COMMITTEE:                      Calendar

MEETING DATE:                February 2, 2004

PERSON PRESIDING:         John Crammer

ATTENDEES:       Rebecca Powers, Punam Madhok, John Crammer

EX-OFFICIO:        Angela Anderson, Nancy House, Austin Bunch

The meeting was called to order at 12:00 in Rawl 142 by John Crammer.  A quorum was not present (four regular members are required for a quorum).

Angela Anderson said that she is still waiting for responses to questions the committee had.

The committee further discussed the proposed 2005-2006 calendar.  Austin Bunch told the committee that the administration is discussing the movement of Spring commencement to Friday instead of Saturday.  Crammer asked whether any other schools in the UNC system have commencement on Friday.  Bunch said that he did not know.  Anderson said that grades are not an issue since diplomas are not given out at commencement but the Registrars Office would need to know the official commencement date to be placed on student transcripts.  Bunch said that the change would affect future calendars but any changes will wait until we have a new Chancellor.  Crammer asked what effect the change would have on families attending commencement.  Bunch said that from unit ceremonies we know that people will show up whenever we schedule commencement.  Because of facility space constraints it is necessary to have two ceremonies and also there is no room available for new unit ceremonies.  It was stated that commencement ceremonies will never be held outside due to the uncertainty of weather.  Bunch added that there will be a morning and afternoon ceremony but the graduate’s names will only be called once and those receiving graduate degrees will be hooded once.  The hooding ceremony for the Graduate School was held during the afternoon ceremony.  It was noted that in the December 2003 ceremony there were problems created by students and their families getting up and leaving immediately after their names were called.  This created considerable commotion and was distracting to the proceedings.   There was also discussion of the funding of unit ceremonies.   Bunch e added that in December the morning ceremony for undergraduates went fast but that the afternoon ceremony was slow due to the hooding process.  Anderson said that the only change in the calendar would be the date of commencement.  Crammer asked about the date for Fall commencement.  Bunch said that it would stay as is.   Rebecca Powers asked about moving Fall commencement later into the final exam period such as using the Friday or Saturday at the end of exams.   Bunch responded that the closer commencement is to the Christmas holiday the more problems it creates for families and holiday travel.  

Bunch asked about contacts with Pitt Community College and the Pitt County school system.  Crammer said that he had sent the dates for breaks to Judith Kasperek.  Mary Farwell who is coordinating with the county schools was not at the meeting.

The committee asked whether we have to make up for the missed Monday due to weather.  Bunch said that ECU has not been told yet.  The Office of the President will tell us if we have to make it up.  It was noted that the Governor had declared a “state of emergency” on the Monday that classes were cancelled and that decision affects whether or not missed days are made up.  Anderson said that there has been no official change in the date of the last day to drop as a result of cancelled classes.  The change of date is somewhat important for Monday only and MW classes since they also lost a class day for the Martin Luther King holiday.

Crammer said that Onestop lists the starting date for final exams as the beginning of the last week of classes which is the time for one credit hour classes.  Anderson said that Onestop instructs students to contact their instructors for the date of their exam.  Anderson said that there is a form students can use to move their final exam which can be done if they have more than three exams on the same day.  Powers asked whether the calendar for the final exam time mentions that the final exam is counted as part of the required “face time.”  The committee agreed that this issue needed to be clearly stated since it is a change from the past.  Nancy House said that changes to the text should be made as soon as possible.  Wording should be placed at the end of the first paragraph on the page with examination schedule.  The suggested wording is “The final exam meeting is required in order to satisfy the 750 contact minutes per credit hour required by the University of North Carolina Office of the President”. Anderson stated that she would send out a special announcement about finals counting as face time.    The second paragraph on the same page should begin by defining night classes as those starting at 6:00 PM or later.  The cover letter should be updated to indicate these changes and use bullets to break up the long paragraph in the present form.

The next committee meeting will be Monday, March 1, 2004 at 12:00.  Since a quorum was not present at this meeting, there is concern that a time other than 12:00 would be a better time.  Nancy House (ex-officio with vote) offered to accept a 3:30 or 4:00 meeting time if that is needed in order to get a quorum even though those times conflict with her teaching schedule.  The committee will vote on the 2005-2006 calendar; work on the cover letter for the proposal being sent to the Faculty Senate; work on the committee’s internal calendar guidelines; and hear Angela Anderson’s report on various topics.

Meeting adjourned at 12:55 PM.