Thursday, February 14, 2008

Academic Senate to Further Discuss Additional Day of Class

By: John Morelli
Edited by: Erin Hillard and Mariah Richards

On Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008, Central Michigan University’s Academic Senate is planning on formally discussing the option of adding an extra day of class to this semester.

This will be the first time the Academic Senate has met since the additional day was proposed.

“The general consensus seems to be that the professors and administration are for adding another day and the students are opposed,” said Nicole Kennedy, a student representative on the Academic Senate.

According to Kennedy, since the proposal there have been many e-mails sent over their listserv in regards to the extra day.

“One of the debates is as to whether or not the Academic Senate has the authority to add on another day to the calendar or if that decision has to be made by the Faculty Association,” Kennedy said.

If the Academic Senate is allowed to add an extra day of class, Kennedy still has many issues with doing so.

She believes that adding an extra day will make things difficult for students living in the residence halls who had already made plans to remove their larger pieces of furniture that day.

“Also, many students have already made plans for these two days and there are many activities going on around campus (on the proposed day of additional class),” Kennedy said.

Based on Kennedy’s impression from faculty and other students, many teachers have made the adjustments to their schedules and assigned more work outside of the classroom to compensate.

“A few professors have proposed establishing some type of future plan to implement if so many snow days occur again,” Kennedy said. “But once again, we are not sure who has the authority to add calendar days.”

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