Unfinished Business —

Final Exam policy in USRR: Can the committee take a look at what other universities may be doing for final exams? We likely won’t be able to accomplish a “re-write” of parts of the final exam language in the next month, but we can set foundation. 

Casey walks the committee through the “origin” story of the OUR calendar policy and what it means.

The Registrar’s office did a first pass and review of what classes aren’t in compliance – and reached out to instructors surrounding the “why?”. 

A soft launch was started in Fall 2024 with the goal of  Fall 2025 to be in-line with Department of Education requirements and Student Financial Aid. 

• The policy that OUR has been working on will help guide how classes are scheduled on the calendar but it’s still in process and not ready to become full policy.
• It’s known that this policy is coming. It would be great if the Calendar Committee could take a look. The Registrar’s office also has community-based sessions to help with transparency.
• Many institutions don’t have a specific “Calendar Policy” but there is a wish for it.
• The other thing that’s come into play is the competency-based education programs. Anyone who has students in competency-based education will be affected. 

Intercessions also need to be under guidelines in order to award financial aid. There can be 3-week intercessions before fall and before spring but can only have 2-week intercession in the summer. 

• Modules are also being defined as: 4-week and 8-week
• Financial aid needs to track progress in these 8-week classes. 

What is the best length for student success? The MBA program is set up well, but it’s difficult to get the classes needed during the summer. These are things to think about.

There is also the need for clarification on expectations for modules and when final exams are for modules. 

From an immigration compliance perspective, consistency would be very helpful. Additionally, many compliance departments need to report things and collect grades and give semester dates. 

For subscription-based calendar, there’s not an academic year. 

• The subscription-based calendar doesn’t have in-person instruction. The only exception is the week in which the University is fully closed.
  • One week in between each term. Graduation and everything that happens is occurring every month (there are 6 starts for right now, but eventually there will be 12).
  • The standard academic term doesn’t apply.

Feedback would be helpful. The committee will think about items to add as Casey hopes to keep moving the policy over the summer. 

Committee will meet again in April and discuss the policy further.

Meeting adjourned.