AS YOU are probably well aware, we have next Monday and Tuesday off for Fall Break. Unfortunately, this two-day break came at a price. Unlike the previous two years, when students enjoyed a full week off for Thanksgiving, the University is only granting Wednesday through Friday off this year. The University conducted a comprehensive study that showed that undergraduates preferred the previous calendar to the the newly-instituted calendar. The change, then, was essentially a spit in the face to the 13,000-plus undergraduates at this University.
This schedule differs from the previous year in that it began later by five days (actual days, not academic days), has a two-day Fall Break instead of a one day break, and has a total of five days off for Thanksgiving instead of nine days. The last possible day for final exams is three days later than the previous year. The changes were instituted by the University's Calendar Committee in response to the 2006 Academic Calendar Survey. The Calendar Committee consists of people throughout the University community and includes two students. The survey, conducted by the University's Institutional and Assessment Studies, was done in 2006 and was open to all students and faculty. The survey focused on four problems with the Fall semester schedule: start date, Thanksgiving break, the amount of reading days during the final exam period and the last possible day of finals. This survey was then used by the University's Calendar Committee to determine the schedule for future years.
Unfortunately, it is clear that the Calendar Committee took to heart the faculty's suggestions and essentially ignored the students' preferences.
Wynne Stuart, Calendar Committee member and Associate Provost for academic support and class management, said, "The thing that students and faculty disagreed on most was Thanksgiving ... The faculy saw a drop in engagement in classes" due to the full week off. She said the committee had to weigh this problem with the difficulty out-of-state students have going home for Thanksgiving and at the end of the semester. In the end, she said, the committee felt that academic engagement was most important.
This meant that undergraduate students' concerns were almost entirely ignored. A whopping 78.4 percent of undergraduate students responded that one week of Thanksgiving was best. Of the undergraduate students that responded, 90.4 percent said they preferred ending the Fall semester on either December 14th to the 15th or December 16th to the 18th. To undergraduates, these two issues were the two biggest scheduling priorities--a majority of students ranked these as their number one or two calendar priorities.
Assuming these are indeed the undergraduate students' preferences, the calendar seems to have been fine just the way it was. Yet instructional and research faculty strongly preferred a later start date. A later start time, of course, leaves less time for a full week off for Thanksgiving and causes the semester to end later in December. Probably their preference was driven by the desire to have extra time in the summer to research and write. In fact, at the time of the original schedule changes, Associate History Professor Jeffrey Rossman created a petition that eventually was signed by 345 faculty expressing grievance with the calendar and the lack of faculty input.
Simple data analysis shows the University essentially conceded every part of the calendar to the instructor and research faculty. While I understand their importance to the University as a whole, undergraduate students are still the lifeblood of any university. The new calendar has forced students, especially out-of-state students, to deal with hectic traveling schedules for Thanksgiving and at the end of the semester.
Clearly, making our academic calendar is not life or death business. But both students and faculty are affected by even small changes to its structure. Unfortunately, the University has effectively stripped the students of their voice, choosing to focus on only the needs of its faculty. Somewhere along the way, the needs of students were forgotten or, perhaps worse, ignored.
Rajesh Jain's columns appear Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at rjain@cavalierdaily.com.
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