The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/opinion/2004/04/02/spring_recess_faculty_calendar

April 2, 2004 > Opinion > Faculty needs facts to justify calendar change

Faculty needs facts to justify calendar change

The members of the faculty should have gotten their facts straight before they aligned Rice’s 2006 Spring Recess with that of the Houston Independent School District (“Breaks change for desired HISD alignment,” March 26).

We find it hard to believe that a significant portion of faculty would be positively affected by such a move. The proportion of faculty who have school-aged children in HISD — not older children or children in private schools — is surely not as high as 50 percent, an estimate President Malcolm Gillis made at a recent University Council meeting.

Faculty without school-aged children in HISD and most students will be disadvantaged by the change; they will face a stretch of eight consecutive five-day weeks — the longest we have had to endure in many years.

The faculty should have acquired accurate data on how many professors actually have school-aged children in HISD before they finalized their decision. Since they did not, we now hope they will reconsider.

End of article

Back to top