FROM:Tomas Gomez-Arias, Chair

TO:Beth Dobkin, Provost

FROM:Tomas Gomez-Arias, Chair

Academic Senate

DATE: May 11, 2012

RE: Senate Action S-11/12-31

Academic Calendar Task Force Report to the Senate

At theMay10, 2012 meeting of the Academic Senate, the attached Report to the Senate, Calendar Task Force, April 22, 2012 was accepted by a vote of 9-0 with 1 abstention. This action was assigned Senate Action # S-11/12-31.

Attachment

cc: Br. Ronald Gallagher, President

Vice Provost Richard Carp

Report to the Senate

Calendar Task Force

April 22, 2012

I.Introduction

At the January 11, 2012 Senate meeting, Senate Chair Tomás Gomez-Arias announced the appointment of a task force. Its charge is to review long-term calendar options permitting compliance with WASC and federal contact-hour requirements and to present a written report to the Senate before the end of the academic year. The task force members are Kara Boatman,Claude Malaryand SteveCortright.

The task force held two sessions, on April 13 and 18, 2012, to appraise faculty of its raison d’ être, to share its preliminary analysis, and to discuss options. The task force herewith presents its preliminary report to the Senate, so that senators may provide feedback. Feedback from the two April sessions and from the members of the Senate will serve to enrich the draft, which will subsequently become the task force’s final report to the Senate, fulfilling its charge, for presentation at the meeting of May 10, 2012.

Including this Introduction (Section I), the report is divided into five main sections. Section II explains how Carnegie units are calculated and how Saint Mary’s College currently defines its instructional periods. Section III presents selected, alternative calendar configurations that would align the College’spractice with federal and WASC guidelines. Section IV explains how contact hours vary across majors. Section V surveys the financial concerns that will inevitably arise from any calendar changes and considers how those concerns might be addressed.

II.Definitions and Equivalents

1. Course Credits and Carnegie Units

A Carnegie unit, semester unit, or semester hour (each term is in use) is based on an instructional hour, defined as 50 instructional minutes.[1] Alternatively, it can be represented as 50 instructional minutes per week over 15 weeks. In the U.S. a typical, one-semester undergraduate course comprises 3 Carnegie units, semester units, or semester hours, equivalent to 2250 instructional minutes, per semester. This report adopts the usage, Carnegie units (Cu), expressed in instructional minutes (im).

Saint Mary’s College currently structures its academic requirements in terms of semester and January Term course credits. A typical one-semester course at SMC meets for 60 minutes (MFW) or 90 minutes (TTH/MF) per session. During the Fall 2011 term, MWF classes met 42 times and TTH/MF classes met 28 times, for a total of 2520 instructional minutes or the equivalent of 3.36 Carnegie units.

Fall and Springterms are currently of different lengths. A recent calendar change resulted in the addition of a week to the Fall, 2011,term with no corresponding increase to the Spring 2012 term.[2] Over the Spring term, 2012, MWF classes will meet 38 times for a total of 2280 instructional minutes and TTH/MF classes will meet 26 times for a total of 2340 minutes. So, the classes range from the equivalent of 3.04 Carnegie units to 3.12 Carnegie units.

In all cases Saint Mary’s College asserts that a one-semester SMC undergraduate course is equivalent to 3.5 Carnegie units. Were that assumed equivalence accurate, students would receive 2625 instructional minutes in each course of a Fall or Spring term.

January term, as it is presently configured, totals 2400 instructional minutes, or the equivalent of 3.2 Carnegie units (150 instructional minutes per day for 4 days a week and 4 weeks per term). Vice Provost Carp requested at the March 22 Faculty Senate meeting that each January term class meet for an additional five minutes. This would add 80 instructional minutes to the term and bring the correct rate of exchange to approximately 3.3 Carnegie units for each January term course.

But Saint Mary’s College asserts that a January term course is the equivalent of 4 Carnegie units. If that were true, students would receive 3000 instructional minutes in any January term course.

