Students may not have to take Saturday finals by Fall 2006, if a University Senate resolution can get through to the Senate floor after four years of evaluation, the Student Government Association president said Wednesday.
"Hopefully this year will be the year we get rid of Saturday finals," Steve Geraci said.
Student Senate passed a resolution Wednesday supporting the Undergraduate Education Committee proposal that would eliminate Saturday finals, move Fall Break to a Thursday and Friday instead of a Monday and Tuesday and move December graduation to a Saturday instead of a Sunday.
Moving Fall Break won't affect the Mid-American Conference schedule because break will be during the same week each year, allowing for the MAC to schedule around it, Lisec said.
Department chairs have also said the schedule change wouldn't affect classes because they miss the same number of classes whether Fall Break is on a Monday and Tuesday or a Thursday and Friday, she said.
SGA wants to move graduation to a Saturday because more students' families will be able to attend the ceremony, Lisec said.
Ball State's student government has been working since 2001 to change finals week to a Monday through Friday schedule instead of a Tuesday through Saturday schedule, Sen. Asher Lisec, the resolution's author, said.
Student Senate passed a resolution Nov. 27, 2001 that asked University Senate to look into eliminating Saturday finals. Because of University Senate's legislative process, the issue was given to the Academic Policy Council. The council gave it to the Undergraduate Education Committee, and then it went back to the council again. A proposal was approved by the committee Feb. 28, 2005.
The resolution will either die or pass to the University Senate floor for consideration in April, Lisec said.
SGA also announced Wednesday the near-completion of its new Web site.
The old site was difficult to access for updates and difficult to understand, so no one messed with it, and the site became useless, Graham Watson, Student Senate's director of information, said.
"I've created an idiot-proof control panel that was set up so anyone could ... effortlessly keep the Web site current and useful for the student body," Watson said. "SGA is a group effort, so the Web site should be a group effort."
The site has biographical information on all Student Senate members, although not all the information is available yet. Students can look at the caucuses and standing committees to see what they are working on and can communicate with SGA through the message board. Students can also look at the Student Senate meeting minutes and the SGA budget.
While the information that Watson wants to be on the site isn't all there yet, he expects it to be completed within the next couple weeks as he gets more information for the senators' biographies, he said.
For more information on SGA, visit the association's new Web site:
www.bsusga.org
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