In answer to student concerns raised at a recent GUSA meeting, the administration has created a third calendar proposal that will move Commencement activities from Memorial Day Weekend and lengthen Senior Week to six days.

University Provost Dorothy Brown, University Registrar John Q. Pierce and Assistant to the Provost Scott Boeh presented Draft C to a largely divided student audience at Monday’s Junior Class Committee Meeting.

The draft was presented to students before the faculty because the administration wanted to receive feedback from students first, Brown said.

“We are coming to you first because you are the ones that raised these questions,” she said. “Nothing is set in stone, but this is a significant confirmation that we are seriously working to accommodate everyone involved.”

Consisting of three five-week periods each divided by a break in the Spring semester, the proposal places Spring Break in mid-February and reschedules Commencement activities to May 17-19. It also extends Senior Week from the three days allotted in previous proposals to six days.

The longer Senior Week would also be beneficial to the administration because it gives them more time to compile official class ranks and transcripts before Commencement.

According to Pierce, the main issue at hand is the timing of the Commencement Weekend. He said the faculty has requested for many years that the ceremony move from Memorial Weekend because it is traditionally a time spent with families. Also, this change would relieve parents and family members of graduates from traveling to Georgetown during one of the most traveled weekends of the year, he said.

Currently, Boeh said Georgetown was one of the last schools in the nation on a semester schedule to hold graduation ceremonies so late in the year.

“It is important to the faculty to attend graduation because they have worked with the students for four years and have come to respect them,” Brown said. “They want to be there to watch them commence.”

Students at the meeting argued that without the long weekend, family members will be forced to take additional time off from work and attending Commencement will turn into an inconvenience.

According to Brown, the separate Spring Break and Easter Break, as opposed to one combined break in a different proposal, also accommodates student interests concerning vacations and service projects.

“Under this plan, students won’t have to make a choice between going to Appalachia or with Habitat for Humanity and spending Easter with their families,” Brown said.

Students expressed mixed feelings about the proposal of Draft C.

“I think it’s awesome that the administration came to talk to us, and they are letting us give our input on this,” Jessica Perazzelli (COL ’02) said. “On the other hand, there seems to be a trade-off between having different Spring and Easter Breaks and Commencement during Memorial [Day] Weekend. The issues are not really being addressed.”

Perazzelli said she would support Draft C if the plan included a emorial Weekend Commencement.

GUSA Chief Advisor Eric Rivers (COL ’02) advocates the acceptance of the proposal. “GUSA has been working with the administration to come up with a suitable plan, so I am totally in favor of it,” he said. “It keeps Easter Week and Senior Week, and it needs to be accepted.”

Brown said the administration hopes to have an approved calendar for the 2001-2002 school year by Thanksgiving.

Related Links

 Administrators Make Case to GUSA for Calendar Change (11/3)

 Shortening Calender Hurts Students (10/27)

 University Could Shorten Senior Week (10/27)