Dear Mrs. Demnitz,
Thank you for your email regarding
the length of this
year's Winter Break.
I will bring your request to the attention of
the
University Senate's Executive Committee at its next meeting.
Establishing the academic calendar
is a longstanding and
ongoing challenge, and one that involves many factors, including
national and
religious holidays, requirements for numbers of instructional contact
hours
each semester, the days of the week on which certain dates fall each
year
(e.g., New Year's Day), and many others. The calendar also needs to be
announced -- and therefore established -- well in advance so Rutgers
students
and their families, as well as Rutgers employees, can anticipate and
plan
schedules. Unfortunately, this means that it is not likely that any
adjustments
could be made to this year's academic calendar at this time.
However, rest assured that your request will be
discussed
by the Senate's Executive Committee next month. Members of that
committee with
more direct academic-calendar experience than my own will consider and
decide
what is possible, and I will respond to you afterward.
Ken Swalagin
Executive Secretary of the University Senate