Final exam reading period extended to two study days

Students stressed about the elimination of the traditional study week before final exams in favor of one study day may now breathe a bit easier, as the Registrar has agreed to adding a second study day to next year’s end of semester exams.

Columbia College Student Council presidential candidate and unchallenged contender Sue Yang, CC ’10, announced in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon that the final exam study period would be expanded to two days. Originally the fall 2009 semester was slated in the official academic calendar to have only one study day, a situation that concerned some students and council leaders.

Registrar John Carter and Associate Registrar Brady Sloan have decided to expand the study period from one day to two, a move that has been backed by the University Senate Education Committee and the Committee on Instruction. The finals schedule will be shifted to accommodate the change.

Next semester’s study days will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 15, and Wednesday, Dec. 16. The schedule originally called for only Tuesday as a day off before exams.

“I think the Study Day issue and its resolution are a good model of how council can facilitate interactions between students and administrative bodies to bring students the change they want to see,” Yang wrote in the e-mail. “The overall process was smooth: from the initial concerns voiced by students and by Bwog, to the ideas generated by students and council members, to the CCSC-ESC joint proposal, to the discussions in both the Committee on Instruction and the Senate Education Committee, to the exploration by Registrar John Carter and Brady Sloan, to the final resolution.”

Study days are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday because canceling the final Monday of classes is prohibited under New York state law, which dictates a certain number of classes for each weekday in the semester.

Yang said that measures would be imposed to prevent future study day problems.