06-03-2020, 08:50 AM
(06-02-2020, 01:56 PM)Jamesy Wrote: I agree that two weeks would make more sense, get finals out of the way before Thanksgiving rather than saving them for after. FYI, there have not been Thanksgiving week classes since 2004.
Oh wow, thanks for letting me know, Jamesy. So in fall 2019 Stanford had 9 weeks of instruction, took a full week off for Thanksgiving, then had a 10th week of instruction followed by Finals week. That is brutal from an instructor's perspective.
Maybe Stanford and other institutions will make these changes permanent. Again I'm aware of how moving the start of fall quarter earlier will impact summer session--and some students would have a reason to return to campus after Thanksgiving because of research projects, work, sports, etc.--but from the standpoints of health (even without Covid there is flu season) and instructional integrity it makes sense.
If there's one thing people have learned in Berkeley, it's that you can't put "Cal football" and "Rose Bowl" in the same sentence. The words just don't fit. You'd be better off linking "covered wagons" with "Mars travel." (Bruce Jenkins, Cal '70, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11, 2017)