SG passes changes to finals week

 

 

By Whittney Johnson

Students who want to take an axe to their finals to relieve stress may have to settle for a less violent compromise: Student Government is proposing to split finals week and put a weekend in the middle.

In a vote on Wednesday, the full SG Senate passed a proposal to add a two-day Fall Break, split dead week and finals week over weekends and end the semester two days early. The proposal passed with two dissenting votes.

The new fall schedule will start classes a week early, leaving five class-free days to sprinkle across the semester.  Two days will be given as a Fall Break, somewhere between Labor Day and Thanksgiving, one day will be given on the Wednesday between Dead Week and Finals Week, leaving two days for the semester to end early.

Ryan Smith, SG president, said the idea came after he heard about the schedule at other benchmark and Southeastern Conference schools.

“We want to make sure what we want as students and what (professors) need as faculty will be in line,” Smith said.

The only flaw with the new schedule is the concern of lab courses and other supplemental classes being affected, Smith said.

The new schedule ends the semester two days early, leaving faculty extra time to calculate grades, Smith said.

Kyle Kirk, an SG Senate Council Representative who helped design the proposal, feels a huge sense of support from students.

“We feel that having a full Spring Break in the spring semester is reward enough and incentive enough to do well on our finals,” Kirk said.

The proposal will now be sent as a working draft to the Senate Council for consideration and changes, then make its way to the Faculty Senate, which has the ability to implement the proposal.