News

Study day vote to come

With the Associated Students of Madison pressing them to take action, the University of Wisconsin Faculty Senate will vote next month on whether or not to grant students a guaranteed study day before final exams.

The University Committee — the highest committee of the Faculty Senate — acknowledged in a letter the need for the proposal but tweaked it before forwarding it to the entire Faculty Senate.

ASM presented a plan to move one final exam block from the first day of exams to the day of commencement in order to ensure no students would need to take an exam the day after classes end. The situation only occurs when Labor Day falls after Sept. 4, so the next semester affected is fall 2009.

Instead of moving the conflicting exam block, the University Committee instead decided to combine two exam blocks with low numbers to keep commencement day unchanged.

"The current exam block load on commencement day already challenges December graduates and their families," David Musolf, secretary of the faculty said in the letter. "The committee does not support exacerbation of that situation."

Dylan Rath, co-chair of the ASM Study Day Committee, said the combination was an idea they hadn't considered in their deliberations.

"I think it's something that will benefit students without extending the school year," Rath said. "It's an alternative we hadn't thought of."

Musolf said in the letter that, although the possibility of conflict exists for students who may happen to be in both blocks, the impact on students overall would be substantially less than moving the exam to the day of commencement.

Rath agreed students already have a busy schedule on commencement day, and this plan will also accomplish their goal of freeing up the study day.

"I can see where there would be problems with a tight schedule on commencement, and it might cause students to feel rushed to get to post-graduation celebrations," Rath said.

Stephanie Biese, co-chair of the ASM Study Committee, called the response a "huge victory" for ASM.

"For three out of every six years, there's no study day," Biese said. "This will really help out with that."

ASM will host a press conference today to explain the future use of the study day and implementation of study activities for students.