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The Rice Thresher
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by Elizabeth Decker Thresher staff President Malcolm Gillis appointed Speaker of the Faculty Robert Patten and Registrar Jerry Montag to come up with changes to the academic calendar. They are considering moving university holidays to overlap with national observances. This year's fall recess came one week after Columbus Day and Yom Kippur, but this could be altered so the recess would overlap with the holidays. Midterm recess may also be moved, Patten, an English professor, said. Currently, the spring midterm recess is the week before Houston Independent School District's spring break, causing problems for faculty and staff with children. One drawback to moving the midterm recess is that the semester would not be divided equally. If midterm recess is moved one week later, there would be six weeks left in the semester after the break. Patten said this could cause a crunch for students, especially seniors. In the fall semester, students have the same number of class meetings no matter what day of the week the class meets in once-a-week classes. Patten and Montag are trying to make the spring semester the same way. Patten and Montag might also try to equalize the total number of class days in both semesters. Currently, the fall semester has 70 class days and the spring has 67. This discussion probably won't begin until the 2003-'04 calendar is debated. Patten said that he and Montag want to balance convenience with effectiveness in the academic calendar. The calendar for the academic year 2001-'02 is already set, so the earliest any changes could take affect would be 2002-'03. Depending on circumstances, the changes could wait until 2003-'04, Patten said. Patten and Montag also hope to establish concrete deadlines by which requirements must be met, especially for graduating students, and by which forms must be filed for things like adding and dropping courses. This problem, Patten said, is aggravated for people seeking a degree in January, because often deadlines are not as clearly defined as they should be. Patten said one concern is that some deadlines are listed differently in the course schedule, on the registrar's Web site and in the materials given to the academic advisers. Changes suggested by Patten and Montag will have to be approved by the faculty as well as the University Standing Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum, which has three undergraduate representatives.
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