As University administrators consider changing the fall 2006 academic calendar to cut fall break, push classes and exams back-to-back and shorten winter break, Student Government officials said they do not support the proposed changes.
SG Vice President Patrick Downs said that after meeting with Frank Cartledge, vice provost for Academic Affairs, he still has too many concerns and unanswered questions to support the proposed calendar changes, which administrators said are designed to lengthen summer break.
Downs said his major concern with the proposed calendar is that at the end of the semester, classes end only one day before exams begin, giving students no weekend break to prepare.
Academic Affairs said it proposed the calendar changes to give students a longer summer break and possibly add another intersession for summer classes.
In the past few years, the fall semester has begun around the third week of August. Under the new proposed calendar, the semester would start in September after Labor Day.
Risa Palm, executive vice chancellor and provost, said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille that she thinks “students would welcome a longer summer break.”
Palm also said Academic Affairs may be able to add another intersession in August if the semester begins later but offered no other reasoning behind the proposed change.
Even after discussing the changes with Cartledge, Downs said he doesn’t understand why the administration thinks students want a longer summer break.
He also said he is concerned about shortening winter break from five weeks to three and one-half and cutting fall break.
Since fall break generally falls before mid-term exams, some students use that time to prepare, he added.
He also said the proposed schedule pushes exams closer to Christmas, which would mean more students going home between Dec. 20 and 25 — one of the busiest, most dangerous and most expensive travel times.
Downs said the proposed calendar leaves only one day between final exams and graduation. Typically, that period is used for traditional ceremonies like the robing of Ph.D. candidates and for students who receive University medals for various honors.
“We don’t understand why the summer needs to be that long,” Downs said. “Given the number of concerns we still have, we cannot support this.”
Downs said SG has received several letters and e-mails from students concerned mostly about fall break being cut and the back-to-back classes and exams.
Downs said SG may support a new calendar change if Academic Affairs address some of SG’s concerns.
Palm said her office will not make a decision about the calendar change until it gets feedback from deans and directors throughout the University.