Due to extenuating circumstances, final exams overlap with the designated study day on the University of Wisconsin academic calendar this semester.
The first period of exams will begin Friday, Dec. 16 at 7:25 p.m., the evening of the study day.
Because the university is faced with juggling two holidays — Labor Day and Christmas — with a mandated number of "instructional days" and graduation, exam periods are often scheduled during study days, David Musolf, secretary of the faculty, said.
"We don't have the same restrictions in the spring because we're not boxed in by those two holidays," he said.
Musolf added that because the university is legally obligated to start classes no sooner than Sept. 2, much of the blame falls on Labor Day. The overlap was scheduled this semester because the holiday fell on Sept. 5, ridding a full instructional day from the fall schedule.
"If Labor Day falls on the third or earlier, then we don't have to schedule any exams on the study day," he said.
While unfortunate, Assistant Registrar Sharon Pero said the overlap was inevitable, but should pose only a minimal impact on students' study regimens.
"There's one exam on the study day and only … at 7:25 in the evening," she said. "There just aren't enough calendar days between Sept. 2 and the end of the semester."
Pero added the exam period was scheduled late in the evening to ensure students with exams during that time would still be allowed at least 24 hours of preparation.
"We're trying to preserve the 24-hour study period," she said. "It was very specific legislation, you know, that we follow."
This semester, there are two fewer days of class than spring semester to help fit into the schedule, Pero said, with 72 in fall and 74 in spring.
"We didn't have the legal room because of the number of instructional days we have to fit in," she said. "[A] study day is not considered an instructional day, but final exams [are] because [they are] an organized activity."
Pero added another major challenge facing fall semester schedules is commencement, which must occur after classes and before the Christmas holiday. This semester, as in many fall semesters, graduation will be during exams, on Sunday, Dec. 18. So that students don't have to decide between going to an exam or attending commencement, the three periods scheduled that day will occur at 7:45 a.m., 10:05 a.m. and 7:25 p.m. Pero said that in the past, efforts were made to place commencement before exams, but many administrators and faculty senate representatives found the idea unreasonable.
"There's really only one good Sunday in the fall where commencement can occur on," she said. "It's not reasonable to have commencement fall before the semester ends."
Aside from the 2008-09 academic year, exams will fall on commencement every fall semester until 2011.
While the overlap in exam schedules might upset some students, Musolf said when he attended UW in the 1960s, students had to come back to school to take exams after Christmas to fit in the required number of study days, then go on another short break before spring semester.
"The semester went later in the spring because the fall semester went into January," he said. Fortunately, Musolf said the faculty senate decided to end what he describes as the "lame-duck session."
