Board of Governanace: Lack of faculty support eliminates possibility of study day
By COLLEEN McCARTHY
Associate News Editor
The Board of Governance learned Monday that a lack of support from academic departments has most likely eliminated the possibility of study days for Saint Mary's students.
The Academic Standards committee send a survey to the chairperson of each academic department to ask for feedback on the study day proposal, Kelly Dugan, student representative to the committee said. Of the 18 departments that responded to the survey, 13 opposed adding study days to the academic calendar.
"There was a lot of very strong opposition to it and those who were in favor of the proposal were like `I guess this would be OK,'" Dugan said.
The survey asked the academic departments to evaluate several areas of concern including student workload before exams, opinions regarding the proposed study day and ideas for counteracting the stress students feel in the week before exams.
While the surveys indicated the faculty recognize that students have a large workload in the week leading up to exams and a lot of stress, they do not feel a study day will remedy the problem, said Dugan.
"They don't think the study day will be beneficial to us," said Dugan. "What you really have is a difference of opinion between students and faculty as to what is going to be more helpful to us."
Dugan said faculty members on the committee believe one reason many faculty members oppose study days is that the professors feel they can better prepare students for exams in a class period rather than giving students the day off.
Susan Vanek, director of first year studies, chairs the committee.
Dugan and SAC chairperson Michelle Nagle, who also sits on the committee, said they doubted the committee would pass the proposal without the support of faculty.
"If 13 departments are saying this is not a good idea, it won't happen," said Dugan. "They obviously don't think it is a good idea. And professors are very concerned about losing another teaching day."
Dugan said the committee was supportive and recognized that the intense workload students receive the week before exams needs to be addressed.
Suggestions included gathering sample test schedules from students and syllabi from faculty to examine what an average student's workload is like towards the end of the semester. Also suggested was recommending that professors do not introduce new material in the last week before exams that would be included on the final exam.
Nagle, who is also student body president-elect, said that she and her vice president elect, Kristen Matha, will continue the fight.
"Even with these results, I won't say this is over," said Nagle. "We're going to keep being an integral part of the communication throughout this process. We're just going to have to take what we can build on and take that to the next level."
In other news:
uAdmissions commissioner Stephanie Redwanski said she had been in communication with the Admissions office regarding the article in "Cosmopolitan" magazine detailing the sexual assault of a Saint Mary's student and the College's response. With Accepted Student Day on campus approaching on March 25, students may be approached by visitors regarding their response to the article.
"The Admissions office said that if we are approached by anyone, we should just tell them what we feel about the article and be honest," said Redwanski. "They said there is no set response regarding the article."
All News Stories for Tuesday, March 6, 2001
