Minutes of Academic Affairs Committee Meeting

08 October 2001

Present: David Blankenship, Lisa Chase, Jim Dembowski, Glenn Geher (chair), Yoav Kaddar, Debra Miller, Robin Smith, Ann Lovett (guest), Bob Michael (guest)

Briefing: Glenn reviewed the events of the previous meeting, and clarified that, in the short term, members of standing committees of the Academic Affairs committee, including the Academic Appeals committee, will remain as they are. David reminded the committee that the College Library Committee is one standing committee of Academic Affairs that will need attention at some future point, after more pressing business has been resolved. Glenn explained the circumstances of his election as chair at the previous meeting. His election was affirmed by the members present, and he was informally thanked for assuming that responsibility.

Old Business: The 2003-2004 academic calendar was discussed. Two draft calendars were presented by Deb Miller, with different holiday schedules and different approaches to accommodating the religious needs of the community.

Various issues raised included:

The use of end-of-semester make-up days as a means of allowing individuals to observe a variety of religious (and professional) obligations, in preference to recognizing specific religious obligations;

The role of a public institution in the support of religious observances;

Flexibility in the observance of federal holidays, including Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day;

Various disruptions of class and other campus activities generated by the loss of weekdays to religious holidays, and the use of “substitute days” in order to accommodate religious holidays;

The potential disruption, due to absence of teachers and students, of failing to formally observe religious holidays;

Administrative difficulties raised by prolonging the semester end in order to accommodate various holidays;

Problems posed by repeated long weekends (i.e., multiple Mondays off) for the scheduling of performing arts events and for continuity in Monday classes;

The rationale for continuing to begin classes the week prior to Labor Day;

One member suggested removing the Columbus Day mid-semester holiday and adding one day to the previous week’s Yom Kippur observance, in calendar Draft 2, as a compromise means of providing an October mid-semester break for students, and simultaneously observing a religious holiday. This change was designated calendar Draft 2a. The suggestion was seen to resolve some pragmatic scheduling issues for the fall 2003 semester, but failed to resolve more general questions of how religious holidays should be addressed in the academic calendar over both the long and short term. A suggestion for a committee vote on amended Draft 2a was tabled pending further consideration, including consideration of issues in the Spring semester schedule.

A suggestion to meet the following Tuesday was rejected because the following Tuesday fell on this semester’s mid-semester break. The committee agreed to meet again on the subsequent Tuesday, 22 October 2002, at 11.35 a.m. in HAB 802.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Dembowski