A huge student backlash and hacking of class accounts resulted today after faculty voted to change the Cornell University academic calendar.
The new calendar would include shortening study week to five days, shortening exam week to eight days, and cutting Senior Week from four days to two days. In exchange, students will be given off the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and will include a two-day break in February.
If approved of by President David Skorton, these changes will become officially adopted by the University. This will mark the first change to the academic calendar since 1984.
These changes are largely unsupported by students, who point out that exams are an incredibly stressful time period, and study time should not be sacrificed for short breaks during the school year.
Students received the following email Wednesday night around 7:19pm from their class councils:
DEAR PRESIDENT SKORTON,
WE DO NOT APPROVE OF THE NEW CHANGES TO THE ACADEMIC CALENDAR MADE WITHOUT STUDENT INPUT!!
THIS DIRECTLY AND NEGATIVELY AFFECTS OUR MENTAL HEALTH
PLEASE DON’T DO THIS TO US!
Tell all of your friends! Let’s show the administration we’re tired of them ignoring what we have to say and that we WON’T STAND FOR THIS!
At around 9:20pm, they received another email from class council, stating that the previous email was a result of a list serve hack. The email included the following:
Dear Cornellian,
We would like to personally apologize for the message you recently received titled, “We Don’t Approve of the New Changes to the Academic Calendar.” Your Class Council does its best to email you only when necessary to inform you of class specific opportunities, but an unknown individual hacked into the list serve of all four undergraduate classes and sent out the message. Such an action is unacceptable, criminal and not condoned or approved by Class Councils or the Dean of Students Office. Even more disappointing is the effect this action had and will have on student efforts to protest the Faculty Senate’s decision. While these changes will not effect all current classes, they will directly effect future generations of Cornellians.
