The Government of the Student Body will consider a proposal that would recommend ISU President Geoffroy not change the current academic calendar.

“[The current calendar] so far, is working very well. I don’t see the benefit in changing it,” said author of the resolution and Off-Campus Senator Drew Miller. “There are too many problems with the Calendar B plan.”

An April 2002 Faculty Senate resolution calling for a longer winter break, so faculty could have more time to prepare for spring semester classes and attend conventions and workshops during that first week of spring semester classes, prompted Geoffroy to create a task force to consider changes to the calendar.

In April 2003, the committee proposed four different academic calendars and 4,000 students, faculty and staff members ranked their calendar preferences in an online survey. After looking at the results from the survey, Geoffroy narrowed the options down to the two most popular proposals in May.

The deadline for input from campus groups and individuals about the proposals is Nov. 4. Geoffroy is expected to make his final decision on the calendar by mid-December.

The two proposals are Calendar A, which is the current academic calendar, and Calendar B, which is the proposal the Faculty Senate recommended.

It calls for a four-week winter break, an additional two-day fall break, the full week for Thanksgiving break and 55 minute classes.

Classes would have to be lengthened since a week of class instruction would be lost by extending winter break.

Instead of starting spring semester on the first Monday of the calendar year, or no later than Jan. 8, the semester would start on the Thursday of the third full week of the calendar year, or no later than Jan. 18. This would result in 14 weeks of instruction instead of the current calendar’s 15 weeks.

Calendar B has been criticized for its potential to create problems in courses that meet once a week, such as labs. These courses would lose at least one week of class time and could lose an additional meeting time during the fall break.

The extra minutes per class period for this type of course would not make up for missed periods.

“In some lab classes it will be a great hindrance, and some lab instructors have expressed their discontent because of the loss of lab periods. However, most will be able to work around it,” said Nathan Johnson, GSB director of Student Affairs and member of the calendar task force.

Johnson said even though additional minutes for classroom time is allotted, students, faculty and staff would effectively be losing class work days.

“The extra five minutes for classes doesn’t make up for the lost week when student learning is concerned,” Miller said.

“The extended period won’t be significant to learning, but it will be a significant inconvenience.”

He said with Calendar B, students will attend the same number of minutes per semester per class as with the current calendar, but will have a shorter semester. This means a student taking 16 credit hours would increase time in academic pursuits from 40 hours to 44 hours per week.

Johnson said Calendar B would provide less time to complete school work, but students would have more time outside of the academic calendar. He said students would be able to earn money and experience from internships and jobs during breaks, because they would be able to work longer.

Faculty and staff would also be given more time to focus on research projects and class preparation, and would have more time to attend conventions and seminars, he said.

The extended winter break would also allow for a 10-day J-term that would allow students to take classes during break. Students would be able to use J-term to move up their graduation date, if taken more than one year, and it could benefit students who need an additional course for graduation. Students could also use J-term to take remedial courses.

It is uncertain what classes would be offered during that term, Johnson said.

He did say tuition for J-term would be based on how many credit hours a students takes, and both in-state and out-of-state students would be charged in-state rates.

“I like the idea of the J-term, but I don’t like the costs associated with implementing it,” Miller said, adding that it would be confusing for students because classes would start at different times.

The two proposals, a timeline of task force actions, frequently asked questions and comments can be viewed on the task force Web Site, iastate.edu/news/cal/.

— Daily staff reports contributed to this article.