In 15 days, every student will have Spring Semester Reading Day on Thursday, instead of Friday as it was held in the fall, to accommodate the 6,000 students graduating.
“I think it’d be better if graduation was on a Saturday and I had three days,” said chemical engineering student Dave Frese.
Students are given a reading day at the end of every semester to allow a day without classes and obligations that can be used to study for finals and finish projects.
In the fall, classes will start on a Wednesday, allowing Reading Day to land on a Friday, giving students a three-day weekend to study for tests and write papers.
Spring Semester is designed to end on a Thursday to allow Commencement to be held Friday, pushing back Reading Day to Thursday.
According to U Registrar Ralph Boren, Finals Week must be five school days long, limiting planning flexibility for the last days of school.
In years past, Commencement was held on Saturdays, allowing students the three-day weekend before finals, Boren said.
John Legler, professor emeritus of biology, said he preferred graduation on Saturday. He thinks it was changed for the convenience of professors, who wanted to be done earlier.
Boren said one of the major issues with moving the ceremony to Friday is cost. Faculty had to be paid overtime for Saturday commencement and the school had to be open an extra day.
But Legler doubts students even need Reading Day.
Frese said he usually uses the extra day to play video games, rest and party.
Kevin Jensen, a student member of the Academic Senate, said Reading Day is very important to students. The student senators have little influence over the decision to have it on Thursday in the spring.
“There’s so much information packed into one calendar, so it’s hard to decipher and evaluate it,” Jensen said. “Some things are really hard to change.”
He said from what he recalls of the meeting where the calendar was approved, there were many people who felt strongly that Friday was the best day for graduation.
“People want it at the end of the term. They disperse and get on with their lives,” Boren said.
