Thirty
days hath September and we need to use them all
The Senate Executive
Committee overwhelmingly adopted a statement on the academic calendar
at its meeting on March 4, 1992 (Almanac March 17, 1992). That
statement was focused on "(t)he faculty's concern regarding
... its need to have adequate hours and days within which to discharge
its instructional responsibilities." A result of this concern
was the recommendation that "(t)he administration and the faculty
should explore the possibility of equalizing the length of the two
semesters by extending the fall semester."
A recent thoughtful and well-documented report (Almanac, November 23, 1993) of the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education Subcommittee on the Academic Calendar calls for an equalization of teaching days and reading days between the two semesters. Currently the spring semester is 14 weeks while the fall is 13. There are now two weekday reading days in the fall and three in the spring. Change in the spring term calendar can be easily achieved since the constraints on the calendar are not severe. The situation in the fall is much more difficult since there is consensus that the term must end before Christmas. Thanksgiving break is nonnegotiable and "SCUE finds acceptable no calendar which does not include a full two day Fall Break in October. The Fall Break ... remains very important for the undergraduate student population in terms of mental health and personal and academic considerations." The above goals and constraints - increasing instruction and weekday reading days in the fall - ending before Christmas and maintaining Fall Break - lead to the inescapable conclusion that the Fall term must begin prior to Labor Day. We realize that this will not be a popular decision. It will cause difficulty for faculty with school age children since Penn will begin before local primary schools and, even though we propose maintaining the Labor Day holiday, some faculty will have to interrupt vacation schedules. Nevertheless we see no alternative. As the title suggests we need to use all of September for instruction. Among peer universities, Cornell, Duke, Virginia and Yale have already adopted calendars that begin before Labor Day. The SCUE report has been endorsed by the Senate Committee on Students and Educational Policy. It is scheduled for discussion at the March meetings of the Senate Executive Committee and the University Council. We urge all members of the community to discuss this report with their elected representatives. The schedule for 1994-95 is already set. We need to act now to implement a revised calendar for 1995-96. |