Questioner: Oliver Schnusenberg, Academic Standards Committee Chair
Posted to: Mark Workman, Provost Academic Affairs
“The Academic Standards Committee, in their initial evaluation the survey results for the final exam policy, noted that several faculty members commented on a potential conflict, well, not a potential conflict, a real conflict, between the exam times on Fridays and graduation. This question is directed at the administration. Would it be possible to shift graduation to a different day of the week?”
Written response from Interim Provost & Vice President, Dr. Earle Traynham:
Gordon,
Back on April 10, 2013, the Provost received a question asking about the possibility of shifting graduation from Friday to a different day of the week. Since the stated purpose of the shift is to eliminate the potential conflict between exam times and graduation, the only day to shift commencement to would be Saturday. As I understand, this question has been examined by Academic Affairs, Enrollment Services and the Academic Standards Committee. It is simply not financially viable to hold commencement on Saturday as all staff required to work at commencement would have to be paid overtime. There was discussion of changing the final exam schedule to eliminate the possible exam conflicts, and this was rejected by the Academic Standards Committee.
We regret very much that some faculty may not be able to attend a commencement ceremony, and hope that this situation does not impact many faculty members often.
Thank you.
Earle
