A decision made by the president’s cabinet on Oct. 11 has shortened the winter holiday break for next year’s academic calendar by one week.
Next year, the holiday break will begin on Dec. 16 and students will return to classes on Jan. 9. This results in a three week break in comparison to the four week breaks students have had in the past.
The break lost in the winter will be added to the summer holidays. This sets Delta States break as being the shortest out of the other universities in the state.
The decision was announced by Provost Dr. Ann Lotven during a faculty senate meeting on Oct. 14. A memo notifying all faculty was sent out on Oct. 28, two weeks after the decision was made.
Although, The Delta Statement was informed that the Student Government Association had been consulted in making the change, SGA president Emily Hearn stated the SGA had not been notified about the possibility of the schedule change prior to it being made final.
“I hadn’t heard about it,” said Hearn.
The administration’s reasoning for the schedule change is that there is an inadequate amount of time to prepare the dorms for the fall semester after all summer programs have ended. Lotven said, “With summer camps and Teach For America, it’s simply not possible to get residence halls ready.”
According to Julie Jackson, director of housing and residence life, only 1,003 of the 4,327 students enrolled at Delta State for the Fall 2010 live in either residence halls or family living.
The Teach For America program ends on July 16 and the final session of summer school ends on July 28. The move-in date for students in 2011 is Aug. 21. The challenge posed in preparing the dorms is that in the past, less residence halls were occupied during the summer and, therefore, could be worked on.
Now with the addition of Teach For America being housed on campus, more dorms are occupied and facilities management is unable to work on those buildings throughout the summer. Lotven said all the programs combined have caused the difficulty in preparing the dorms.
“It’s not any one [that caused the change], it’s the combination of all them. If it was any one of those programs, probably the largest single one would be Teach for America,” said Lotven.
"One major factor in the equation is the TFA program which is a major positive step for the university and the Delta region. Some concessions have been made to accommodate this outstanding program to improve education and the quality of life in the Delta region," said Vice-President of Student Affairs Dr. Wayne Blansett.
Blansett also said that because of the extra time the dorms are occupied, along with the early arrival of groups of students such as athletes, band and hall directors, it has become more challenging to ready the dorms.
“One of the plans was you could take away fall break,” Blansett said. He said that many students had expressed to him that they didn’t want to see the fall break be lost.
“We are the only institution in the state that has a week at Thanksgiving and a fall break,” said Lotven. She said other possible adjustments to the calendar would have eliminated fall break or shortened the time off at Thanksgiving.
Lotven said that the idea of moving summer school up so that it would be completed earlier in July had not been discussed. An earlier summer school could possibly allow more time for residence hall maintenance to be carried out.
Blansett said, “We just have closed that gap so much between when summer school is over and when the actual start of the fall semester is.”
Lotven also has said that in making the change, they considered the idea that with a longer break, less students return.
“One of the things that was discussed in cabinet was that there are some indications that the shorter the break, the higher the retention rate. The longer you’re out, the harder it is to come back,” said Lotven.
Lotven said there was no data to support this claim, it was merely a consideration that went into the cabinet’s decision.
The decision was not submitted to the faculty senate for recommendation before it was made final. It came as an announcement to the senate that was not subject to change. "Student opinions were sought and respected and based on all the input from Students, Faculty, and Staff the decision and recommendation was made," said Blansett.
The new schedule can be viewed at the academics page on Delta State's website.
