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 FY16

• All locations will be closed for Memorial Day, May 30 and Independence Day, July 4. Contact UNTHSC clinics regarding holiday schedules.
• Find a FY16 holiday schedule. All locations have the same holidays in FY16. No locations have a floating holiday in FY16.
• Find the Regents' agenda board order for FY17 holidays. This schedule was approved Nov. 20, 2015.

Holidays are officially designated by order of the UNT System Board of Regents.

Note that not every state-approved holiday is scheduled by institutions of higher education.

• Holidays and State Law

  Texas law establishes state-funded holidays and allows higher education institutions to apply approved closure days to operating calendars. State-assisted institutions of higher education can determine the start date 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. Holidays are selected by administrators at each location, and then are approved by the UNT System Board of Regents.

  • Please view the Board of Regents holiday order; approved in 2013; scroll through each year and location to find FY16 holidays for UNT and UNT System Administration.
  • Find a board order for FY16 for UNT Dallas (including UNT Dallas College of Law).
  • Find the FY16 holiday calendar for UNTHSC.

  All locations have the same holidays in FY16.

  When state holidays are on a weekend, they are not included in the annual allotment. This will occur in FY17 (Sept. 1, 2016-Aug. 31, 2017), when Christmas Eve Day (Dec. 24), Christmas Day (Dec. 25) and New Year's Day (Jan. 1) are on weekends. Find the Regents' agenda board order for FY17 holidays. This schedule was approved Nov. 20, 2015.

  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. 24-25-26 (Dec. 24-25, 2016, are not holidays.)
  • New Year’s Day – Jan. 1 (not a holiday Jan. 1, 2017.)
  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day – third Monday in January
  • Memorial Day – fourth Monday in May
  • Independence Day – July 4

• Spring Break and Floating Holidays

  UNT and UNT Dallas observe spring break week for students. Spring break usually follows the eighth week of instruction of the spring semester and is usually scheduled by all Texas public colleges and universities that observe spring break. Some years, a Spring Break Day for faculty and staff is approved by the UNT System Board of Regents 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 supervisor approval.

  Spring Break Day and floating holidays are not always scheduled. There is no floating day at any location in FY16.

• 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 substitute holidays require supervisory approval prior to the scheduled observance.

  • Find the Board of Regents holiday order UNT and UNT System for FY16 (approved in 2013; scroll down to find FY16.)
  • Find the Board of Regents holiday order for UNT Dallas for FY16.
  • Find the holiday schedule for UNTHSC for FY16.
  • Find the holiday order for all locations for FY17 (approved Nov. 20, 2015; note that Dec. 24-25, 2016 and Jan. 1, 2017 are not holidays in FY17.)
  • Find the Texas State Auditor's Office list of state agency holidays for FY2016 and FY2017. The number of holidays for institutions of higher education may not exceed the number of holidays available to state agencies, and institutions of higher education may not observe all state holidays.

Photo: UNT Health Science Center