Over the course of a four-year, 36-credit college career, the difference in instructional minutes (between claimed and actual equivalence) totals between three and four 3-Carnegie-unit courses.

2. Instructional Minutes and Teaching Loads

Additionally, the faculty teaching load defined in the Handbook significantly overstates the actual teaching load undertaken by most undergraduate faculty. A full-time teaching load as defined in the Handbook consists of 21–22 Carnegie units annually. At the current rate of exchange among semester credits, January Term credits and Carnegie units, this requirement implies either 6 courses per year (equivalent to 3.5 Carnegie units per course) or 5 courses per year (at 3.5 Carnegie units per course) and a January Term course (equivalent to 4 Carnegie units).The implied number of instructional minutes ranges from 15,750 to 16,500. Depending on Fall, Spring and January Term teaching responsibilities, however, actual instructional minutes range from 14,400 to 14,640. This implies an annual teaching load deficit, in Carnegie unit terms, of between 0.6 Cu and 0.8 Cu for most full-time undergraduate members of the faculty (see Table 2, below).

Calculations supporting the discussion above are presented in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1 . Nominal Course Values in Carnegie Units and Instructional Minutes[3]

1 SMC semester course credit (scc)
(cf. Undergraduate Course Catalog, 2011-12, p. 41) / 1 SMC Jan Term
course credit (jcc)
(cf. Undergraduate Course Catalog, 2011-12, p. 41) / 6 SMC scc / 5 SMC scc + 1 SMC jcc / SMC Board of Trustees:
full-time teaching load
(Handbook 2.11.1.3) / 36 SMC courses:
32 scc (3.5Cu)
+ 4 jcc (4.0Cu)
3.5 Cu / 4.0 Cu / 21 Cu / 21.5 Cu / 21 – 22 Cu / 128Cu
2,625 im / 3,000 im / 15, 750 im / 16, 125im / 15,750 – 16,500 im / 96,000im

Table 2.Most Recent Actual SMC Course Values in Carnegie Units and Instructional Minutes

2011 Fall term
scc / 2012 Jan term
jcc / 2012 Spring term
scc / 3 x Fall 2011 scc
3 x Spring 2012 scc / 2 x Fall 2011 scc
1 x Jan 2012 jcc
3 x Spring 2012 scc / 3 x Fall 2011 scc
1 x Jan 2012 jcc
2 x Spring 2012 scc
MWF = (42 x 60im) = 2520im
TTH = (28 x 90im) = 2520im / 16 x 150im = 2400 im / MWF = (38 x 60im) = 2280im
TTH = (26 x 90im) = 2340im / 3 x Fall scc = 7560im
3 x Spring scc = 6840im – 7020im / 2 x Fall scc = 5040im
1 x jcc = 2400 – 2480im
3 x Spring scc = 6480 – 7020im / 3 x Fall scc = 7560im
1 x jcc = 2400 – 2480im
2 x Spring scc = 4560 – 4680im
3.36Cu
2520im / 3.2 Cu
2400im / 3.04–3.12Cu
2280–2340im / 19.2–19.44Cu
14,400–14,580im / 18.56–19.39Cu
13,920–14,540 / 19.28–19.63Cu
14,520–14,720
32 x 3.36 = 107.52 / 4 x 3.2 = 12.8 / 32 x (3.04–3.12) = 97.28-99.84

To summarize, we face three problems:

• Overstatement of the value of a Saint Mary’s College course credit, in terms of instructional minutes;
• Disparity in instructional minutes among Fall, January and Spring terms;
• Understatement of a full-time teaching load at Saint Mary’s College, in terms of instructional minutes.

A fourth problem, disparity in instructional minutes required to complete a degree across majors, is discussed in Section IV, below. It bears mention at this juncture, because (as appears in Section IV) students’ actual, four-year programs may fall significantly short of the new, minimum federal standards or of the College’s declared 128 Cu (32 x 3.5 Cu courses + 4 x 4.0 Cu courses) minimum requirement for the baccalaureate, and correction of either state of affairs carries calendar implications.

The first and third problems are not, per se, calendar problems: all else equal, the College might define SMC course credits down to their actual Carnegie values, or it might increase instructional minutes per class meeting so that actual instructional minutes justify the College’s claim that each SMC course credit is equivalent to 3.5 Cu (2625 im). Again, the College might define the full-time teaching load down to 19–20 Cu per academic year, or it might—by increasing the instructional minutes per SMC course—raise actual teaching loads to the nominal Handbook standard.

3. Adjustments to the Status Quo Ante?

In fact, however, all else is not equal. Were the College to define the nominal value of courses down to their actual Carnegie equivalents, it would simply render transparent those deficiencies that must still be corrected. As Table 2 shows, a student who repeated the Fall 2011–January 2012–Spring 2012 pattern of courses over four years would earn 116.48 Cu through the 36-course SMC undergraduate program, well below the recently adopted federal standard (120 Cu) and far below Saint Mary’s claimed 128 Cu. (A student who repeated the more typical SMC pattern of 3.12 Cu [39-meeting or 26-meeting] Fall and Spring courses and 3.2 Cu January-term courses would earn the equivalent of 112.64 Cu through the 36-course undergraduate program).

Alternatively, were the College to raise instructional minutes per class meeting so as to render each nominal 3.5 Cu course equal to 2625 im, then over the 13 instructional weeks of the traditional SMC Fall or Spring term, for example, each MWF class would meet 67 im and each T TH class 101im (202im/week). Again, to raise each traditional January term course to 4.0 Cu = 3000im, each of the traditional 16 meetings must comprise 187im (3 1/8 hours); preserving the 150im (2 ½ hour) instructional period would require meeting daily—5 days—through the four-week term (suspending observance of the Martin Luther King Holiday, or meeting one Saturday, or making some other ad hoc adjustment).

Lengthening the class meeting by 7 or 11 minutes may, or may not, generate difficulties in daily scheduling (for example: sequential scheduling, allowing ten-minute passing periods, permits six 67-minute—instead of seven 60-minute—MWF class slots between 8:00am and 4:00pm). The more serious consideration, however, is whether lengthening meetings in mechanical fashion serves students’ instructional interests. It is a nice question, for example, whether increasing January-term meetings to 3+ hours is more likely to intensify learning or merely to intensify fatigue. Again, are students likely to be better served by tacking 7 or 11 minutes to what must remain—by “feel” or habit—an hour or hour-and-a half class, or by collecting those instructional minutes, respectively, into 5 or 3 additional class meetings?

As Vice Provost Carp’s analysis has shown, increasing the Fall and Spring terms to 14 instructional weeks, while keeping (in particular) the Spring-term calendar within traditional bounds (namely, fitting it between a week-long January- to Spring-term break and Memorial Day) is infeasible. A 14-week instructional term provides 42 MWF and 28 TTH/MF course-meetings; a four-year pattern of 14-week 4-1-4 instruction yields a 36-course, 120.3 Cu undergraduate program (without alteration in the traditional January term). On the pattern adopted for Fall, 2011, the 14-week term can be accommodated in any autumn by fixing the start of classes in the last week of August. But anyone who consults the calendar will note: New Years falls on a Monday in 2013 (on a Wednesday in 2014; a Thursday in 2015 . . .), so that a 4-week January term must end February 1, 2013, and—after the ensuing, week-long break (February 2–10, 2013)—there remain (exclusive of Holy Week, the traditional recess) exactly 42 Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and exactly 28 Tuesdays and Thursdays between Monday, February 11, 2013 (inclusive) and Monday, May 27, 2013, Memorial Day (exclusive). The resulting calendar allows for no examination period, unless commencement be postponed a week, to June 1, 2013.[4] Like results, of course, obtain for 2014, 2015 . . . et seq.

Accordingly, any adjustment to the status quo that (1) preserves the January term, (2) allows for commencement on Memorial Day weekend, (3) equalizes Fall-tem and Spring-term courses, and (4) produces a (minimum) 120 Cu undergraduate program—that is, any minimal adjustment to SMC’s traditional 4-1-4 calendar—must postulatet 8 Fall- and Spring-term courses totaling 39 (MWF) or 26 (TTH/MF) meetings and a January-term course comprising 16–20 meetings, totaling yearly to a minimum of 22,500 im. The required total could be achieved in a number of ways, for example: 9 courses each of c. 2500 im, organized as 8 long-term courses meeting either 65 im three times per week or 100 im twice per week over 13 instructional weeks, together with 1 January-term course meeting 150 im four times each week over a 4-week instructional term.[5]

A near minimal adjustment to the status quo—namely, one that achieves a yearly minimum 22,500 im between the last week of August and Memorial Day by (1) extending the 42 or 28, MWF or TTH/MF, Fall-term calendar to the Spring-term while (2) reducing the January-term to a three-week (12–15 meetings) calendar—could be arranged, e.g., for AY 2013–14 (and thereafter as an on-going pattern) as follows:

Fall term, 2013
Monday, August 26 Classes begin
Monday, September 2 Labor Day Holiday
Monday–Thursday,
October 7–10 Mid-term exam period
Friday, October 11 Mid-term Break Day
Wednesday–Sunday,
November 28–December 1 Thanksgiving Recess
Friday, December 6 Fall classes end
Monday–Friday,
December 9–13 Final Examinations
Saturday, December 14, 2013–
Sunday, January 5, 2014 Christmas Holiday
4 x 42- or 28-meeting courses, 60im or 90im/ meeting = minimum 10,080im
January term, 2014
Monday, January 6 Classes begin
Monday, January 20 MLK Day Holiday
Friday, January 24 Classes end / Saturday, January 25–
Sunday, February 2 Spring Recess
12 x 195 im (3¼ hours) meetings or 14 x 170im (2 hr 50 min) meetings = minimum 2340 im
Spring term, 2014
Monday, February 3 Classes begin
Monday–Friday ,
March 17–21 Mid-term exam period
Tuesday, April 15–
Monday April 21 Easter Recess
Friday, May 16 Classes end
Monday–Friday,
May 19–23 Final Examinations
Saturday, May 24 Commencement
4 x 42- or 28-meeting courses, 60im or 90im/ meeting = minimum 10,080im
8 x 2520im courses + 1 x 2340 im course = minimum 22,500 im x 4 years = 90,000 im or 120 Cu

As the complement to these minimal or near-minimal adjustments, students in the upper-division might be required—as a matter of an ordinary, full-time instructional program (and so, without additional tuition charges)—to undertake a fifth course in Fall or Spring of the Junior year and a fifth course in Fall or Spring of the Senior year. The total minimum undergraduate program would thus total 126–7 Cu (and, given that most students are involved either with required partial credit courses, a credited laboratory, lower-division language instruction, or . . . etc.), the total required undergraduate program could be accurately described as c. 128 Cu.

In order to address the problems cited above comprehensively, however, an alternative calendar—as opposed to adjustment of the traditional calendar—would be in prospect.

III.Alternative Calendars

1. Basic Alternatives

Perhaps the most perspicuous way to present alternatives to the current 4–1–4 calendar-cum-course credit system would be to reconstruct what AY 2011–12 and subsequent years’ calendars might look like had they been articulated on the assumptions (1) that most courses would comprise 2250im = 3Cu, conducted (2) over a standard 15-week (equivalently, 75 instructional-day) term. A January (or Intercession) term might Abe preserved or Bbe retired in favor of an enhanced Summer Term. This mode of analysis supposes the significant constraint thatAlternative A be fitted, as is traditional at SMC—roughly—between Labor Day and Memorial Day.[6] But for the most part, the constraint can be honored only in the breach: for calendar years 2011, 2012 and 2013, e.g., the 75th weekday after Labor Day (excluding Thanksgiving Thursday–Friday only) falls, respectively, on December 21, December 19, and December 18. And for the calendar years 2012, 2013, and 2014, the 75th weekday[7] falls, respectively, on May 24, June 4, and June 3. Given 3 Cu courses over 15-week terms, then, Alternative A is workable only by shortening January term, so as to lengthen the Spring term, while beginning the Fall term before Labor Day. Academic Years 2011–12, 2012–13, and 2013–14, articulated in 15-week Fall and Spring terms (each with a 16th exam week) around an intervening January term, would go approximately as follows below.

Note on the Collegiate Seminar

50im are, transparently, insufficient time to inaugurate and develop a conversational inquiry. A solution might make the Seminar a 4 Cu [3000im] class, at 200im/week over 15 weeks, [100im] twice/weekly. Should Seminar I shape up as a quasi-practicum/lecture, it might be scheduled as 3Cu (2 or 3 days/week) or as 4Cu by double periods or 4 days/week. Whatever is decided, the Carnegie system would accommodate the decision more flexibly than the course-credit system.

2. Alternatives that Preserve the January Term

Table 3. Alternative A

(A) FALL Term / 2011[8] / 20124 / 20134 / (A) SPRING Term / 20124 / 20134 / 20144
Classes begin
Labor Day holiday
Mid-term exam period
Mid-term recess
Thanksgiving Recess
Last day of Fall term classes
Final exam period
Christmas Recess / M 8/22
M 9/5
M–F,
10/17–21
none
TH–S,
11/24–27
F 12/9
M–TH,
12/12–15
12/16–1/3 / M 8/20
M 9/3
M–F,
10/15–19
none
W–S,
11/21–25
F 12/7
M–TH,
12/10–14
12/15–1/6 / M 8/19
M 9/2
M–TH,
10/14–18
none
WS,
11/27–12/1
F 12/6
M–TH,
12/9–12/12
12/13–1/5 / Classes begin
Mid-term exam period
Easter Recess
Last day of Spring term classes
Final exam period
Commencement
*Memorial Day recess 5/25–27
** Memorial Day recess 5/24–26 / M 1/30
M–F,
3/19–23
3/31–4/9
F 5/18
M–TH,
5/21–24
S 5/26 / M 2/4
M–F,
3/18–22
3/23–4/1
F 5/24
T–F,
5/28–31*
S 6/1 / M 2/3
M–F,
3/31–4/4
4/12–4/22
F 5/23
T–F,
5/27–30**
S 5/31
(A) JANUARY Term[9] / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / (A) Summer Term / 2012 / 2013 / 2014
Classes begin
MLK Day
Last day of Jan Term classes
January–Spring term recess / T 1/4
M 1/16
F 1/20
S 1/21–Su 1/29 / M 1/7
M 1/21
F 1/25
S 1/26–Su 2/3 / M 1/6
M 1/20
F 1/24
S 1/25–Su 2/2 / Classes begin / T 6/5 / W 6/5 / W 6/4

.

1

Table 4. A 3-Week Jan Term (in Cu and im)

3Cu course over 3 weeks = 15 meetings x 150im/meeting = 5 days instruction/week and 150im (2:30 clock hours)/day, OR / 2Cu course over 3 weeks = 15 meetings x 100im/meeting = 5 days instruction/week and 100 im (1:40 clock hours)/day OR
= 12 meetings x 180im)/meeting + 1 90im meeting = 4 days instruction/week and 180im (3:00 clock hours/day) + 1 x 90im (1:30 clock hours) meeting; etc. / = 12 meetings x 125im/meeting = 4 days instruction/week and 125 im (2:05 clock hours)/day, etc.

Table5 and Table 6 show the present schedule and a corresponding Carnegie-based schedule for semester-length classes.

Table 5. Three Meetings/Week—Class Scheduling, 8:00am–4:00pm ,via (a) Carnegie hours and (b) clock hours:

Period1 / Period 2 / Period 3 / Period 4 / Period 5 / Period 6 / Period 7 / Period 8
(a) / 8:00–
8:50
class / 8:50–
9:00
passing / 9:00–
9:50
class / 9:50–
10:00
passing / 10:00–
10:50
class / 10:50–
11:00
passing / 11:00–
11:50
class / 11:50–
12:00
passing / 12:00–
12:50
class / 12:50–
1:00
passing / 1:00–
1:50
class / 1:50–
2:00
passing / 2:00–
2:50
class / 2:50–
3:00
passing / 3:00–
3:50
class
(b) / 8:00–
9:00
class / 9:00–
9:10
passing / 9:10–
10:10
class / 10:10–
10:20
passing / 10:20–
11:20
class / 11:20–
11:30
passing / 11:30–
12:30
class / 12:30–
12:40
passing / 12:40–
1:40
class / 1:40–
1:50
passing / 1:50–
2:50
class / 2:50–
3:00
passing / 3:00–
4:00
class

Table 6. Two Meetings/Week—Class Scheduling, 8:00am–4:00pm ,via (a) Carnegie hours and (b) clock hours:

Period 1 / Period 2 / Period 3 / Period 4 / Period 5 / Period 6
(a) / 8:00–9:15
class / 9:15–9:30
passing / 9:30–10:45
class / 10:45–11:00
passing / 11:00–12:15
class / 12:15–12:30
passing / 12:30–1:15
class / 1:15–1:30
passing / 1:30–2:45
class / 2:45–3:00
passing / 3:00–4:15
class
(b) / 8:00–9:30
class / 9:30–9:40
passing / 9:40–11:10
class / 11:10–11:20
passing / 11:20–12:50
class / 12:50–1:00
passing / 1:00–2:30
class / 2:30–2:40
passing / 2:40–4:10
class

1

AAs a minimal adjustment to present practice, A, one could propose adopting a “real” 3 Cu standard Fall/Spring course (as opposed to the current, merely nominal 3.5 Cu course), calendared as follows:

Table 7. Alternative A

(A) FALL Term / 2011 / 2012 / 2013 / (A) SPRING Term / 2012 / 2013 / 2014
Classes begin
Mid-term exam period
Mid-term recess
Thanksgiving Recess
Last day of Fall term classes
Final exam period
Christmas Recess / W 9/7
M 10/24–F 10/28
S 10/29–M 10/31
W 11/23–SU 11/27
F 12/9
M–TH, 12/12–12/15
12/17–1/2 / W 9/5
M 10/22–F 10/26
S 10/27–T 10/30
W 11/21–SU 11/25
F 12/7
M–TH, 12/10–13
12/14–1/6 / Etc.[10] / Classes begin
Mid-term exam period
Easter Recess
Last day of Spring term classes
Final exam period
Commencement / M 2/6
M–F, 3/19–23
S 3/30–T 4/10
F 5/11
M 5/14–TH 5/17
S 5/19 / M 2/11
M–F, 4/8–12
S 3/23–T 4/2
F 5/17
M–TH,5/20–23
S 5/25 / Etc.
(A) JANUARY Term / 2012 / 2013 / 2014 / (A) Summer Term / 2012 / 2013 / 2014
Classes begin
MLK Day
Last day of Jan Term classes
January–Spring term recess / T 1/3
M 1/16
F 1/27
S 1/28–SU 2/5 / M 1/7
M 1/21
F 2/1
S 2/2–SU 2/10 / Etc. / Classes begin / M 6/4 / M 6/3 / Etc.

The January term courses would be taught as 3 Cu (2250im) courses, meeting 15 x 150im (1½ hours) over four weeks.