Provost Robert Palazzo announced Tuesday a change to next year’s academic calendar in an e-mail to the RPI community. While the fall semester is unaltered, next year’s Winter Break will be extended from January 19 to January 25. This will, in turn, mean that the spring semester will have an additional week, closing on May 11 and Commencement for the Class of 2010 will be held on May 29.
Palazzo stated in his e-mail, “As you know, a key provision of The Rensselaer Plan has been the creation of new types and levels of opportunity for study, academic engagement, and community building for students, faculty and staff.”
He continued, “To further this goal, the Board of Trustees at its most recent meeting took an action, on the basis of a recommendation by President [Shirley Ann] Jackson in consultation with the academic leadership of the university, to modify the academic calendar of Rensselaer to enable significant new prospects for curricular, co-curricular, and personal growth programming that is in keeping with the spirit and reality of The Rensselaer Plan.”
According to Palazzo’s e-mail, students can use the now five-week break from classes as a chance to explore various research opportunities, study-related programs, or “activities that enrich the social and cultural life of the university community.”
He also commented on the transition, saying, “We hope students will explore study abroad experiences, intensive undergraduate research experiences, or directed self-study programs. Faculty members may use this time to explore topics such as interdisciplinary curriculum development, student learning assessment, and the integration of academics with student life.”
As far as student input goes, Palazzo noted that “The [President of the Union] is a member of the Calendar Committee. Other student input is solicited through the [Rensselaer] Union representative Cameron McLean, director of student services, who communicates to the student leadership. Please understand that the recommendations to the president for this change followed extensive calendar committee review and review by other portfolios on campus.”
McLean had an informal gathering with students in September asking for their opinions—including those of PU Rob Odell ’09, Vice Chair of the Senate Michael Zwack ’11, and graduate student Dan Horvath ’08, president of the Phalanx Honor Society. There was noticeable negativity in the response of the students who had gathered.
One of the many concerns was that the summer will be shorter, thus making RPI students less marketable and less competitive for internships. Various students commented on the change of schedule. One student said that he believes “RPI is trying to induce too many transitions at once”.
Chris Quirk ’09 said, “It seems like they are trying to make this school like every other school and it is taking away from what makes RPI the unique place that it is. I am glad I won’t be here for all of the changes. I am graduating in December, and I am happy about leaving.”
Quirk also mentioned that maybe if there were core engineering classes offered over the break on campus, it would help the student body. “I don’t understand how they put in effort to stuff like this when there is not enough room for me to sign up for my lab engineering classes to graduate. We already don’t have enough core engineering courses. It seems like they are dumping money into everything but engineering.”
When one student mentioned to Chris Perron ’10 that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also has a winter semester, and that Jackson had attended MIT, his response was, “Well, I guess we know where her heart is.” Haris Khan ’10 said, “I came here because I wanted to go to RPI, not MIT.”
Many students did not have an opinion because they said they had never heard of this change before. Another student said he would have more of an opinion if he had more details or if the administration had informed us about this earlier. No one interviewed seemed to have a positive opinion.
The only other known student discussion on the matter during the planning process was at a Student Senate meeting early in the winter semester. While a couple of senators noted possible benefits of the winter break, the overwhelming majority of senators did not feel comfortable with the idea. After this discussion, the winter break was not brought up in Student Senate again.
UPDATE: April 8, 2009 - The President of the Union does not sit on the Institute Calendar Committee; the student representative is appointed by the Student Senate.
