November 24, 2020

To:    UC Santa Barbara Faculty and Staff

Fr:     David Marshall, Executive Vice Chancellor
         Garry Mac Pherson, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Services

Re:   Departmental Winter Break Closures

We are requesting that departments formalize their Winter break plans for December 2020.  The official campus holidays are:

Thursday, December 24, 2020;
Friday, December 25, 2020;
Thursday, December 31, 2020; and
Friday, January 1, 2021.

For those departments planning to close their offices between Monday, December 28 and Wednesday, December 30, we ask that you consult and report on your proposed plans as follows:

Non-academic departments should report proposed plans to their respective Vice Chancellors.

Academic departments should report proposed plans to their respective Deans, who in turn should report to the Executive Vice Chancellor.

As in years past, this request asks departments to identify if they are planning for a complete department closure around the Winter break holiday dates. Please formulate your plans and report them to your Dean or Vice Chancellor no later than Tuesday, December 1, 2020. We will examine the plans to ensure that any proposed office closures do not create unnecessary hardships for faculty, staff or students.

In the event of a complete department closure, employees will have the choice of using one or more of the following options, in accordance with University personnel policies, existing labor agreements and subject to discussion and/or collective bargaining where applicable:

  1. Vacation (employees may utilize a certain number of vacation days in advance of their actual accrual as specified in University personnel policies and existing labor agreements; newly hired employees may utilize vacation accruals prior to six continuous months on pay status);
  2. Compensatory time off; or
  3. Leave without pay.

If you have any questions regarding the development of your Winter break plan, please contact Cynthia Señeriz, Human Resources Director, at cynthia.seneriz@hr.ucsb.edu.