El Camino College’s official calendar for the 2024-2025 academic year could differ from previous years due to proposed changes to the start and end dates of semesters.
One of the proposed changes the calendar committee hopes to incorporate into the next academic calendar includes having the fall semester begin on a Monday rather than a Saturday.
Moving the start of the semester would require a change to the graduation date since the changes would result in the Spring semester lasting more into June.
The changed calendar draft proposes the next Fall semester to begin on Aug. 26 and end on Dec. 14. The following Spring semester would begin on Feb. 18 and end on June 16. The start and end dates are still subject to change.
“When we would start on a Saturday there’d be a lot of confusion, particularly for new students, they would think the first day of classes you come on a Saturday,” Dean of Counseling and Student Success Dipte Patel said. “The calendar committee regularly looks at upcoming years, we do need to have [academic calendars] approved in advance.”
Further discussions about the calendar draft will occur at the Nov. 21 Academic Senate meeting, as any changes will need further approval in December for them to be adopted.
“Because there have been some changes and holidays at the state level and [this is] us just wanting to see how we can approve student access and the student calendar,” Patel said. “We went ahead and put in the changes of the start dates of the semester.”
Concerns about the proposed calendar changes were raised during the Nov. 20 College Council meeting. Of specific concern was how the updated calendar could affect students’ time on campus and how some programs may be impacted by the date changes.
The change in graduation scheduling could affect programs that require state certification, such as the fire academy or nursing programs at El Camino.
The lack of communication in terms of the impact the changed calendar could bring to certain programs was another concern raised during the meeting.
“A lot of our programs are certificated where they take state tests and getting those back before graduation was a concern,” Julie Meredith, administrative assistant for public safety, said. “I was concerned they didn’t bring it to all the academic environments.”
Some additional holidays, such as Native American Day and Cesar Chavez Day, are also being proposed in the calendar’s draft, along with the changed dates of the semester.
Math professor and college council member Lars Kjeseth said that when you have so many holidays falling on Mondays, people who attend or teach Monday and Wednesday classes often get shortchanged a whole week’s worth of instruction time during a normal semester.
“If you’re paying the same amount of money and you’re getting a week’s less worth of instruction, as a student I would be concerned,” Kjeseth said.
