campuses the opportunity to play with the end of the
semester a bit. For
example, in the fall semester, the individual institutions
have the right to
shorten their final exam schedule by extending the
last day of classes into
that period. This means, for example, that where the
fall semester's last day
of classes was previously a Wednesday, the end of
term can now be extended by
up to three weekdays, to the following Monday. This
approach was seen as a
partial solution to the lab and evening class scheduling
conflicts caused by
having unequal numbers of each weekday. (In other
words, if the institution
has a problem with the idea that one night class meets
14 times, and another
only 13, an extra day can be scheduled for the "slighted"
class.) Under this
plan, there is one "extra" Wednesday, but all other
weekdays have the same
numbers of class meetings. A similar option is available
for spring semester.
The other sticking point was the summer issue; here's
a short chronology of
the turns this took, as best as I understand it. When
the common calendar went
to the academic officers, they were unhappy that there
was no summer schedule.
The majority of that group felt that it was not truly
a common calendar unless
it was also common in summer. They refused to vote
on it at their April
meeting because of this problem, which is why Faculty
SubCouncil didn't even
discuss it at our April meeting.
TBR finally relented, and brought the summer schedule
back into the common
calendar. As a result, the academic officers voted
to approve the common
calendar at their meeting two weeks ago. I do not
have the vote tally, but
understand that it was about a 2-1 ratio.
Now the common calendar comes to Faculty SubCouncil
for action. I raised the
FTE/funding issues. (The common calendar will almost
certainly cost us some
FTE, as we will lose UT "spill-over", and the move
to 55 minute periods will
force us to have the same number of classes, but either
starting earlier, or
ending later in the afternoon.) Other members went
through other issues; how
can we call ourselves a community college if we can't
have the flexibility to
at least attempt conforming to individual community
scheduling of start and
end dates, and spring breaks; how can we expect faculty
to return to school
for fall semester on the Monday following the Friday
of the last day of summer
term; how can we justify knocking state K-12 teachers
out of taking summer
classes due to our schedule extending beyond their
start of school dates; and
on and on it went.
Still, despite these arguments, most reps felt that
they could deal with most
of the other problems, provided the summer term was
taken back off of the
proscribed schedule. As a result, two votes were taken.
The first question was
(I am paraphrasing), do you approve of the common
calendar as presented with
no changes? The vote was unanimous rejection.
Then the second vote was along the lines of "Do you
approve of the common
calendar as presented IF the summer term is removed?"
This was the question
that received 11-5 approval.
Now, the cynic in me comes through a bit here. The
results of this vote do not
go to the Board; since it's a guideline rather than
a policy, it only needs be
approved by the Presidents. So here's my question.
Let's say the Presidents
get the following report.
The academic officers approved the calendar by a 2/3
majority, but only on the
condition that summer semester be included in the
plan. If summer semester is
removed, the academic officers refuse to vote on the
proposal.
The Faculty SubCouncil approved the calendar by a
2/3 majority, but only on
the condiditon that summer semester be removed from
the plan. If summer
semester is included, the SubCouncil unanimously rejects
it.
Given these options, which side do you suppose the
Presidents will take? And
when the Presidents pass it in either form, what do
you suppose the Board
members will hear about the process, other than "Both
SubCouncils approved of
it by a 2/3 majority?"
I have not spoken with him, but I understand that
President Edwards is opposed
to the common calendar, largely because of the concern
over possible loss of
FTE. I would encourage you to share your opinion with
him regarding the issue,
as the Presidents still have to act on it.
Sorry about the length, full report to come shortly.
dave