After an initial round of skepticism, members of the faculty unanimously approved a change in next year's academic calendar by voice vote on Tuesday, paving the way for an overhaul of Orientation programming.
Orientation will now begin on Sunday, Sept. 2, and classes will begin Wednesday, Sept. 5. Incoming first-years will move in over Labor Day weekend in preparation for three days of programming.
Before the vote, faculty articulated concerns and asked questions of Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron, who presented the motion.
Associate Professor of Sociology Ann Dill, chair of the Faculty Executive Committee, expressed concern that a shortened Orientation would not allow students enough time to acclimate themselves to a new home, buy essentials at the mall and meet friends.
"This is especially important for international students, who not only have to get used to a new home, but a new culture," Dill said.
University officials and members of the review committee who proposed the change have said the new Orientation schedule will strengthen first-year advising by ensuring faculty are on campus to meet with their freshmen advisees.
In previous years, advisers have been asked to return to campus immediately following the Labor Day weekend, resulting in faculty absences that have left nearly 100 first-years with proxy advisors for their first advising meetings, Bergeron said in the meeting.
According to one professor, some professors were on vacation, but others were away at professional conferences.
Administrators have also said even though Orientation will officially be three days, much of the programming will be moved to the first weekend after classes start. "Orientation, in a way, will still be a week, but it will be subdivided by the articulation of classes," Bergeron said.
Professor of Mathematics Thomas Banchoff said the new schedule, which moves the beginning of the academic year from a Tuesday to a Wednesday, leaves students shopping classes that meet on Tuesday and Thursday with fewer opportunities to make a decision about a course. "I'm really worried about the effect on shopping period and freshman acclimatization," he said.
Kathryn Spoehr, professor of cognitive and linguistic sciences, questioned whether shifting the academic calendar ahead - which pushes the last day of finals forward one day - might place an undue cost burden on students, who will now have to fly home even closer to the Christmas holiday, when airlines often blackout lower fares.
Other faculty said they were concerned about the effect of the change on student activities, shopping period and freshman advising.
Professors' concerns aside, the faculty voted unanimously for the change. Even after the vote, it remains unclear whether or not students support the reforms. Bergeron said the committee's recommendations "received an interesting vetting," because they were brought to the University Resources Committee, Meiklejohn leadership, members of the Orientation and Welcoming Committee and peer counselor leadership. Members of the Undergraduate Council of Students also told The Herald they have been following the committee's work. Three undergraduates were included on the Orientation review committee.
Dill said not a single undergrad was in favor of the changes during a straw poll she conducted in her class SO 109: "Theories of Organizational Dynamics and Decision Making."
Also at yesterday's meeting, Provost David Kertzer '69 P'95 P'98, who chairs the budget-setting University Resources Committee, hinted that the URC will recommend a moderate tuition increase to President Ruth Simmons and the Corporation for approval later this month.
Kertzer also said the URC will recommend a higher payout from the endowment, which is currently approximately $2.3 billion, citing strong investment growth and fundraising that have bolstered the University's coffers by nearly $1 billion in the last six years.
Additionally, the University is now searching for 75 new professors. Some of these searches are a result of normal attrition, but in total the searches will result in a net gain of 15 to 25 new professors as part of plans to continue expanding the faculty under the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Kertzer said.
However, the University is feeling pressure in funding graduate students and will seek to cut costs by admitting fewer students, Kertzer said. The Graduate School has increased stipends by $5,700 per student in recent years and now offers a five-year funding guarantee to doctoral students. "We've made major investments in the Grad School, but we're now feeling a certain crunch in metabolizing those changes," he added.
In her monthly report to the faculty, President Ruth Simmons said she will publicly respond to recommendations from the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice after briefing the Corporation at their meeting later this month.
Simmons said she will endorse some of the committee's recommendations regarding commemoration, academic initiatives and community work and will offer her own recommendations that were not mentioned in the Slavery and Justice report.
