What students know as reading day, the day-long break within the exam period, will not take place this semester, prompting Student Senators to create legislation to make this widely known to students.
During this academic year, there are no reading days during the exam period for NC State students, according to Kyle Pysher, assistant registrar for scheduling in Registration and Records. Pysher said that these designated study days have always been a point of discussion when it comes to scheduling.
The reading days are planned by the Registration, Records and Calendar Committee, who decided that the delayed first day of classes this year contributed to the lack of reading day. The final exam period ends on December 18.
“Classes this year started a little later than normal, August 22,” Pysher said. “So, because the semester started a little bit later, I think the concern was students would rather get out earlier, than have to push to Dec. 20 for commencement and then be that much closer to winter break.”
According to Pysher, reading days have fluctuated, but they have always been scheduled on the calendar up until this year.
“It’s a day to read or to study for exam, students can prepare in whichever day they see fit for exams,” Pysher said. “…It used to be the last day of classes, and then a couple of years ago they switched it to be in the middle of the [final exams] week.”
Coleman Simpson, a fourth-year studying agricultural science and a senator representing the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Student Senate, is the chair of the Academic Committee in Student Government. He said that when the committee discussed problems on campus, they found that there was no reading day.
“[The committee members] were curious about it, because no one really knows how the calendar gets created,” Simpson said. “No one really knew anything so I wanted to know more information about it and what was being publicized to students.”
The Academic Calendar Communications Act, created by the Senate committee, proposed new means of communication to address “major updates” to the academic calendar to students. The bill was sent back to the Academic Committee after second reading in Senate on Oct. 10 to address concerns that came up during senator discussion.
“The bill itself was just to say… we believe that major updates and changes to the calendar that is different from previous years should be publicized to students so students understand what’s going on,” Simpson said. “This is a weird year anyway because we started a week later than we normally did and that’s why we don’t have a reading day.”
According to Simpson, the Academic Calendar Communications Act is now being reconsidered after communicating further with Pysher about the means of communications that would be used to raise campus awareness about changes to the calendar. Simpson said there are several courses the bill could take now.
“The bill is in flux right now, because they have resolved my concerns about communications, so now I’m trying to go back to the drawing board of, ‘Is there still purpose for the bill?’” Simpson said.
Calendars are planned three academic years in advance, but posted two fiscal years in advance, meaning this calendar went online fall 2016.
The Registration, Records and Calendar committee includes positions for six student representatives: a Student Senate representative, two graduate students and three undergraduate students — currently, two of the undergraduate positions are unfilled. This composition is to ensure that decisions are not made without student input.
Pysher said that it was because of these student voices that reading days are back on the calendar after the current academic year.
“I will say, student support and student voice on the calendar committee brought it back,” Pysher said. “You’ll see in the ‘19-‘20 academic year; they’re back.”
The academic calendar for this year can be found here.
