COMMITTEE:                        Calendar

MEETING DATE:      September 13, 2004

PERSON PRESIDING:        Catherine Rigsby (and then John Crammer)

ATTENDEES:           Jeff Phipps, John Crammer, Rebecca Powers, Trey Martindale, Jonathan Dembo

EX-OFFICIO:Angela Anderson, Mary Farwell, Nancy House, Maggie O’Neill

VISITORS:     Catherine Rigsby

The meeting was called to order at 12:00 noon in Rawl 142 by Catherine Rigsby.  Catherine Rigsby thanked everyone for serving on the committee.  The committee members introduced themselves.

The committee elected its officers for the coming year.  The chair is John Crammer, the vice chair is Jeff Phipps, and the secretary is Rebecca Powers.  Crammer presided over the remainder of the meeting. 

The committee discussed business carried over from last year. 

The first topic was the scheduling of lecture based 4 semester hour classes.  Angela Anderson said that one of the problems this semester is that Flanagan is off-line.  These classes are mainly in the sciences and mathematics calculus classes.  Some of the classes are scheduled to meet two days a week for two hours.  One of the reasons for four semester hour classes in the sciences is the general education requirements.  Anderson said these classes lead to some problems with the computer program for scheduling classes, but it should not be a problem after we convert to SCT BANNER.  The committee agreed to work on this issue during the current year.

The next topic was communication with Pitt Community College and the Pitt County School system in coordinating calendars.  Mary Farwell pointed out that major changes will occur with the county school calendar due to the change in the start of their school year.  One concern is the scheduling of Fall Break.  John Crammer will communicate with Judith Kasperek who works on the calendar for Pitt Community College.

The scheduling of commencement is another topic for consideration during the current year.  Fall commencement is to be held after exams rather than during exams as had been done in the past.  The question about Spring commencement is whether to have it on Friday or Saturday.  Maggie O’Neill, who is the student representative, said that having commencement on Friday in the spring would be bad for students.  Rebecca Powers asked how many ceremonies there would be.  The handout prepared last year by Rick Niswander showed that most schools in the UNC system have commencement on Saturday.  Having December commencement after exams may cause some concerns for housing.  Rigsby said she thinks that the chancellor will go along with what the faculty/faculty senate recommends.  Farwell asked for student input on making the decision.  The questions are whether (1) December graduation should be held in the middle or at the end of finals; and (2) in December and the spring, should commencement be on Friday or Saturday.  Rigsby said that December has about 1,000 graduates and Spring has about 2,800 graduates (including summer graduates).  Anderson said the program for spring commencement had a list of summer school graduates by name (not by school).  O’Neill said she has data on student opinion concerning department and university ceremonies.  Last December, more than one thousand students signed petitions to have department graduations, and they prefer department graduation rather than recognition ceremonies.

Finally, the committee discussed the topic of having a policy for making up lost class days.  In the past we have waited to see what other schools in the system do or for instructions from the General Administration.  Rigsby pointed out that universities do not have to make up class days.  Rigsby asked what faculty actually do with make-up days.  She agreed to talk with Chancellor Ballard about what to do about scheduling make-up days.  Jeff Phipps said that there is a problem with having make-up days on Saturdays.

The committee then talked about the 2006-2007 calendar which is the main topic for the coming year.  Student Housing is concerned with the fact that recent calendars have had no day between summer sessions.  Some students attending only the first summer session have been told to move out of their residence hall rooms on the final exam day for the first summer session.  The reason for not having a day between sessions is because recent calendars have not held classes on Memorial Day.  There was some discussion as to whether future calendars should go back to having classes on Memorial Day.  It was noted that staff does not get Memorial Day as a holiday.  In Spring 2007, the university will observe Founders Month in March celebrating the centennial of ECU rather than Founders Day or Founders Week.  O’Neill asked about having Spring Break at the same time as other UNC campuses.  The response was that this would cause a logistics problem.  It was unanimously agreed to keep the three week break in August between Summer and Fall.

The next meeting will be 2:00 pm on Wednesday, October 27.  This was about the only time (other than Friday afternoons), that would fit the schedules of the people attending today’s meeting.  The committee will further discuss the 2006-2007 calendar and topics in the business carried over from last year.

Meeting adjourned at 12:55 pm.