personalized nature of their studies. Graduate students will also not be divided into pods.
The final scenario for undergraduate and graduate students will be a continuation of remote learning with few exceptions.
