September 27, 2007

Say “No” to starting classes two days early. ³

by Tim Lee • UoG

The University of Guelph board of undergraduate studies are sure causing quite a stir on campus with their recent proposal to start classes two days early. The proposed schedule would have school start on the Thursday of the Orientation week, and leaving two “reading days” for student at the end of the fall semester to study before the commencement of exams on the following Monday. This change has been proposed to address the lost classes on Thanksgiving Monday (currently 3000 students are registered in Monday Night classes). Starting earlier would allow these classes to be made up on the final Thursday of the semester and also give Friday as an additional study day for all students.

Several pros has been mentioned about the proposed schedule — More time to study for finals, and the ability for upper year students to get some administrative chores that presents itself at the beginning of the semester out of the way — but that’s the extent of the pros.

Here are the cons that I’ve compiled:

1. Shortening of Orientation week for first year would disallow students to familiarize themselves with the campus, not to mention the end of many events ran by clubs and councils that usually happens at the end of Orientation week.
2. As an orientation volunteer, having no weekend to recharge before classes starts would definitely not impress me.
3. For students who are employed over the summer, the two day early move in would require one to quit an entire week of work to move back to Guelph.
4. Lots of students are dependent on parents for move-in days, having classes starting on Thursday would mean an extra early move-in.

The notion of “getting administrative stuff out of the way” is irrelevant. While the CSA may not distribute their buss passes till the first day of classes, all other administrations are all open to students. OSAP is usually available the week before, and the lines are almost empty nearing payment due date. Since the money received from OSAP can be transferred into the student’s billing account instantly, there should be no issues. As for exams, I’d much rather get out a week later then losing that two days on Orientation week. If the University really wants to give students extra time to study, then it might as well give us a whole reading week after the conclusion of classes. If one entire week seems unreasonable, perhaps just the two extra days to make up for the missed classes on Thanksgiving.

Somebody should remind the Undergraduate Studies Committee that this whole proposal works against the university’s recent “re-branding” and slogan which purports to be changing and improving the lives of its student; a little hard to do when you short hand an important transition period for new students, and provide unnecessary change-of-plans for the rest of the undergraduates.

I encourage everyone to submit their feedback on this matter to their respective Student Senate, or visit the Student Senate Caucus website to further discuss this issue.