Early calendar start leaves wasted time

The Other Side of the Desk

This fall, JMU started earlier than it ever has, Aug. 23, resulting in only one week of classes after Thanksgiving, as in the past two years. This contributes to an attitude that the final week of classes is wasted time, with many faculty members feeling they cannot present serious new material then. Among students, this leads to an attitude that the semester effectively is over when the Thanksgiving break arrives. As many students take off the entire Thanksgiving week, it means the semester is over in the middle of November. This is not a good practice to entrench as the standard way that JMU operates.

There are other issues involved. Each year, Thanksgiving varies from Nov. 22 to 28. The semester should not run too late because it can be difficult for the Registrar’s Office to record grades properly after the Monday the last final exam — faculty can turn in final grades until this point. When, as happened two years ago, Thanksgiving occurs on its latest possible date — Nov. 28 — having two weeks of classes afterwards implies that a faculty member could turn in grades as late as Dec. 23, which is a potential problem for the staff. This year, Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 25 — the possible middle date. Having two weeks of classes after Thanksgiving this year would mean that faculty would be turning in grades no later than Dec. 20 — not too late for the Registrar’s Office to handle. Instead, this year faculty will turn in their grades by Dec. 13 — much earlier than necessary. This year’s scheduling implies that having only one week of classes after Thanksgiving is the norm, not the exception as in the past at JMU.

Next year and for the following two years, the schedule will revert to having two weeks of classes after Thanksgiving. Current students will have become accustomed to the semester being over in the middle of November and will be taken off guard by reverting to what should be normal practice. However, after the next two years, we may again get back into the pattern of only one week of classes after Thanksgiving.

What can be done about this? In the past, there was an official calendar committee that formulated the schedule for the year. Several years ago, that committee was replaced by a more informal procedure in which a small group of administrators propose a schedule that is then sent around to a select set of administrators, faculty and staff for approval. Most of those receiving these proposed schedules have viewed the semester starting date as a done deal — something not to question. Pedagogical concerns about when the semester should start have not been properly addressed by this procedure.

JMU needs to reinstitute a formal calendar committee with members selected from various campus groups in a publicly known manner. The Faculty Senate currently is considering such a proposal. I urge that the JMU community support the effort in the Faculty and Senate to bring about such a reform.

J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. is a economics professor at JMU.