DRC Article on Finals Change

[UNTLifer]

I appreciate the reporter giving both sides to the story, as opposed to the NT Daily

UNT changes exam schedule

Likelihood of bowl game appearance leads to break in middle of finals week

07:00 AM CST on Friday, November 12, 2004

By Matthew Zabel / Staff Writer

Finals week at the University of North Texas has been changed to allow students time off from exams to attend the New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 14, UNT administrators announced this week.

The exam week will stretch to a week and a half, with a four-day break in the middle.

The new schedule moves some final exams ahead five days.

The Mean Green football team could clinch its fourth straight berth to that bowl game with a win Saturday over Idaho.

This is the first time in those four years that the bowl game has conflicted with finals week, which was scheduled for Dec. 11-17.

Under the new schedule, any final exams scheduled for Dec. 13-15 will instead be given Dec. 8-10, at the end of "dead week," when students typically study for exams.

Provost Dr. Howard Johnson opted to change the schedule after approval from the faculty senate and the student government executive officers.

Johnson could not be reached for comment Thursday, but in a written statement he said that the university "would have been remiss to create the demand that students participating in the bowl game would have to travel all night in both directions in order to be able to take their final exams."

Last year, four students died in a car accident as they were driving back from the bowl game. While that accident was not related to finals week, no one wants another accident to happen, said Dr. Bill McKee, UNT’s faculty athletics representative.

"Under the circumstances, I think it was a wise thing to do," McKee said.

Johnson also defended the students’ participation in the bowl game.

"Participating in a bowl game is not simply a feather in the football team’s cap," Johnson said in the statement. "It places a national window on our entire university, and does a great deal to raise the image and reputation of this institution."

But some faculty said the change is forcing them to change their plans at the last minute.

Dr. Alan G. Mayper, a UNT accounting professor, said UNT has known about the bowl game since the beginning of the semester, and if the schedule change was necessary, it should have been made then.

"I support UNT athletics as much as anyone," Mayper said in a mass e-mail response to the change. "I want us to succeed. This decision, however, is an insult to the academic integrity of the institution. Our priorities need to be re-examined."

McKee said UNT would have "looked silly" if it had changed the schedule at the beginning of the semester and then the football team missed the bowl game.

More than 500 students, including athletes, student assistants, band members and others affiliated with the team, would travel to the game, administrators estimated. Those students would have to be accommodated regardless, McKee said.

After the schedule change, UNT officials expect about 3,000 more students to attend the bowl game, the announcement said.

Students’ opinions about the change ranged from excitement to anger.

"I’m planning to go, now," said Dan Baird, a senior kinesiology major. "I had a final at the same time so I couldn’t, but now I can."

"In one of my classes, about half the class was going to go. We had asked the professor to move the final, but he wouldn’t," Baird said.

Some said they still wouldn’t go to the game, but the change won’t affect them much.

Others said the change has upset their work schedule.

Jennifer Davies, a junior business major, said the university should have made the decision sooner.

"That’s bad. I don’t care about football, and I’d rather have dead week," Davies said. "I’ve already asked off work for finals week," and it’s probably too late to change that schedule, she said.