COMMITTEE: Calendar

MEETING DATE: November 18, 2008

PERSON PRESIDING: Shanan Gibson

ATTENDEES: Punam Madhok, Donna Kain, Johna Faulconer, Kathleen Row, Linda Teel, Shanan Gibson, Terry Jones

EX-OFFICIO: Angela Anderson, Steve Cerutti, Rodney Roberts, Justin Perry

VISITORS: John Crammer

The meeting was called to order at 10:00 am in Rawl 142 by Shanan Gibson. Rodney Roberts moved (Kathleen Row seconded) approval of the October 15, 2008 minutes as written. Motion passed. Gibson reminded the group that handouts distributed via email relating to future meetings should be printed and brought to the meetings by individual members. These handouts will no longer be provided in print format by the chair.

Gibson distributed handouts related to agenda items. The committee revisited the deadline for submitting appeals based on a request from the Student Academic Appellate Committee. Gibson asked Anderson to give the historical background of the appeals process. Anderson explained the overlap that occurs between the due date for grades and the last date for students to request appeals. In some instances, students receive grade notifications after the last date to request an appeal. The committee agreed that the last date for appeal requests should be a reasonable period after students receive notification of grades, but prefer additional guidance on the topic from the Student Academic Appellate Committee before making a final decision. Anderson agreed to confer with the Student Academic Appellate Committee and provide additional guidance at the next meeting.

The committee next discussed changing the date in which the late payment fee is applied based on the request from Student Financial Services. Anderson acknowledged that in the past the date for the late payment fee had been adjusted on the calendar as an editorial change, but it would be preferable for the committee to make the change. Anderson explained the need to move the date for late payment fees 30 days into the semester in order to accommodate students who, at times, receive financial aid after the current date. After a discussion on the current wording of “late registration,” the committee proposed to change the wording of the calendar (using the Fall Semester 2010 as the sample) as follows: on date of August 24, Tuesday-- delete “late registration” which would now read “Classes begin; schedules changes; on date of August 30, Monday-- delete “late” which would now read “Last day for registration and schedule changes (drop and add) by 5:00 pm”; and on date of October 5, Tuesday-- add “Last day to pay fees without penalty.”

In conjunction with the previous discussion, Gibson asked the committee to review the ECU drop dates based on the relevancy to other UNC schools referring to the distributed handout with comparison of schools in ’07 and ’08. Crammer noted that there is a committee responsible for reviewing and making changes for drop dates. The committee proposed that this subject be given to Linda Wolfe for consideration by the Academic Standards Committee.

A copy of the fall 2008 and spring 2009 Final Exam Schedule was distributed by Crammer for discussion of the Common Exam schedule. The committee revisited this schedule in order to review the schedule to avoid overlapping exam schedules. Once again, a discussion followed concerning the common exam schedule and possible conflicts with 5:00 pm classes. Gibson noted the four possible solutions discussed at the October 15^th meeting as follows: 1) educate departments on the examination schedule referring to it as class scheduling is done, 2) request that Banner set up class schedules in order to avoid conflicts when possible, 3) move common examination schedules to a 7:30-10:00 time period instead of the current 5:00-7:30, and 4) change common examination schedules to a Saturday schedule. Anderson explained the Banner scheduling process which, at this time, does not have the capacity to schedule classes in order to avoid the overlap. Kain posed an additional alternative to consider not having common exams, but rather have instructors give exams for these classes based on the regular schedule. Gibson asked members of the committees who are in departments with common exams (Crammer and Cerutti) to discuss the alternatives with their faculty gathering input and reporting back to the group at the next meeting.

The next meeting will be in January. Date and time will be determined based on spring semester schedules. Gibson will send out time and date. The meeting will approve the minutes, hear Anderson’s follow-up with the Student Academic Appellate Committee, discuss the common exam schedule and input from faculty, and work further on the 2009-2010 calendar. Gibson will make changes to the draft of the calendars and distribute them.

Meeting adjourned at 11:05 am.