By KELLY KULTYS
Heavy snow throughout early 2014 has caused four-and-a-half snow days. (Joshua Kim/The Ram)
For the second time in two years, reading days are no more, thanks to Mother Nature’s harsh winter.
Last year, Hurricane Sandy wiped out a week of classes and forced a condensed schedule in the fall of 2013.
This year, the university had cancellations due to a snowy winter that cost students two Wednesdays, one Monday, one Thursday and a half-day on a Tuesday.
This prompted the Provost’s office to adjust the schedule to make up for lost time, just as they did a year ago.
The adjusted schedule reads as follows:
Friday, May 2 will be a Wednesday schedule. Monday, May 5 will be a Monday schedule. Tuesday, May 6 will be a Thursday schedule. Exams will begin on Wednesday, May 7.
“This was the model that we used last year with Hurricane Sandy,” Jonathan Crystal, associate vice president and associate chief academic officer, office of the provost, said. “Extending the semester is kind of impossible.”
These revised days were scheduled due to the number of classes cancelled on those days.
“We thought about students taking courses across the different blocks and [wanted] to make up the ones that lost the most time,” Crystal said.
Crystal says the university has to comply with state rules for class time. Academic deans also requested days be made up so that students and professors get the class time they need.
The university considered using holidays or spring break, but Crystal says that was not feasible and would have “provoked a lot of opposition. Reading days were the least worst outcome.”
This way, students who had booked flights home, scheduled trips or planned to start working right after finals would not have to adjust their plans.
An email sent to students last Wednesday confirmed this as the main reason for cutting reading days.
The email cited the Provost’s goal to alter the schedule as little as possible, so though “losing the reading days is unfortunate…the office of the provost and the deans determined this to be the best possible solution, minimizing disruption and hardship for the greatest number of students while ensuring that lost class time could be reinstated without extending the exam period or shortening holiday breaks.”
Since some exams were slated to begin on May 6, the university has dispersed the tests scheduled for that day throughout the revised exam week. This means “on some days during exam period, there will be three exams scheduled,” according to an university email.
However, the Provost’s office stated in the email: “Students who end up having three exams on one day will be able to reschedule one to a separate day.”
Also, students taking modern language exams scheduled for Monday, May 5 have their exams moved to Saturday, May 10.
The university once again says they can help reschedule if needed.
This schedule only pertains to undergraduates in Fordham College Rose Hill, Fordham College Lincoln Center and the Gabelli School of Business.
The university posted an updated exam schedule online for students to find their new exam times.
