Professors have been encouraged by the Faculty of Engineering and the Department to continue live streaming and recording lectures. The Faculty of Engineering has offered support and resources to assist professors with recording live classes. However, the University has not mandated that instructors provide hybrid options for any classes.

MSE Laboratory staff have been hard at work moving equipment to larger lab spaces to facilitate social distancing. In smaller labs, the number of people present at a time will be limited appropriately. The University is not enforcing social distancing in classroom settings, but the Department is working to ensure that social distancing is maintained as much as possible.

Masking is encouraged in all indoor spaces on campus. The MSE Department has acquired surgical masks, which will be available for free for students. The vaccination mandate on campus has been paused, however, students and staff are encouraged to stay up to date on their vaccinations. Vaccine clinics will occur on campus in September, 2022.

The University has officially extended its MSAF policy to cover 5 days of illness/absence, in accordance with provincial COVID isolation guidelines. If needed, students can use more than one MSAF. After the first MSAF, students do not need a doctor’s note, but do need to consult with academic advising to monitor students who may need extra support.

A new email has been created by the Department for the management of MSAF submissions. Students will submit MSAFs normally, through Mosaic. Professors will forward their notification of MSAF submission to this email, and the TA responsible for monitoring submissions will follow up with students on how to proceed. This will streamline the submission process and ensure that students are receiving timely advice.

The Department has hired two undergraduate TAs. One will hold 5 hours of office hours a week for Level II classes, and the other will hold ~10 hours per week for Level III and IV classes. This is meant to serve students who have missed classes due to COVID isolation, are struggling with the transition to in-person learning, or just need some extra help.

With a return to fully in-person schooling, the University has mandated that all midterms and final exams be held in person. Due to the small size of most MATLS classes, social distancing will be maintained in midterm rooms. However, for University-administrated final exams, social distancing will not be enforced.
The decision to make tests open-book is left to individual professors.

Provincial regulations dictate that in classroom settings with masking, students would not be considered a close-contact if an individual in the room had COVID-19. Therefore, contact tracing will not be done by the University or Department. If you have or suspect that you have COVID, do not come to class and self-report your case in Mosaic.

The indoor eating spaces currently available for students are PGCLL B138 and MDCL 1305. Eating spaces on campus should open at 50% capacity in the coming weeks, in accordance with provincial guidelines. Additionally, the Department is looking into opening some common rooms as eating spaces for MSE students.