After ironing out the five-year academic calendar covering Fall 2009 through Spring 2014, the Educational Policy Committee of the Faculty (EPC) decided to institutionalize Spring Fling and restructure reading week.
According to Chair of the EPC Krishna Winston, fall semester exams will be conducted under what the committee is informally calling the “2-2-2-2 scheme.” Under this plan, students will have two days of reading period, followed by two days of exams, two more days of reading period, and the final two days of exams.
Winston, whose committee presented the calendar to the entire faculty on Monday, explained the reasons behind the change.
“It keeps reading period from getting too long in the fall,” she said. “And it keeps us from ending the semester too close to Christmas, when travel reservations are hard to get and increasingly expensive as one comes nearer to the holiday.”
Spring Fling has been formally listed on the calendar, during the spring semester exam period. It will be followed by the new “2-2-2-2 scheme,” with four exam days, as opposed to the current five.
“The major change, vis-a-vis past years, is the shortening of exam period from five days to four, which reflects the fact that increasing numbers of courses do not have final exams,” Winston said.
The EPC and the faculty addressed the concern that, under the changes, exams might overlap more frequently because of the shorter period. Winston insisted, however, that the change will only affect a small number of students taking several science courses.
“Though the number is not large, we will ask the Registrar’s Office to see whether exams for courses that students typically take in the same semester can be spread out,” said Winston.
Registrar Anna van der Berg, who prepared the calendar for the EPC, mentioned that each time the faculty forms a new five-year calendar, the University’s long spring break is brought up. This year was no exception. And, as usual, the committee decided that spring break will remain two weeks long. Winston said that she stands by the decision.
“The length of spring break is something few are willing to tamper with,” she said. “For students writing theses, those two weeks are precious, likewise for faculty who need time for their own research and for preparing the second half of their courses.”
The discussion left no breaks safe from potential alterations, as some committee members suggested doing away with fall break in favor of a full week of Thanksgiving break. That suggestion, however, was also nixed.
“Fall break provides a much-needed breathing spell in a semester that is jammed in between Labor Day and Christmas, so there is considerable reluctance to tamper with it,” Winston said.
Sam Ruth ’08, one of two student representatives on the EPC, said that despite difficulty at times, he has enjoyed his stay on the committee.
“Serving on a joint faculty-student committee like the EPC can be both a fascinating and frustrating experience,” Ruth said. “I appreciate that I’ve had the chance to get to know many faculty members who I would not have otherwise, and it’s been a bit of a crash course in problem solving and navigating the complexities of working with a committee.”
Winston herself echoed some of the same frustrations, mentioning that the EPC has very little scheduling flexibility, given such constraints as national holidays, union schedules, summer job needs of students, and free time of faculty. However, she mentioned one area in which she hopes the EPC can make changes in the future.
“Where I do see room for [the] EPC to propose changes is in the time slots available for courses,” she said. “That is a subject I will recommend to next year’s committee as a priority.”
The EPC also serves to review proposed changes to the curriculum.
Leave a Reply