University of Virginia Library

The Calender And 4-1-4

The Calendar and Scheduling Committee
has taken a progressive and long-awaited step
in reporting their two semester calendar for
1971-72. Instead of having the gloom of
exams thwarting their Christmas breaks,
students will now take exams before
Christmas and will enjoy a combined
Christmas-semester break of 26 days. This
system should certainly be regarded as a vast
improvement over past calendars by all facets
of the University community. The longer,
uninterrupted break will allow greater
flexibility and time in the schedules of faculty
members and administrators as well as
students. With the second semester ending by
mid-May, students will now have a longer time
to search for a longer job and the opportunity
to get those jobs they missed out on because
they were in school until June. Certainly the
longer period between semesters would be
most welcome by the Registrar's and Bursar's
Offices.

There was some concern that the new
calendar would create a problem by disrupting
plans for groups who have already scheduled
meetings and conferences for the 1971-72
session. But these dates are far enough in the
future so that they could be easily changed.
And, as one member of the Calendar and
Scheduling committee pointed out, the
calendar should be tailored primarily
according to the wants and needs of the
University community itself. It is for this
reason that we sincerely urge President
Shannon to give final approval to the Calendar
and Scheduling Committee's proposed
1971-72 calendar.

A not-so-apparent aspect of the new
calendar, which recommends itself to serious
study is that with a 26-day break between
semesters, the door is open to developing that
time into a period which could be integrated
into some sort of 4-1-4 curriculum. In such a
curriculum, the student takes a reduced
workload of four courses for two somewhat
shorter-than-normal semesters. The month
long break between these semesters is spent in
an area of independent study of interest to
the student.

The 4-1-4 creates a problem at larger
colleges and universities in the fact that there
are usually not enough professors to handle
the workload of a large number of
independent study projects. This problem
might be gotten around by establishing a
number of month-long 'mini courses' which
would in effect be small seminars on special
subjects not offered during the regular terms.
A student not able to find a professor to
sponsor an independent project would at least
have the opportunity to study an area of
particular interest in a small classroom
situation.

There are, of course, many other ways to
iron out the problems of a 4-1-4 curriculum.
But if the door is opened by the approval of
the proposed calendar for 1971-71, then we
would urge the Future of the University
committee, in whose domain extensive
curriculum reform would fall, to give serious
consideration to establishing a 4-1-4 at the
University.