ISU students will have one more week to relax before hitting the books next fall.

The semester is scheduled to start on Aug. 27, one week later than the Aug. 21 starting date for fall 2000. The change pushes fall semester graduation to Dec. 22.

“I wasn’t really aware of that,” said James Johnson, senior in agricultural education, who will be graduating next December. “I would prefer to start at the same time [as last semester] so it wasn’t so close to Christmas.”

Nicole Paseka, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication, said other students will also be affected by the change.

“I didn’t realize it pushed finals so close to Christmas,” she said.

Paseka said she is undecided about the benefits of the new start date as compared to the previous date.

“I don’t know yet,” she said. “I’ll have to see how I like it.”

While students are undecided, faculty members are looking forward to the change.

“I like it because I like starting a little later,” said Nelle Hutter, adjunct instructor of foreign languages and literatures. “When I was in school, the fall semester ended after Christmas and didn’t start until late September.”

The change in the schedule was brought about by the University Calendar Committee, said committee member Kathleen Jones.

“It’s very methodical,” said Jones, registrar. “What the calendar committee does is decide on the principles.”

The Calendar Committee is composed of representatives from each sector of campus, she said. These range from organized labor and the College of Design to the Government of Student Body.

“Because of the current principles, the start of the fall semester can range from Aug. 21 to Aug. 27,” she said.

Since commencement must land on a Saturday between Dec. 16 and Dec. 22, every five or six years the fall semester starts a week later, Jones said, and several changes have been discussed in the past.

“At times we’ve talked about students wanting a break in the fall,” she said. “There really isn’t room for a break in the middle of the fall.”

Also, Hutter said some faculty members would like a four-week break between the fall and spring semester, which would give them more time to work on their own research.

“For faculty, it’s a time when we catch up. Also, a number of professional meetings take place over Christmas break,” she said.

Once the calendar principles and calendars are decided on by the committee members, they are passed on to the provost, Faculty Senate president and the chair of the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Council, Jones said.

Hutter was a member of the Faculty Senate for six years.

“I was there when they changed [semester break] to three weeks, and I strongly opposed it,” she said. “I don’t think there was a lot of input from the ISU community.”