Faculty members will vote in May on proposed changes to the calendar for the 2012-2013 academic year, College Registrar Meredith Braz said at Monday's meeting of the Faculty of the Arts and Sciences. A preliminary online survey of faculty following the Fall term faculty meeting presented several alternative calendars two of which would move the end of Fall term to the day before Thanksgiving break. The results of that survey were discussed at Monday's meeting.
The first proposal, which received only five of 60 faculty votes on the online forum, would maintain the current calendar, according to information packets distributed at Monday's meeting.
Fifty out of 60 faculty commenters on the online forum voted in favor of moving the calendar to end in time by Thanksgiving break, according to the plans. Both the second and third options presented would move the beginning of Fall term forward by nine days, allowing the term to end before Thanksgiving.
To compensate for Fall term's earlier start, the second option proposes a shorter Summer term, without altering the length of the break between the end of Summer term and beginning of Fall term. The third plan would retain a 10-week Summer term but shorten the break between Summer and Fall.
While 10 faculty members favored the second option, 35 supported the third, according the plans. Five indicated that they favored either the second or the third option, according to the plans.
Of the 60 students interviewed by The Dartmouth, 48 favored calendar options in which finals period would end on Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving. Of the 48 students who wished to finish before Thanksgiving, 39 preferred to shorten the gap between the end of Summer term and the beginning of Fall term, rather than reduce the length of the Summer term from 10 weeks to nine.
"Summer term's supposed to be your glorious, fairies-fall-from-the-sky term," Richard Stephenson '12 said. "I'd hate for that to turn stressful."
Geographic factors affected which option students preferred, according to students surveyed by The Dartmouth. Individuals with hometowns on the West Coast, for example, generally supported changes that would end Fall term before Thanksgiving.
Meghan Cooney '14 said the large amounts of money and time required to make the trip to her home state of California discourages her from returning home for Thanksgiving.
Many students from areas closer to Dartmouth, for whom travel between their homes and campus is less strenuous, expressed concerns about the possibility of boredom over a longer break, particularly before high school friends have returned.
"I already get really bored for the month where no one's home," Jason Mintz '11, who lives "about two hours" from campus, said.
Several students interviewed by The Dartmouth expressed concerns that shortening the length of the break between Summer and Fall terms may interfere with Dartmouth Outing Club's First-Year Trips.
"Definite scheduling conflicts" will arise for those sophomores who might want to lead Trips, as some trip sections will overlap with "sophomore Summer academics," Braz said.
Some students said they worried that shortening the Orientation period from seven to five days which would occur under option three of the academic calendar proposal might reduce the time available for new students to adjust to Dartmouth.
"The seven days [of Orientation] are nice because you get to walk around and explore campus," Stephenson said.
Most students interviewed said this change would not be cause for concern, citing some Orientation events as unnecessary for acclimating to Dartmouth.
"There are enough events in Orientation that are kind of fluff," Marietta Smith '12 said. "I'm not worried about them cutting it down."
Braz said the reduced length of Orientation would impact both faculty and students, forcing academic departments to consolidate open houses and move placement tests online.
Dean of the Faculty Michael Mastanduno said the switch to a five-day Orientation was recommended by the College's Committee on Student Life during Monday's meeting.
At the faculty meeting, Braz also addressed concerns about the possible impacts of calendar changes on "at-risk students" and international students. Branz proposed the creation of student focus groups for certain "at-risk" students, which would provide feedback to the Committee on Instruction.
Housing would remain open during the interim period for those international students who cannot return home, Braz said. The College may choose to hire a graduate student to act as a programming director in order to create a sense of community for students remaining on campus during breaks, Braz said.
Scheduling changes will likely force some student athletes to play more of their games during the academic term, although varsity basketball and hockey will have more games during break due to the schedules of their seasons, according to Braz.
