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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:
- “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.
- 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.”
Still, said Yang, putting into place either of these things (or any other solution) requires cooperation between the four school councils. Ideally, solutions would be discussed before break with a resolution coming to fruition sometime in the mid-February area. However, the timeline “will depend on the schedules of the parties involved,” she cautioned.
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45 Comments
@Great Feedback Great feedback, thank you! All ideas will be brought into discussion, including those calling for the earlier start. More research will be conducted on the issues facing all of the ideas.
@Eleniki Yes, moving classes up a week is the best option.
Ending school on the 23rd is not appropriate.
Having exams through the weekend is definitely not appropriate – all religious considerations aside (and yes, I am a religious person), do you really want a straight run of finals? I don’t know about you, but I rely on that weekend. It’s necessary for mental health reasons.
We can start school a week earlier and still take Labor Day off. It’s not a big deal.
And if we’re really going to eliminate an extra day to even things out, I vote that it be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (that way, we miss the equivalent of an entire week over the course of the semester) and that it be permanent.
@... Agreed about not having classes on Monday (and it’s true, MW classes do get one more day), but the best solution is to move school up a week.
If there is bad weather on the 23rd or 24th, as there often is, many people won’t make it home for Christmas.
@religion Given that Columbia shows clear disregard for religious groups on campus, why should special consideration be given to Christmas? After all, no one is asking you to take finals on Christmas eve, and there are plenty of professors who not only have classes on the HOLIEST Jewish holidays, but also assign work to be due on those days, sometimes even exams.
@... that’s just silly
there is a clear cultural deference in the US for Christmas and the university should obviously respect that… even if you are jewish your parents probably won’t have to be at work on Christmas day since that’s a national holiday
also, all sorts of holy days for many religions go unheeded; just because the holiest jewish day goes unheeded is a bad basis to say we should ignore Christmas… i mean, for an entire month the muslim kids on campus go to class and turn in homework while having to starve themselves during the day… i don’t see them complaining
@fat? sue is not.
@Christmas?! Study days or not really doesn’t matter to me – I don’t want to finish exams on December 23. I would SO much rather start school a week early and get out a week early. PLEASE make this happen!!
@yeah, honestly it is pretty goddamn retarded that they didn’t think of that
no one cares about labor day
at all
@I think just not having that Monday class is the most viable option
Some religious folks have obligations on Saturdays &/or Sundays and even though they’re in the minority, I think the hassle of all those make-up exams is enough for CCSC to take that option off the table.
@sue is a) such a sweet, nice girl and b) a very hard worker and super involved at Columbia. Kudos to her and stop talking shit. And I’m not on CCSC or one of their groupies.
@gtfo AJ, you’re gay. geeze, is ccsc always this big of a circle jerk?
@CONFESSION i’ve got a serious crush on sue yang. god, please marry me.
:) :) :)
@lol Yes Sue Wang is definitely the most qualified person for CCSC. You know, given it’s long history of extremely qualified leaders.
Oh and yes #20, being the hardest worker on CCSC, she must be the hardest worker at Columbia. Wow because cc’10 has done so much this year.
@sue yang sue yang is fat. and wants to work on wall st. take from that what you will.
@wrooong sue yang is amazing and you’re a bitter SOB.
but keep sippin your haterade
@Both as well... It’s hard to believe that we’re in this dilemma in the first place. Obviously the calendar changes, but they’ve kind of stuck us in a rut where any shift will hurt large groups of students.
Finals already end quite late this year (I have friends who are out for good after Thanksgiving and others that finish Finals this Friday). Having a last final on the 23rd and then barely getting home and seeing my family by Christmas Eve after not having seen them for 6 months is even more ridiculous. It would be very nice to get rid of the Monday class, because it really is ridiculous already. If we did that I wouldn’t mind going starting Wednesday and going straight through the weekend to finish exams on the 21st. I also respect that we do have a large Jewish population who wouldn’t appreciate exams on Saturdays, but most other universities have them and it seems to work. The other option of keeping our reading week as it is now and going through the weekend would also work but seems to hurt both big religious group of working on Saturday and ending so close to Christmas.
I also agree that this should be more widely discussed. Thanks BWOG.
@The first one is fine. I’m not doing any weekend exams though.
@Lovez the Gayz I heared that Learned Foote is gay.
@Yes i thought this was common knowledge
@ccsc member sue yang is basically the hardest worker on council.
and probably at columbia.
and i dunno about 15, but i am not melissa im
@also not Melissa From CCSC perspective Sue is definitely the most qualified person on council for the president next year.
