COMMITTEE: Calendar

MEETING DATE: February 16, 2007

PERSON PRESIDING: John Crammer

ATTENDEES: Jonathan Dembo, John Crammer, Shanan Gibson, Donna Kain, Punam Madhok, Stephen Dock

EX-OFFICIO: Angela Anderson

The meeting was called to order at 12:00 noon in Rawl 142 by John Crammer. Donna Kain moved (Shanan Gibson seconded) approval of the minutes for the January 26 meeting as submitted. Motion passed.

The committee worked on the 2008-2009 calendar. Punctuation was fixed as suggested by Johna Faulconer (from an e-mail) and the wording in the third paragraph on the pages for fall and spring was modified for clarification as suggested by Jonathan Dembo. There was further discussion about Fall Break and changing the bold typeface to normal typeface. Stephen Dock moved (Angela Anderson seconded) approval of the 2008-2009 calendar as modified. Motion passed. The calendar will go to the March meeting of the Faculty Senate (the third Tuesday in March at 2:10 p.m.); Shanan Gibson, Angela Anderson, and Mary Farwell will represent the committee.

The committee moved to other topics of discussion. Erskine Bowles wants all the schools in the UNC system to change to a trimester. Jonathan Dembo said the Chancellor had sent out an e-mail on this subject. Donna Kain said that Central Florida required students to take summer school credits. John Crammer asked whether the 11-week summer term might be a starting point for a third semester. Donna Kain asked if they think a five-week summer term is not equivalent to a semester. Angela Anderson said that one problem is that summer school is self-supporting. Donna Kain pointed out that most faculty members are on 9-month contracts. Jonathan Dembo said that the change might force some students out of summer school. Angela Anderson noted that anyone can attend summer session. Donna Kain asked if this would force faculty to teach three semesters. John Crammer had checked the UNC Wilmington calendar to see if they were going to a trimester schedule but did not see a trimester calendar. Stephen Dock asked whether the change would be to a trimester or quarter system. Angela Anderson said that we are not going back to a quarter system.

The committee considered the faculty informational calendar. The committee decided to circulate the Draft of Unofficial Informational Faculty Calendar to the Faculty Senate for their suggestions. The wording on final grades was modified and other modifications were made. Shanan Gibson said there may be problems with the calendar. Angela Anderson asked if there were anything in it that we didn’t want students to see. The consensus was that there wasn’t anything that students shouldn’t see.

The plans for the next meeting are as follows. If the Faculty Senate does not approve the calendar, we will meet on March 30 at noon to make modifications as needed and submit the modified calendar. Otherwise the committee will meet on Friday, April 20 at noon (the Friday of the last full week of class) to work on the annual report for the committee and update the internal calendar guidelines.

Meeting adjourned at 12:50 pm.