Then we have great news! If you thought this fall’s exam schedule was right up your alley, then you’ll be pleased to hear that Columbia will be getting not one, but two sequels. First, next fall will have almost the exact same structure as this year: once again, students will get two “study days,” and will not finish their exams until December 23rd. The only difference is that exams will return to a Friday-Friday schedule. And while the blessed three day study period will finally make a return in 2011, exams then will still end on the 23rd.

Now, it’s likely that these dates won’t change; the calendars, students were told last year, are set years in advance, and Columbia administration prefers that concepts like “hope” and “change” stay with alumni. But when every single other Ivy League school has managed to end classes earlier (including Cornell, which is subject to the same New York state education laws as Columbia), then maybe, just maybe, there’s glimmer of hope for the Class of 2011. In the meantime, West Coasters may want to start booking flights.

While you despair/rejoice/fret over your housing number, some other news to take your mind off singles and square feet: the “Study Day Project” has been resolved! Presumptive CCSC President Sue Yang filled Bwog in on the details:

• Registrar John Carter and Brady Sloan have determined that there will be 2 study days next semester: Tuesday, December 15, and Wednesday, December 16, (as opposed to just Tuesday December 15).
  
• Why isn’t the last Monday of classes cancelled? “New York State Law prevents us from canceling the final Monday of classes; it requires a certain number of Mondays, Tuesdays, etc. of classes every semester.”
  
• “Exams are being shifted around to accommodate this change,” and “measures will be taken to ensure that future conflict does not arise over this issue.”
• Yang also told Bwog, “I think the Study Day issue and its resolution are a good model of how council can facilitate interactions between students and administrative bodies to bring students the change they want to see,” and insisted on giving a shout-out the Committee on Instruction’s Student Representatives, Yiliu Shen-Burke and Brendan Price.

In case you didn’t already figure the symbolism out, New York State Law = “the man.”

The effect: the exam period will run from Thursday (the 17th) to Wednesday (the 23rd), with Saturday and Sunday still off, and there will just be more exams within those four days. You may now continue with plans to skip your last Monday class.

- JCD

Credit where it’s due: ever since Bwog noted the strange existence of next winter’s Study Day, the student councils have been working to make the best of a bad calendaring situation (the academic calendar that spawned study day was set into place back in the 90s). And now according to CC 2010 VP Sue Yang, a solution could be but a month away. 

Last night, ESC joined CCSC in passing a resolution (authored by multiple representatives, including Yang and ESC President Peter Valeiras) that offered two possible solutions: either canceling classes on the Monday before exams, or holding exams on the Sunday of exam period in order to start them on Thursday rather than Wednesday. The resolution has been sent to the school deans, and will be presented to the Committee on Instruction on February 4th. By mid-February, “a solution will hopefully be confirmed and implemented.”

As for other ESC business, last night’s meeting saw the ’09 class council announce that graduating seniors in ABET-accredited majors can join the “Order of the Engineer” (Bwog wants the regalia to include water buffalo hats). Also, ESC Student Services Representative Emma Lebwohl is currently working with the management of Dodge Fitness Center to move the signup for cardio training machines online.

While you’re trundling through another night of studying for this year’s exams (or have joined the lucky few who are done), let’s look ahead to the New Year. More specfically, CC ’10 VP (and potential presidential candidate) Sue Yang got in touch with Bwog about how next year’s “Study Day” conundrum is being handled. 

Two options remain on the table, in slightly different format from what was proposed a few weeks ago. The first, canceling class on the last Monday of the semester, and giving students three more days to study, remains intact. The second option keeps the idea of using Sunday as an exam day, but, instead of shifting the start time back, “this would allow us to end exams on Tuesday December 22 instead of Wednesday December 23.” In short, if both were adopted:

• Classes would end on Friday the 11th.
• “Study Period” would run Saturday the 12th to Tuesday the 15th
• Exams would run from Wednesday the 16th to Tuesday the 22nd, except for the Saturday in between.

As for administration approval, Yang informed Bwog that CC Dean of Academic Affairs Kathryn Yatrakis “personally sees no issues facing these solutions,” but the steps have to be cleared by the university registrar. “Whether we can pursue one or both of these options will depend on the response received from the Registrar,” said Yang, ”Ideally, we would be able to implement both.”

As for interschool cooperation, ESC president Peter Valeiras  has apparently obtained SEAS administration support for both steps, and the deans have also suggested a third option: a 10pm-1am exam time slot. Bwog thinks that may be taking the whole “city that never sleeps” idea a little too far.

So while we’re on the subject of academic calendar discontent, it’s worth pointing out that the first day of classes for Spring Term falls on Inauguration Day, when approximately all of the Earth’s population will congregate in Washington for Obama’s swearing-in. 

One Bwog staffer was quick to point out that “the first day of classes doesn’t matter,” while another countered that it does matter if you have a seminar on Tuesday and the professor hands over your spot to a lucky wait-lister.

Unlike student council’s tenuous battle against Study Day, this is one unfortunate act of calendering that’s not going anywhere. So, the decision is yours, but the generosity of your new professors is up to the fates.

There was much uproar in response to our Shocking Revelation that next fall, the traditional Reading Week will morph into a tiny, hellish creature known as “Study Day.” Is there anything to be done about the unfortunate calendering? CCSC offers up a resounding “maybe!” 

According to 2010 VP Sue Yang, who’s point person on the Study Day Project, the following two options are the most viable:

1. “Move the last day of classes from Monday Dec 14 to Friday Dec 11.  This, of course, would require faculty who would normally teach those Monday courses to shift their schedule for this one day.  Students who normally have classes and recitations on Friday may incur some conflicts too.  This would, however, add not only that Monday to the reading period, but also provide the weekend as study days free of the worry of classes.
2. Keep the class schedule the same, but hold exams on Saturday and Sunday (as some universities do) so that we can shift the start of the exam period from Wednesday Dec 16 to Friday Dec 18.  Students would then have a normal reading period of Tuesday – Thursday.”

Read more…

Bwog Daily Editor James Downie was procrastinating by… scoping out the 2009 academic calendar. How else? Anyway, bad news: enjoy reading week this semester, because next fall term, there’ll only a “Study Day.” 

“Oh no!” you say? Oh yes. Exams run from Wednesday to Wednesday, rather than Friday to Friday, meaning that we have just a solitary day of preparation: Tuesday, December 15th, 2009. Break itself is shorter too; just 26 days, assuming you get out on that Wednesday.