Academic Affairs Committee Meeting

April 1, 2003

Present: David Blankenship, Lisa Chase, Leslie Couse, Jim Dembowski,

Wilma Feliciano, Glenn Geher(Chair), Yoav Kaddar, Cindy McCormick,

Debra Miller, Robin Smith, Chih-Yang Tsai and Mohammad Zunoubi.

Amended minutes from 3/11/03 were unanimously approved.

I Announcements: The Academic Affairs report was given to the full faculty on

March 14. Glenn reported on the debates over the calendars with

reference to all aspects and issues discussed by the committee.

Two calendars will be presented to the Senate on April 11, 2003

and at the Faculty meeting on April 25, 2003.

II Academic Senate / Calendar Status: Barbara Hardgrave confirmed that the committee can put forth calendar options to the full faculty including one not supported by the Academic Senate. The faculty would be voting on options rather than one calendar created by the Academic Affairs Committee and forwarded to the Academic Senate for approval.

The Spring 2005 calendar templates distributed at the March 1 meeting were reviewed and discussed.

• The main difference in the two versions was start and end dates.
• The spring break could be moved forward or backward a week.
• An issue to consider for future conversation was the Student Affairs concern about the number between the last final and graduation.
• We need to be mindful of how we divided the semester in terms of the number of weeks of class time and breaks (4/5/5 o r 7/7).

A motion was made by Cindy McCormick and seconded by David Blankenship to accept the Spring 2005 calendar with a start date of 1/24 and end date of 5/18. The spring break will be held March 21 – 25. The vote to accept was unanimous.

III 2004-2005 Calendar Option: The committee deliberated on a second 2004-2005 calendar. We reviewed templates previously distributed and revised.

FALL 2004

Two versions of the calendar were up for discussion. The calendars were reviewed month-by-month correcting an error on the originals regarding the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

• Both scheduled Columbus Day off and observed traditional religious holidays.
• The differences were in start and end dates as well as the number of substitution days.
• A concern was raised regarding classes held on Friday September 17 after a holiday observance for Wednesday evening and Thursday. We should be careful when assuming student won’t show up for Friday classes. The campus mindset has changed and Friday classes are a part of the schedule.
• In practical terms we have Friday classes and the numbers have increased over the years however, the behavior may be a little different just because of the Thursday holiday.
• We also need to be aware of the amount of time from the middle of the semester to the Thanksgiving Holiday break.

Next meeting will be held on April 8, 2003 in Humanities 120 at 11:30am. The meeting ended at 12:30.

Respectfully submitted,

Debra Miller