May 22, 1997-Vol28n33: FSEC approves calendars for 1998-2000 as submitted by Calendar Commission

FSEC approves calendars for 1998-2000 as submitted by Calendar Commission

By SUE WUETCHER
News Services Associate Editor

The Faculty Senate Executive Committee approved draft calendars for the academic years 1998-2000 at its May 14 meeting, a move that might help avoid for at least three years the annual haggling over the university's academic schedule.

The FSEC is the first of the campus governing bodies to recommend approval of the draft calendars submitted by the Calendar Commission, said Donna Rice, associate vice president for student affairs and a member of the commission. The recommendations are forwarded to President William R. Greiner, who will make the final decision.

The executive committee and the Faculty Senate as a whole have urged the Calendar Commission to submit multi-year academic calendars "that follow clear and consistent principles," said senate Chair Claude Welch, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Political Science.

Rice outlined to committee members the role and composition of the Calendar Commission and the principles‹both those required by the state and those desired internally‹that the commission used to develop the calendars for the academic years 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01.

Required principles are that each semester consist of a minimum of 15 weeks, including the examination period, and that state education policy relative to scheduling of classes and absence from classes for religious reasons be adhered to.

Among the internal principles identified by the commission are that calendars for the next three years be developed; that each semester aim for at least 13 weeks of unbroken instruction; that each semester include a six-day final exam period with no Saturday exams, and that calendars that begin after Labor Day be developed in the years the calendar permits.

According to the proposed calendars:

- The Fall 1998 semester would begin on Aug. 31 and end on Dec. 22. The Spring 1999 calendar would begin on Jan. 19, with commencement weekend scheduled for May 14-16.

- The Fall 1999 semester would begin on Aug. 30 and end on Dec. 20. The Spring 2000 semester would begin on Jan. 18, with commencement weekend set for May 12-14.

- The Fall 2000 semester would begin on Aug. 28 and end on Dec. 18. The Spring 2001 semester would begin on Jan. 16, with commencement weekend scheduled for May 11-13.

The FSEC's objection last fall to the proposed calendar for the upcoming academic year, which included an Aug. 25 start for the Fall 1997 semester and a Jan. 12 start to the Spring 1998 semester‹a week earlier than usual‹prompted the Calendar Commission to reconsider its proposal.

The commission then submitted another calendar‹which the FSEC recommended and Greiner approved‹in which, for the first time in recent memory, the fall semester will start after Labor Day, on Sept. 2. The Spring 1998 semester will begin on Jan. 20, with commencement weekend set for May 15-17.