Academic Calendar

Over the past year, I’ve received many inquiries regarding the College’s Academic Calendar. One of the most frequent inquiries is if the College could schedule its spring break at the same time as the local school districts to provide faculty and students with school children an opportunity to have a week together for vacations or other activities. Although I no longer have school age children, I certainly understand the convenience of having spring break the same week. In response to these inquiries, I asked the Academic Calendar Committee and the Council of Academic and Student Affairs (CASA) to evaluate the pros and cons of changing the dates for the 2009 spring break from March 9 – 13 to the area school districts’ spring break of April 13 – 17. They determined that leaving spring break in the middle of the semester was a more valuable and academically sound decision. The College began scheduling spring break at the mid-point of the semester a few years ago as a response to student and faculty concern that an April spring break was only a few weeks before the end of the semester, and that a mid-semester break more closely aligned with higher education calendar models.

In addition, there is no guarantee that all public and private schools in our service area will schedule spring break the exact same week every year; therefore, changing the calendar would not address everyone’s needs. Spring break, of course, is just one of the many concerns that you have shared with me. Other concerns include the desire for a fall break, to close the College for Easter Monday or Friday, not use annual leave during winter break, to have more workdays at the beginning of the semesters, etc. As you can imagine, there are many constraints that must be considered when scheduling the academic calendar such as: number of minutes of classroom instruction, number of faculty non-work days in the 39 and 13 week agreements, state holidays, etc. Faculty who have challenges with the scheduling of spring break should work with their academic associate vice president to determine possible options.

The Academic Calendar Committee will meet soon to begin planning the 2009-2010 Academic Calendar. If you have suggestions, please feel free to contact one of the following Committee members: Susan Feemster, Gina Misle, Jacquelyn Nesbitt, Al Sanderlin, Laura Sturgis, Marc Tarplee, or Mark Ulseth. If you wish to be involved in the planning of the academic calendar, please contact Jacquelyn Nesbitt.

I appreciate your input and hope you will continue to provide suggestions to me and others. I am sincere about working with you to help make YTC the best place possible to work. At the same time, I want us to balance that with learning and economic development. I don't think it would be right for me to only consider my definition of what that means so please continue to provide your perspective. When possible dig a little deeper to see why things are the way they are and when real constraints exist, how we can work within them, while considering the impact on our total organization and our stakeholders.