Since the mid-seventies, UB has cancelled classes on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. This year these holidays fall on a Tuesday and a Thursday, so those on a Tues.-Thurs. schedule miss two classes, over seven percent of scheduled class time.
This is an unwarranted policy that brings state and church too close for comfort, which treats religions asymmetrically, and which shows disdain for teaching and learning-our very raison d'??tre.
It is, however, a generic calendar problem which concerns me most: we would all be much better served by a Mon.-Thu., Tues.-Fri. and Wed.-Wed. schedule, with 80-minute classes three or four days apart, or 160-minute classes a week apart.
It would do wonders for classroom utilization, parking and commuting, bus scheduling and education. We'd have about seven percent more classroom time (compared to a Mon.-Wed.-Fri. schedule), midterms would no longer be speedwriting contests, and all that at much reduced costs in money, frustration and gasoline use.
Not only UB, but also the whole SUNY system, and indeed all of our educational industries would be well served by this calendar design.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
