Academic Calendar Set to Change for the Next 8 - 10 Years

On Sun., Nov. 13 there was a great deal of talk at the Student Senate meeting regarding the possibility of changes being made to the academic calendar. Senator Kelly Donovan reported that the changes to the calendar proposed by a select group of students, staff, operating staff, people from academics and from ResLife, had been rejected by the Faculty Senate.

The rejected proposition was that Winterim be shortened by a week. This idea fell through due to the fact that during Winterim students and staff are traveling abroad, students are taking courses, and there was also a problem with meeting New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation requirements.

Provost Julie Bernier put this select group together and challenged them to look at the academic calendar. She explains, "I wanted to know if we could change the amount of time from when fall semester ends until spring semester starts," she continues, "now not necessarily shorten Winterim, but shorten the time from when you leave school to when you come back." In other words, Provost Bernier is describing the extra vacation days students receive before Winterim even begins, depending on where Christmas falls on the calendar each year. For example, this year students have a full two weeks before Winterim begins, contributing to a total of six weeks vacation time.

"That is a just a really long time for students to be away in between semesters, and we've had students say it's a challenge for them, it's hard for them to be away that long," Bernier adds.

In addition to critiquing the length of Winterim, Bernier wanted the group "to look at if we could start after Labor Day. One of the reasons for that was, I know that students are challenged to come back before Labor Day because of their jobs...[some employers] hold pay back and they gave it you as a bonus. If you worked through Labor Day you get the bonus, if you don't, you don't get it."

Because the Academic Calendar is only looked at every eight to 10 years, there are only so many years where the calendar works out that the school year can start after Labor Day. 

Bernier states, "It used to be that five out of nine years we started after Labor Day. And four out of nine we started before Labor Day." Recently this has not been the case. 

She continues, "A couple years ago something happened and we ended up with seven years before Labor Day and two years after Labor Day." This new proposal to change the Academic Calendar will return the schedule to the five years after and four years before Labor Day option.

"It's not a big change. If we said we always did it after Labor Day you'd end up going all the way to December 23 and we don't want to do that to people."

Clearly this group is dedicated to proposing the option that best fits the wants and needs of the students and staff. However, with these changes some sacrifices had to be made. Columbus Day had to be given up.

 Bernier explains, "This wasn't one of the intentions but when [the group] started looking at the calendar they realized when we made a change this last time we actually were not in compliance with our accreditation standards."

There are 37.5 hours that must be met for a three credit class and by maintaining Columbus Day as a day with no classes, the 37.5 hours were not there.

The group made an executive decision that it was more important to preserve the travel day before Thanksgiving then keep Columbus Day as a holiday.

 Bernier is very pleased with the results of the newly proposed Academic Calendar and after having been "unanimously endorsed by the Student Senate," it will be presented at a Faculty Meeting on Wed., Dec. 7 in Heritage Hall.