SGA seeks ‘dead days,’ relief before final exams

Students may get what some say is a much-needed study break before finals if University officials decide to add one or two dead days’ to semester schedules.

Student Government Association president Amy Whitehouse and vice president Sara Khalifa proposed the addition to the Faculty Senate at a Jan. 15 meeting.

Whitehouse said the idea of adding extra days into the schedule so students can better prepare for finals is an ongoing issue. She said association members are researching the issue and may present a formal proposal at a later date.

For dead days to become a reality, both the SGA and the Faculty Senate would have to approve. A proposal would then be forwarded to the University administration for final consideration, Whitehouse said.

Dr. Casey Mann, president of the Faculty Senate, said the University has to obey a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board rule, which specifies the number of hours of instruction per semester.

“For every three hours of course credit a student is required to have a total of 2,250 minutes of class time and one week for finals. Any time after that could be used for a dead day(s),” Mann said.

He said if the University adds dead days to the class schedule, then those hours have to be made up somewhere to maintain the hourly requirement. “It might mean we have to start the semester a couple of days earlier.

The concern of the faculty is we don’t necessarily want to sacrifice coverage of content of our courses for this,” he said.

Whitehouse said dead days would benefit students by allowing them more preparation time for finals, thus possibly improving graduation rates. She said all University of Texas System schools have dead days except for UT Tyler, UT Pan American and UT Permian Basin.

Mann said SGA members also discovered UT Tyler’s semesters are about six days longer than others in the system. “Logistically it’s not a simple issue. There would have to be a lot of work done,” he said.

Mann said adding dead days would require reworking the school calendar, which is prepared one to two years in advance. He said faculty members agree it’s a hardship on students not to have a few days off to prepare for final exams. It appears students agree with Mann.

Senior journalism major Heather Goss said she believes extra days would be benefit students by allowing them to either relax or prepare for finals. “With everyone’s hectic schedule, a little extra time would go a long way,” she said.

Business major Josh Trevino, a freshman, said dead days would give students a break to study and get their minds off things before they had to come back.

Junior Kris Kirst, an art history major, said she likes the idea of having a day or days where students aren’t dealing with a deadline. “This mental-refresher day would be beneficial to help students relax before their finals,” she said.

Whitehouse said she doesn’t expect the SGA’s research to be finished for at least another semester.