Revised
COMMITTEE: Calendar
MEETING DATE: December 1, 2004
PERSON PRESIDING: John Crammer
ATTENDEES: Jeff Phipps, Rebecca Powers, Trey Martindale, Jonathan Dembo, John Crammer
EX-OFFICIO: Austin Bunch, Mary Farwell, Amy Bissette (for Angela Anderson),
Nancy
House
VISITORS: Catherine Rigsby, Lori Lee
The meeting was called to order at 2:00 pm in Rawl 142 by John Crammer. The meeting started without a quorum (only 3 of the 7 regular faculty members)
Catherine Rigsby attended the meeting to clarify some questions she had been asked about the calendar. The changes to the 2005-2006 commencement are only a proposal; no change has been made yet. Concerning make up days for inclement weather, she said the calendar committee has the responsibility and right to create and propose a policy and should work with the Faculty Senate. The administration says we can recommend a policy. Jeff Phipps asked what would happen if we said that we should not have make up days. Austin Bunch and Rigsby said that SACS is not specific on this issue. Rigsby said we could have flexibility such as make up days only when a certain number of days are missed. Saturday is difficult to use as a make up day. The discussion turned to meeting with the new athletic director. Rebecca Powers asked whether we should meet with him concerning the calendar. Rigsby said the committee should just contact Lori Lee if we would like to meet with him and that the committee can contact anyone on campus who would be a useful resource.
After a quorum was in attendance the committee considered the minutes of the October 27 meeting. Bunch pointed out that the statements concerning commencement should call it a proposal rather than a change. The proposal came from the deans and directors. Mary Farwell moved (Trey Martindale seconded) approval of the minutes as changed. Motion passed.
Next the committee considered modifications to the 2005-2006 calendar to accommodate commencement on Friday instead of Saturday. Concern was expressed about the changes. One result of having Fall commencement on Friday would be losing reading day. Bunch said that he would tell the cabinet group that if commencement is changed to Friday, the change would start with Fall 2006. Powers asked about unit ceremonies. Bunch said that symbolism of the first ceremony is to confer degrees and then unit ceremonies follow this. There is no more space for more ceremonies. Martindale asked if the ECU and unit ceremonies can be held on the same day. Bunch replied that yes they can with the unit ceremonies being in the evening. Farwell said that if the ECU ceremony is first then units may not want to do ceremonies. Bunch said that Arts and Sciences has no unit ceremony. They might consider having two ceremonies (one for sciences and one for arts), but it is not for us to tell Arts and Sciences what to do. The 2005-2006 calendar was left as approved last spring.
Discussion turned to the 2006-2007 calendar the committee is working on. Bunch noted that 2006-07 is ECU’s Centennial year. Martindale asked if there was a problem with starting classes on Monday in the Fall. Due to scheduling in the Fall, a Monday start darte is discouraged. Bunch said the Faculty Senate has the proposal on changes to commencement. Phipps said that the Faculty Senate is adamant on having Fall commencement after exams. Given a choice between Friday and Saturday, Friday would be picked. Jonathan Dembo asked whether Friday commencement would limit attendance by parents. Bunch replied that it would not; they will come when commencement is scheduled. The cabinet and Chancellor will have the final word.
Farwell has the Pitt county schools calendar from Brenda Jones. The revised copy will be available after December 6. There was also discussion about whether or not to have classes on Memorial Day during the first summer session. And, there is concern that there should be a day not scheduled between the end of 1st session and the beginning of 2nd session to allow for students to take exams and move. Concerning the add-only day at the beginning of semesters that allows some students to start after missing a week of class, Amy Bissette pointed out that the policy on Drop/Add and Add-only is on page 58 of the catalogue. This means that the policy is part of the internal guidelines and the under the guidance of the policy committee, not the calendar committee. Dembo expressed concern about starting spring classes on Friday. He would prefer Thursday to Friday, but actually prefers starting on Monday.
The next meeting will be at the end of January or the beginning of February at a time that fits all our teaching schedules. The committee will learn of any changes to commencement and will work on developing the 2006-2007 calendar.
Meeting adjourned at 2:55 pm.