@i agree sue is the most qualified person ON COUNCIL for the job.
that doesn’t make her the most qualified person AT COLUMBIA for the job.
@wtf This is ridiculous. I fail to understand why we can’t have the same schedule next year as we do this year. It’s managed to work fine every year in the past.
@... LET THE CAMPAIGN GRANDSTANDING BEGIN!!!
It always starts bubbling in December… bwog, any rumors about candidates and the like? Robyn Burgess? Sue Yang? Learned Foote? AJ Pascua?
@hahaha yes, Sue is making the appropriate grandstanding overtures, isn’t she? now when is someone else going to step up and fight for the plight of students (aka put their hat in the ring)?
@Yay! Sue is awesome!
Does anyone else notice that she is the ‘point person’ on everything important?
Sue for ruler of the world!
@oh also melissa im, stop spouting sue’s praise on bwog. thnx
@... that girl would take a bullet for sue yang
@Uhh How about just not having class on Monday the 14th?
@balls to housing and orientation stuff. If they are so inflexible that they can’t handle moving the term back by 1 day, they really are incompetent.
Anyway, why have other Councils stayed mum on this? Isn’t this the kind of thing Student Councils are supposed to do, instead of shit like NROTC and interfering with student groups, which only cater to a few?
@sighhhh The councils never really get it…
The administration of ALL schools sets the academic calendar. This isn’t something that undergrads yelling and screaming about will change.
It has to be a change called for by all schools.
@Senate involved The Senate will be discussing this issue at the meta levels. It is possible to affect some change.
@Both? Having the last day of classes on monday is stupid anyway. Think about it… this semester we’ve had one Monday off (election holiday), one Tuesday off (election holiday), and one Thursday off (Thanksgiving), meaning we’ve had one more MW class than TR class. Cutting the last Monday of classes would not only give us more time to study, but it would also even everything out. (Trust me, I’m OCD and I write the session number on top of each page of notes, and we will end up with one more MW class than TR class. It kills me.)
@Haha I remember that several of my teachers in middle school used to do that too. Perhaps they were also OCD?
@how about that classes started on a tuesday, so we technically had another MW class off? does that even things out?
@Feedback From the CCSC Policy Committee:
Please keep your feedback on these options and any ideas/comments you have coming! We are meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss this further and will incorporate your thoughts and opinions. Of course, if you feel that this is a non-issue, please indicate so as well. Any and all comments welcome.
If you would like to contact us more directly with your feedback or ideas, please do so at policy@columbia.edu.
Thank you!
@2nd idea is better definitely better
@durf Why is moving class up a week not being considered?
The whole “classes start on a Tuesday” thing is so retarded anyway.
@Why is starting the day after Labor Day so sacrosanct? This entire problem stems from the fact that we’re starting class on September 8 (because Labor Day is on the 7th). Why don’t we start on the Sept. 1 or even August 31? That would solve this whole problem.
@i... …second this idea.
@NSOP, COOP, CUE Dates are already set for these orientation/pre-orientation programs as well as housing…these would be issues that would have to be addressed should school begin earlier. It is not off the table, but it is one of the more challenging solutions.
@true But it wouldn’t be impossible to move NSOP etc. up a week if they act soon. After all, the ’13s haven’t even been accepted yet (soon, though…can’t wait for the facebook groups!), let alone received any orientation information. It wouldn’t affect them one way or the other if the dates were changed before they (and others participating in late summer activities) made any serious travel arrangements. But, if Columbia decision makers wait too long (ie late spring), changing NSOP, CUE, and COOP dates would be difficult and confusing.
I’m not even sure that moving class and orientation each up one week would affect the second summer term, as that ends at least mid-August.
And 39, even if the University didn’t care about Christmas, much of the rest of the country does. So traveling on Dec 23 or 24 is difficult, inconvenient, and expensive even if you aren’t trying to get home in time for Christmas. I don’t think it’s as bad as Thanksgiving, though, but it’s not fun. Also, who wants to be at school that late in December?
@bwog Sue is 2010.
@good idea, but Many of our Jew friends won’t be up for Saturday exams.
I don’t mind having only one study day. I’m more concerned about getting home in time for Christmas!
@I like the second idea. Giving us a weekend to study doesn’t really do much, and really isn’t fair considering that we’d still be losing 2 weekdays to study.