04/04/08
The Educational Programs and Curriculum Committee is now one step closer to getting the 2009-2010 academic calendar approved.
The calendar was once again brought to the faculty senate meeting Tuesday after being denied at last month’s meeting.
Having a weeklong Thanksgiving break, followed by only two days of class before finals, was a primary concern by senate members.
“I think it’s a good idea. It gives people a chance to have a break before getting back into finals,” freshman Stacey Duderstadt said. “Sometimes, it’s good to have that time to clear your head before all of that hard work that you have to get back into.”
Judy Smrha, assistant dean for institutional effectiveness, said having a weeklong Thanksgiving break had been tried before but never approved. She and other EPC members looked at what had been done in past calendars and took that into considered when coming up with this version.
“Unless you tell me otherwise, I’m going to do it like it’s always been done,” Smrha said. “We had to take a lot of things into consideration like the new rule of not having winter commencement past Dec. 19, and having spring commencement before Memorial Day weekend.”
The calendar will now be sent to the University Academic Council. If the calendar is approved, classes would start Aug. 19 and the spring in-service day would fall the day before Good Friday. With a mixed response of pleased students and upset professors, who, in some cases, would lose a day of lab, the senate approved the calendar with a 16-2 vote.
EPC also brought forward a couple of travel interterms to the table. One of the interterms would be a mission trip to Costa Rica headed by University Provost Randy Pembrook. The other would be a trip to Washington, D.C., headed by Professor of Business and Economics Lee Green.
School of Education endorsements were also approved changing the table of criteria in the SOE handbook.
“There’s more clarity this way; we’re just trying to clean the handbook up,” Merrie Skaggs, associate professor of education, said. “From now on students will be clearly admitted to the program or not when they meet the requirements for stage two.”
