Compressed calendar ahead
Kat Timpf
Issue date: 1/22/09 Section: News
Students can expect an extra four days off from classes next year, at the expense of a shorter Christmas break and some final exams on a Saturday, Provost Robert Blackstock said.
Administrators plan to "condense" the academic calendar by making summer vacation a week longer, shortening winter break to three weeks and one day, scheduling classes on Labor Day and placing the last winter semester finals on Dec. 19 - a Saturday.
The new schedule will give students an extra four days off. Blackstock said cutting these four days also cuts college expenses, such as the cost of feeding students.
He listed three reasons for the longer summer break in a follow-up e-mail to the Collegian.
"The later start gives students a week longer to work at summer jobs, it gives families more time for summer travel; and probably for these reasons, there appears to be considerable support for starting the semester a week later," he said.
Blackstock said the school had to begin classes before Labor Day because it falls on the latest possible day, Sept. 7. However, he said the administration will consider starting classes after Labor Day during years when it falls earlier.
This longer summer vacation pushes back winter break. Without the Saturday finals, Blackstock said, students would not get out until the following Monday, Dec. 21.
Junior Brandon Carmack said he strongly opposes Saturday finals.
"It goes against everything Hillsdale stands for," Carmack said. "It suppresses my individual freedom to use my time as I see fit and encroaches on my freedom of my weekends. There will be a revolution that I may or may not be a part of."
Blackstock said he realizes the Saturday finals will likely be unpopular among students.
"I suspect [students would] rather not take them, but we'll do what we can to limit the number that there are," Blackstock said. "Students elsewhere have taken them and survived."
Apart from Saturday finals, Carmack said he worried about the shortened Christmas break.
"It causes conflict at home," Carmack said. "We can't spend time with family."
Associate Professor of Business Charles Davies said the shorter break will prevent the business department from running the seminar it normally runs after first-semester finals. Davies said the department plans to hold next year's seminar in May, beginning after exams, taking a day off for graduation, then finishing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week.
Davies expressed concern for students who need to travel far distances to get home for break, whose airfares may increase so close to Christmas, as well as those who wanted to work over the break.
Despite all of the controversial changes, Blackstock assures students many things will remain the same: the two-day fall break, the three-day Thanksgiving break and the one-week spring break. His reasoning?
"I wouldn't want to get hurt," he said, jokingly.
Administrators plan to "condense" the academic calendar by making summer vacation a week longer, shortening winter break to three weeks and one day, scheduling classes on Labor Day and placing the last winter semester finals on Dec. 19 - a Saturday.
The new schedule will give students an extra four days off. Blackstock said cutting these four days also cuts college expenses, such as the cost of feeding students.
He listed three reasons for the longer summer break in a follow-up e-mail to the Collegian.
"The later start gives students a week longer to work at summer jobs, it gives families more time for summer travel; and probably for these reasons, there appears to be considerable support for starting the semester a week later," he said.
Blackstock said the school had to begin classes before Labor Day because it falls on the latest possible day, Sept. 7. However, he said the administration will consider starting classes after Labor Day during years when it falls earlier.
This longer summer vacation pushes back winter break. Without the Saturday finals, Blackstock said, students would not get out until the following Monday, Dec. 21.
Junior Brandon Carmack said he strongly opposes Saturday finals.
"It goes against everything Hillsdale stands for," Carmack said. "It suppresses my individual freedom to use my time as I see fit and encroaches on my freedom of my weekends. There will be a revolution that I may or may not be a part of."
Blackstock said he realizes the Saturday finals will likely be unpopular among students.
"I suspect [students would] rather not take them, but we'll do what we can to limit the number that there are," Blackstock said. "Students elsewhere have taken them and survived."
Apart from Saturday finals, Carmack said he worried about the shortened Christmas break.
"It causes conflict at home," Carmack said. "We can't spend time with family."
Associate Professor of Business Charles Davies said the shorter break will prevent the business department from running the seminar it normally runs after first-semester finals. Davies said the department plans to hold next year's seminar in May, beginning after exams, taking a day off for graduation, then finishing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week.
Davies expressed concern for students who need to travel far distances to get home for break, whose airfares may increase so close to Christmas, as well as those who wanted to work over the break.
Despite all of the controversial changes, Blackstock assures students many things will remain the same: the two-day fall break, the three-day Thanksgiving break and the one-week spring break. His reasoning?
"I wouldn't want to get hurt," he said, jokingly.
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