Petersen Calls for Vote on Calendar

Undergraduate Council President Ryan A. Petersen ’08 last night called for a College-wide referendum next week to consider the issue of altering the academic calendar.

The UC will convene in a special meeting tonight at 9 p.m. to vote on legislation for a referendum.

“With a decision that affects so many undergraduates, I think that it is important to make sure we have their support,” Petersen said of his push for a referendum to urge Harvard to move final exams to before the December break.

Last Monday, the UC cited health concerns, scheduling difficulties, energy savings, and student approval in a 10,000-word position paper proposing that the fall term end on Dec. 22 in the 2008-2009 school year.

Besides extending winter break by combining it with intersession, the UC plans would reduce reading period by one day and final examination period by two days.

Before holding an executive board meeting late last night, UC members presented their proposal yesterday afternoon to the Committee on Undergraduate Education (CUE), a joint student and faculty committee chaired by Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71.

Student Affairs Committee (SAC) Chair Michael R. Ragalie ’09 said he was satisfied with the results of the CUE meeting, noting that concerns expressed by members of the committee could be addressed.

“It’s a no-brainer that we just have to change the calendar,” Ragalie said.

Even though he agreed that the UC proposal was “great,” CUE Student/Faculty Representative Patrick G. Mauro II ’07 indicated that a lot more work needed to be done before the plan could be executed.

“It’s going to take some time for this to be agreed on. It needs to be supported by the president, Corporation, and Faculty,” Mauro said. “I think that there should be much more discussion.”

He estimated that calendar changes could only be applied within 5 to 10 years.

In addition to the UC calendar reform proposal, members of CUE considered changes to the CUE Course Evaluation Guide. Proposed legislation included offering an incentive for students to fill out evaluations by allowing those who completed evaluations to see their final grades for courses early.

Discussion also centered on changing the format of the CUE Guide.

Gross suggested that the full comments for certain questions could be made available to students, and others reserved for faculty eyes only.

But any structural changes to the CUE Guide are still in the developmental stages, according to Tracy E. Nowski ’07, a CUE student/faculty representative.

Before concluding the CUE meeting, members considered the possibility of widely using the Web site Turnitin.com to detect plagiarism.

When some members suggested that students might plagiarize in moments of high stress, Petersen immediately alluded to calendar reform as a solution—eliciting laughter.

—Staff writer Elaine Liu can be reached at liu10@fas.harvard.edu.