Aligning Building Access Hours - Pilot Project

As part of keeping our campus safe and secure, UBC is standardizing building hours for 2021/2022 Winter Term 1. Buildings will be open to the public Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. These standard hours will be assigned to approximately 70 buildings on the Vancouver campus, that fall into the categories of academic, research, or administrative buildings that service the operations of the University. Ancillary buildings, such as UBC Athletics, UBC Aquatic Centre, Bookstore, etc. are not included at this time. Approximately 15 buildings containing General Teaching Spaces (GTS) will be excepted from these hours and will remain open Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m.to 8:00 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Access to buildings

• For after-hours access, please swipe your UBC card on the card reader located at the building’s main entrance. Under the guidance of UBC Access Services, all Faculty and departments have designated staff members to manage and enable building access for their students, faculty, and staff. For faculty and staff requesting for access to their buildings outside of standard buildings hours, the request is processed at the discretion of the Faculty or Department. 
• Any students with evening or weekend classes scheduled in buildings with extended hours will have their UBC card automatically enabled for access to enter the building through the main card reader building entrance(s).
• Access for ad hoc/event bookings that fall outside the established standard building hours will follow the existing process where UBC’s card access system, Access Control Management (ACMS) will program exceptions.
• Access to buildings after 5:00 p.m. and on weekends will be through the building’s main door(s). Other building entrances will be locked.

Key benefits

1. Improve building and student/employee security – UBC-affiliated persons can be verified using the access control system after-hours and otherwise limit unauthorized access.
2. Streamlining operations with UBC Custodial Services teams for after-hour cleaning and disinfecting – Limiting interactions with students, faculty, and staff allows custodial teams to be more efficient in their cleaning and disinfecting work. Additionally, guiding people through the main entrances during after-hours will support the use of the hand sanitizers placed at each building entrance as part of COVID-19 safety planning. 
3. Manage expectations and avoid confusion for campus visitors to academic, research and administrative campus buildings – Visitors can rely on standard building hours in planning their trip to campus.
4. Allow for improvements in sustainability measures, which could result in cost savings related to lighting, heating and cooling systems.

All building main entrances will be identified for all GTS bookings. For information on building hours, please view the list of buildings here, or visit ‘Find a space’.