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University Daily Kansan
Campus/Area
Thursday, Dec. 5, 1985
Panel suggests that classes start later in semester
By David Silverman Of the Kansan staff
A proposal to start classes after Labor Day and shorten the exam period to five or six days is being considered by the Calendar Committee of KU's Faculty Council.
Dick Tracy, chairman of the committee and associate professor of psychology, said yesterday that a plan was being designed and that the committee was looking for student and faculty reaction.
"We're wondering how the students and faculty feel," Tracy said. "They have to realize that if we start after Labor Day, some of the days we've generally had as free days or reduced-work days will have to go. That includes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and stop day."
He said the proposed changes were an attempt to save money and to align KU's school year with the rest of Kansas' public schools.
"A lot of students aren't traditional students anymore — they have families," he said. "Putting the KU school year in line with the public schools would serve them as well as the faculty who have children."
Tracy said rearranging the school year could help cut KU's energy costs. A study conducted several years ago showed that if classes had started later in the fall and spring semesters, the effect would have been a reduction in the University's fuel bills.
"The savings weren't all that great," Tracy said. "But with as much fuel as the University uses, if you save a few percentage points it amounts to something substantial."
One of the proposals the committee is considering would condense the current 11-day exam schedule into four or five days, he said. If the exam period was shortened, exam times
would have to be cut to two hours and the number of exams a day would have to be increased. Also, the current 72-day semester, not including exams, would be reduced to 70 days.
"We would like people to send letters to us about what the ramifications of changing the school year would be," Tracy said. "We really want the reaction of the people who would be most affected."
most directed Tracy said that letters should be sent to D.B. Tracy, department of educational psychology and research, 2 Bailey Hall.
If a proposal is submitted to the Kansas Board of Regents by next fall, it would be considered for inclusion in the Regents' three-year plan for the 1989, 1990 and 1991 school years.
Martine Hammond, Regents director of academic affairs, said that before the calendar proposal could be approved, the Regents guidelines that require a 16-week semester would have to be changed. If the policy was not
changed, she said, the proposal would be a step backward.
"If the semester started after Labor Day there would be no way to finish the semester and have exams before Christmas break." Hammond said.
The proposed change would put the University of Kansas back on a semester system that has not been used since the 1950s, when exams were given after Christmas break.
"This issue has come up before, but the Council of Chief Academic Officers went on record as saying that it would be impossible to finish the semester before Christmas if the semester began after Labor Day. They weren't willing to approve this."
"This wasn't considered to be the best system," Hammond said. "I don't think we would go back to it.
Mom to take Hesses home
United Press International
PAOLA — Anne Oliver Hess said yesterday that she and her three sons would leave Cairo, Egypt, immediately and attempt to settle in state court a custody dispute with her estranged husband, a former state senator.
It was unclear whether former Sen. Paul Hess would accompany Mrs. Hess and their sons on the same flight from Cairo. However, Bruce Bowker, Paola chief of police, said Mrs. Hess assured him in a telephone conversation that her husband would return to the United States in the next few days.
Hess, a Johnson County lawyer, disappeared with the boys, ages 1, 3 and 4, last month.
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