Hello all,

Betsy Darken sent out the proposed calendar changes with the Faculty Senate
minutes today, so let the debate begin....

First of all, I would like to thank Claire McCullough, Robin Lee, and all the
members of the ad hoc Calendar Committee for looking at this issue and bringing
forward a well-thought-out and credible proposal.  Many of us think the current
academic calendar is "broken," but these few folks put in the time to actually
come up with a proposed solution.  Their effort is commendable and the result is
something I feel I could support.  I do have one or two small suggestions, though :)

The main feature of the proposed calendar is a saner summer schedule.  Instead
of the hodgepodge of five summer terms, with three 5-week terms overlapping two
7.5-week terms, the committee proposes reducing the schedule to two 5.5-week
terms overlapping one 11-week term (which would almost restore the sanity of a
"normal" semester).  This is very close to my original suggestion of two 6-week
terms overlapping a 12-week term ... close enough that I can support it
wholeheartedly.

Cutting four weeks out of the summer schedule allows us to achieve the main goal
of the calendar revision, which was to reduce some of the time pressure that is
currently a problem at the beginning and end of each semester because of the way
the terms are crammed into the calendar.  Claire McCullough echoed my own
sentiments perfectly when she said "if we don't do anything with summer school,
then we can't do anything with the calendar at all."  If we feel we have to keep
5 terms and 15 weeks of summer school, then the current calendar is all we have
... so get used to it.  I think now is a good time to try a change.  (Actually
the changes wouldn't take effect until the fall of 2006, as next year's schedule
is already carved in stone.)

My only (minor) quibble is with the proposed dates for Spring Break.  I noticed
that the committee proposed moving the Fall Break a week *earlier* than the
current schedule (October 17 and 18 instead of 24 and 25).  Yet, they propose
moving the Spring Break *later* ... either to March 20-24 or April (yes, you
read that correctly) 10-13.  The April dates are absurdly late ... we might as
well wait another two weeks and get out of school a week early with no spring
break at all!

Even the March 20-24 dates are rather late in the semester.  This year, Spring
Break is March 7-11.  That seems a bit early, but by then we will have been in
school for 8.5 weeks and we will only have 5.5 weeks of classes remaining.  If
the goal is to "break up" the semester and provide some stress relief, I don't
think we want to shift it much later.  Also, this week is common to many other
schools.  I know for a fact (due to shared travel plans) that Chattanooga State,
MTSU, and Virginia Tech (a ski buddy is up there :) have the same spring break
as UTC this year.  Tennessee Tech, Covenant College, Lee University, Bryan
College, and others also have their Spring Break the same time as we do, while
Berry College and Sewanee have theirs the following week (middle of March; see
next paragraph).

Next year's "real" schedule has Spring Break pushed back about a week, to March
13-17.  That is probably ok as, given "calendar creep" (since there are not
exactly 52 weeks in a year) at some point the calendar must "slip" a week from
one year to the next.  I suspect that some other schools in our region will be
doing the same thing.  So far, so good, and I'd rather leave things that way.

It is true that we would have a week longer break between semesters under the
proposed calendar; however, moving Spring Break to the middle week of March
(13-17) would mostly make up for that.  We would still be in a situation where
there would be 8 weeks of school before the break and only 6 weeks after it.
Given the committee's suggested March 20-24 dates, there would be 9 weeks of
school before Spring Break and only 5 weeks after it.  That's not as big a deal
as the April dates, but I'd rather leave it in mid-March as opposed to late
March.  What do the rest of you think?

It is a measure of how good this proposal is, that the *biggest* defect I can
find is Spring Break being a week too late.  But, your mileage may vary.  I urge
all faculty to discuss this (on Raven or "live") and let your Faculty Senators
know how you feel.  We want to represent your interests; let us know what you
think on this and other issues.

Joe Dumas