Many students are up in arms over a threat to a cherished academic tradition: Reading Week.
The fall 2009 academic calendar, now available online from the University Registrar, has only a single “Study Day” on Dec. 15, with final exams beginning on the 16th. This would leave students with less time for exam preparation than the current “Reading Week,” which lasts for three weekdays, pushing the Columbia College Student Council Policy Committee and the Engineering Student Council to seek out other options.
“I think there are a lot of alternatives that would give students more time to prepare and give professors more time to grade exams,” University Senator Monica Quaintance, CC ’10, said of next year’s lone study day.
The University is operating under tight scheduling restraints next fall. Classes are set to begin on Sept. 8, right after Labor Day, which is unusually late compared to previous Labor Days—they cannot begin before Labor Day because of summer programs and freshman pre-orientation programs, and the length of the semester is set since New York State Law mandates a certain number of weeks of classes in a semester. Even under the current plan, exams will continue through Dec. 23.
But Sue Yang, vice president of the Columbia College class of 2010, has, in conjunction with the Policy Committee, proposed several alternatives that would extend the study period. She suggested moving the last day of classes from Monday, Dec. 14, to Friday, Dec. 11. While this would require faculty to shift their schedules and could also create conflicts for students who have Friday classes, the proposal would add both Monday and the weekend to the reading period.
“Having just one day to study is really cramping the time that I can dedicate to other classes,” Yang said. “It’s really unfair that when I am applying to graduate schools alongside Brown and Yale students, they might have higher GPAs because they have had crucial time to study that I haven’t.” Brown and Yale are among the peer institutions that have adapted their schedules in order to preserve their reading periods.
Yang also made a separate recommendation to hold exams on Saturday and Sunday in order to shift the start of the exam period from Wednesday, Dec. 16, to Friday, Dec. 17. Students would then have a reading period from Tuesday to Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Engineering Student Council President Peter Valeiras, CC ’09, has been corresponding with the Registrar’s office about adjusting the academic calendar. However, because students have yet to present formal plans to administrators, no official resolution has been reached.
Collaboration between the CCSC and the ESC is expected over the next several weeks. Yang said that the Policy Committee also plans to coordinate with the General Studies Student Council and the Barnard Student Government Association. Ideally, she said, the councils will draft a joint proposal to present to the University Senate by mid-February.