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November 30, 2007 > News > Faculty Senate looks to extend winter break, debates mid-term spring recess

Faculty Senate looks to extend winter break, debates mid-term spring recess

By Jocelyn Wright | Thresher Editorial Staff

After months of deliberation by the Faculty Senate, students and faculty may finally get their wish for a longer winter break. Unfortunately, for most juniors and seniors, this plan will not come into effect until the 2009-‘10 academic year.

The Faculty Senate discussed the calendar Wednesday as efforts to revise the academic calendar came to their conclusion. They will vote to approve a final version at a meeting Jan. 23.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Evan Siemann, Registrar David Tenney (Sid ‘87) and Associate Dean of Architecture John Casbarian finalized two proposed calendars for 2009-‘10 and future years. The proposals are identical except for the retention of the spring mid-term recess. For both proposed calendars, the fall semester will start on the fourth Monday of August, and the spring classes would start on the second Monday of January. There will be four study days followed by six exam days at the end of each semester, and the separate exam dates for degree and non-degree candidates in the spring will be eliminated. Commencement will be held on the second or third Saturday of May, depending on circumstances.

Tenney said the changes to the calendar would not prevent students from being certified by the Registrar’s Office before walking at commencement, despite the growing number of students and less time than the current calendar to certify.

“It’s been a long-standing tradition at Rice that will continue,” Tenney said. “It is absolutely expected that we will certify all students before commencement. No one walks across that stage on commencement day unless they have been certified to graduate.”

Under the calendar, grades for graduating seniors are due in before other students. Siemann said the mid-term spring recess was at the forefront of the debate in the last Faculty Senate meeting.

A poll on the Student Association Web site showed 92 percent of students prefer to keep the mid-term spring recess. Siemann said he would like to hear more compelling academic reasons for keeping the break, since it creates complications for science laboratory courses and reduces the number of instructional days in the spring from 69 to 67.

SA Internal Vice President Matt Youn said he plans to create a new poll on the mid-term spring recess and distribute it during the first week of classes in January so he can share the results with the Faculty Senate before they vote on it Jan. 23.

French Studies professor Deborah Harter said the Faculty Senate was working on a compromise to keep the spring recess where courses that need the instructional days would have an opportunity to announce in the course catalogue that their courses may require attendance during the mini-break.

Youn said he felt this was a decent compromise because the break was critical for students’ mental health.

“It’s a weekend that’s essential to helping students regroup in preparation for the final stretch of the school year,” Youn said. “It’s a time where students are very close to burning out, and the weekend is key to helping them remain sane.”

Also up for debate is the starting date of the spring semester. The calendar may be revised to start on the first Monday of January in cases where the second Monday was significantly late, Siemann said. The Senate was also interested in how the number of contact hours — time spent in the classroom per credits given for a course — at Rice compared to those at other institutions.

Included with the calendar is also a proposal to reduce the shopping period for courses from four weeks to two weeks to add courses and 10 weeks to four weeks to drop classes. Harter requested that the reduction of the shopping period be made separate from the discussion of the academic calendar so that an appropriate body, such as the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, could examine it carefully.

Tenney said there were many reasons for shortening the shopping period.

“For many faculty they are unable to determine who’s really going to be in their class until the fifth week,” Tenney said. “I’ve been told some faculty save their best lectures for after the fourth week because there’s so much movement in the first four weeks.”

While Youn acknowledged the logistical problems with the lengthy shopping period, he said a long shopping period was important for students, especially those in seminars that meet once a week.

“I’m also concerned about having a drop deadline that would be after four weeks because in most classes you have no idea how hard it’s going to be until the sixth or seventh week when you have a big test or something,” Youn said.

Despite the current debate, this should be the last major change to the calendar for several years. This is because the calendar was completely matrix-driven, meaning that it keeps dates from being assigned arbitrarily from year to year and makes it possible to plan for academic calendars 10 to 20 years in the future.

“Today, the way it works is we have a calendar for two years, and then it changes and changes again,” Tenney said. “I like the fact that the calendar that we have proposed actually sets a formula for future years.”

End of article

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