Changes to first day of school mean full-length classes

By Bobby Philbrook

Provost Lucia Gilbert is expected to announce schedule changes to the first Monday of class next fall that could eliminate the well-attended community lunch and Mass of the Holy Spirit.

For the past two years, the first Monday of class fall quarter featured an abbreviated schedule allowing students to attend the two events leading up to convocation. Surveys and evaluations conducted by the Welcome Weekend Steering Committee show that in 2006, 850 students attended the Mass of the Holy Spirit and over 4,300 students went to the lunch, making the final day of Welcome Weekend what Associate Students Vice President Julia Niles said was the "perfect way for students, their families and faculty, to celebrate the beginning of another school year."

When asked about this change, Niles said nobody had informed her of the plan to eliminate part of the program she and the rest of the Welcome Weekend Steering Committee helped develop last year. While Gilbert had no discussions with students, faculty concerns were heeded.

Gilbert declined to comment for this story.

At a November meeting, the Faculty Senate Council passed a motion recommending the elimination of the 25-minute classes. Math professor Daniel Ostrov introduced the proposal, which passed twenty in favor and one opposed with three abstentions. The body does not create university policies, but serves to "discuss and express its opinion on any matter of interest to it," according to the bylaws. The motion was passed on to the Provost for final approval.

Ostrov said the abbreviated schedule confused students, especially freshmen and transfer students. He said the current plan is to have a regular schedule for most of the day. Classes would be canceled after 3:30 p.m. so students could attend convocation. There would still be Mass at noon, for students without 11:45 a.m. class, and possibly a community dinner.

"It was almost impossible to give students any real sense of what the class would be about," said Ostrov. "I believe we should be more concerned with feeding students' minds than feeding students lunch."

The free afternoon not only encouraged students to eat lunch as a community, but also provided time for academic departments to host meetings with students. Associate Dean of the business school Henry Demmert was planning to offer students a time to meet with peer and faculty advisors to organize their schedules and ensure timely graduation.

"Anyone in the business school knows the advising system is broken," said Demmert. "This was an improvement. I'm a little upset."

Demmert said he was not involved in the decision-making process, and it would be futile to try and make his appeal.

"I already know what's going to happen if I send an e-mail," said Demmert with a laugh.

Attendance at the department meetings has varied widely, according to a 2005 review of Welcome Weekend events. The report said the meetings "were not well publicized in the schedule of events" and recommended a stronger commitment to advertising.

Although the report did not call for the elimination of the 25-minute classes, Stephen Lee, communication department chair, welcomes the new changes.

"I was getting less than two-thirds of my new majors to go to the meeting and returning students just blew it off," said Lee. "I'm fine with seeing this difficult first day go."

Despite all the eliminations, convocation survives and is scheduled to take place at 4 p.m. on Sept. 17. The event is attended by more faculty members than any other event during the school year, including commencement.

Contact Bobby Philbrook at (408) 554-4546 or rphilbrook@scu.edu.