UPDATED: Dec. 3, 2018 at 12:55 p.m.

Syracuse University Provost Michele Wheatly sent an email to the deans of all 13 schools and colleges in mid-September where she asked for input about potential schedule changes that would reorganize Wednesday classes.

Classes typically scheduled for Monday and Wednesday in an 80-minute block would instead be spread across Monday, Wednesday and Thursday in 55 minute sessions. Some time on Wednesday afternoons would also be set aside for campus activities.

The email, obtained by The Daily Orange, said that the Academic Calendar and Schedule Brainstorming Group conducted a review with recommendations, which would be implemented in fall 2019 at the earliest. All input from faculty was asked to be submitted by Oct. 3.

The Academic Calendar and Schedule Brainstorming Group was convened in fall 2017 by Meg Cortese, a staff member in the Office of the Registrar; Associate Provost Jeff Stanton and Associate Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Carol Faulkner, Cortese said in a Sunday email.

Cortese said the change would likely be implemented in fall 2020 at the earliest.

The three co-led the group and were asked to create a list of recommendations for the future of the academic calendar since the current version ends in spring 2020, Cortese said. She added that there are representatives from the University Senate, individual schools and colleges, SU Athletics, Hendricks Chapel, Human Resources, Student Experience and Auxiliary Services.

Potential changes are going to be discussed at a University Senate meeting later in the fall, Wheatly said in the email. Cortese said a schedule change does not require formal Senate approval, but the group wants to work with University Senate and have a fully-formed proposal by early 2019. The last University Senate meeting of the semester is on Dec. 12.

Margaret Susan Thompson, along with other professors in the history department of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs sent emails to the group expressing their disapproval for the potential plan.

“I do not know why anyone seriously involved in teaching thinks that these changes are either necessary or beneficial; certainly, I do not,” Thompson said in a statement to the university. “The current system is not broken.”

Thompson said she and many other people have organized their lives around the current schedule, including research and travel. She said she was completely against the proposal and advised its rejection in her statement to the group.

Cortese said the group is early in the process of revising the schedule and is currently working to collect input on the proposal, which Cortese said has been both positive and negative.

She said the current potential program suggested, which hasn’t been finalized, is based off a proposal developed at SU in 2003. The proposal was never implemented.

Several schools have adopted schedules that limit weeks to four class days, but on a Monday through Thursday cycle. The University of Mobile, Eastern Florida State College and University of Akron have all effectively eliminated Friday classes, according to Insider Higher Ed.

Cortese said Manhattan College has been using a system similar to SU’s proposal since 2004.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the proposed schedule change was incorrectly stated to have been a complete elimination of classes on Wednesdays. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on December 2, 2018 at 10:08 pm

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert