This year’s final exam schedule may look a little different to students who are familiar with those of previous years. Instead of having exams start on Monday and run until Friday, the schedule now carries into the beginning of the next week. Classes conclude on Monday, Dec. 10, and exams will be held from Wednesday, Dec. 12 to Tuesday, Dec. 18. This schedule leaves room for a Study Day on Tuesday, Dec. 11, when no classes will be held.

According to John Jaffry, the Saint Louis University registrar, the exam schedule is different in order to facilitate the correct number of teaching classes for Mondays.

“We are always short one Monday class in the fall semester, so in order to make sure we have the right number of classes for accreditation and for teaching we have one more class on that Monday with a reading day on that Tuesday,” Jaffry explains.

The purpose of this day is to allow students an opportunity to study for exams without the pressure of attending classes. The addition to the schedule was passed two years ago by the vice president of the SGA and the Calendar Committee.

2001 is the first year in recent history that SLU has arranged the final exam schedule in this manner. Matt Love, academic vice president of the Student Government Association, believes the new system will be a success.

“I have looked at a couple of other universities that typically have an exam schedule that is longer than five days or that runs over a weekend. They seem to work out positively,” Love said.

The purpose of the Study Day and the extended schedule is to give students an opportunity to become more prepared for their exams.

“This is a fairly good set-up for students because it will give them extra time to prepare themselves,” said Love. “It is my hope that students will use the Study Day wisely and be able to pace themselves.”

Student response to the new schedule appears to be mixed concerning both the study day and the extended exam period.

Sydney O’Quin, a sophomore majoring in History/Pre-Med believes that the study day will be beneficial to students trying to prepare for exams.

“I think students will use the study day. A day without any obligations, such as class, will help students who are stressed out from the semester,” says O’Quin.

However, Julie Newhouse, a junior Communication major disagrees with the academic benefit to the study day.

“People are just going to relax on the study day, so I don’t believe it will be used effectively. We should just begin exams that day,” says Newhouse.

Both O’Quin and Newhouse agree that they are unhappy with the new version of the schedule because it causes the time before Christmas break to be longer than usual.

“I am strongly opposed to it,” says Newhouse of the schedule. “It is unfair to drag out exams over two weeks. I hope this will definitely not be a permanent thing.”

“I wish it would be only one week so I wouldn’t have to be here longer than necessary,” agrees O’Quin. The faculty and administration will also need to adjust to the effects of the new schedule. The change determines when professors will be responsible for turning in grades, which will in turn affect their preparation for the winter break.

However, Dr. Charles Fleener, Director of the Pre-Law Program, is optimistic about the benefits this schedule will have for students. “I would like to think the more time students have, the more time they have to prepare,” says Fleener. “Students will have the opportunity to finish up the work for the semester that is necessary for the exam.”

Fleener feels that the freshmen, who are unfamiliar with any other type of schedule, will simply adapt to this format.

On the other hand, older students will have a little more difficulty accepting the new and different schedule.

“Of course, it will depend on the student,” Fleener adds. “In theory this should work well unless some students get distracted. I hope this will work and be advantageous to the students.”

The director of Computer Science in the College of Arts and Sciences, Charles Ford, also feels the new schedule will be beneficial to both the students and teachers. He points out that until this fall, the semester was only 13 2/3 weeks long, which is a significant drop from the 15 weeks he remembers from the past.

“I am very glad that they are returning to a semester that is at least 14 weeks long. The extra Monday allows me to be able to have a regular assignment as opposed to a shortened one,” says Ford. “Overall, I think this exam schedule will be beneficial to everyone involved.”