Employees – faculty and staff – who work at least 20 hours per week for a period of at least four-and-a-half continuous months per year are eligible for paid holidays. Employees who work less than full time receive holiday leave based on the percent of hours worked or appointed.

Holiday schedule FY15

• Find the FY15 holiday schedule at all components: UNT, UNTHSC, UNT Dallas, UNT Dallas College of Law and UNT System Administration.

Note that UNT System component locations may have different holidays and not every state-approved holiday is scheduled by institutions of higher education.

• Holidays and State Law

  Texas law establishes the overall number of state-funded holidays each year, and it allows higher education institutions to apply the allowed number of closure days to operating calendars. State-assisted institutions of higher education can determine the start date and number of weeks (or contact hours) for each semester/term, so long as they meet criteria determined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. 

  UNT System locations have paid holidays each fiscal year, which begins Sept. 1 and ends Aug. 31. When state holidays are on a weekend, they are not included in the annual allotment. Floating holidays and Spring Break Days may be available as part of the annual allotment. These days are selected by each location's administration and approved by the Board of Regents. Please view the Board of Regents holiday order.

  These state holidays usually are observed by all state offices and institutions of higher education:

  • Labor Day – first Monday in September
  • Thanksgiving – fourth Thursday and Friday in November
  • Winter Holiday – Dec. 24-26
  • New Year’s Day – Jan. 1
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day – third Monday in January
  • Memorial Day – fourth Monday in May
  • Independence Day – July 4 (falls on Saturday in 2015 and therefore is not a designated state holiday.)

• Spring Break and Floating Holidays

  UNT and UNT Dallas observe spring break for students. Spring break follows the eighth week of instruction of the spring semester – a time selected by the coordinating board for all public colleges and universities that observe spring break. Some years, a Spring Break Day for faculty and staff is approved by campus administrators during the week of student spring break.

  Employees may have a floating holiday that must be used by fiscal year’s end (Aug. 31) and with supervisory approval.

  Spring Break Day and floating holidays are not always scheduled at all UNT System locations.

• Optional Holidays

  Employees who wish to do so may observe optional state holidays (as identified by state law) or other observances by substituting vacation or compensatory leave, or by working on one or more designated holidays. All optional or substutite holidays require supervisory approval prior to the scheduled observance.

  • Find the FY15 holiday schedule at all components: UNT, UNTHSC, UNT Dallas, UNT Dallas College of Law and UNT System Administratiion.
  • Find the Board of Regents holiday order for FY15.
  • Find the Texas State Auditor's Office list of holidays for FY2015.

Photo: UNT System winter holidays luncheon