By Emily Leayman

On the morning of Feb. 21, the university Administrative Council almost unanimously voted to keep the current five day final exam schedule this semester and the 2014-15 academic year.

The other option the university was looking into was the four day final exam schedule, which other Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education schools, such as IUP, West Chester and East Stroudsburg already use. The Administrative Council represents all parties at the university: the faculty unions, deans, chairs, staff, and students.

Student Government Board President Nick Imbesi represented the students at the meeting. He said the support of the faculty and Dr. Carlos Vargas-Aburto, the provost helped get support. The faculty union, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties officially gave their support when Imbesi attended their Representative Council meeting on Feb. 20. KU President F. Javier Cevallos spoke in support of the five day schedule at that meeting, Imbesi said.

Rescheduling finals if the student has more than two in one day, a policy approved by SGB, will also go into effect. Imbesi said around 1,300 students already have three or more finals in one day with the current five day schedule. He believed the number of these students would have increased with the four day final exam schedule the university was considering.

The only vote against the five day schedule was the staff member, who was a part of the Calendar Committee for the university. The staff member was upset that the other parties were going against the recommendation of the committee to implement the four day final exam schedule.

Some students from PASSHE schools using the four day schedule that SGB talked to were in favor of their own exam schedule. SGB also talked to different departments at these schools, and especially disability services at West Chester said it was hard to accommodate students with this schedule. Imbesi said that Kutztown has about two times the students who use disability services than West Chester, so it would be more difficult to work with a shorter exam schedule.

SGB, consisting of 33 representatives, spoke to around a couple hundred KU students, according to Imbesi. He posted on his Facebook to get opinions on it as well. The main consensus was to keep the current five day schedule.
“The main reason why I think it is important for Student Government Board is because of how distressed I’ve seen students get about it when I talked to them about it,” he said.

SGB voted 32-0 to reject the four day schedule.

“We thought that was in the best interest of the student body, and that is what the student body wanted,” said Imbesi.

SGB had been working on keeping the current schedule since last semester. In the fall, only the faculty and students supported the current five day schedule. SGB made their points known and had it renegotiated so all parties except the staff member supported the current schedule.

Near the end of March after spring break, the Administrative Council will vote on the 2015-16 academic year schedule. Imbesi graduates in May and wants to make sure this schedule stays in place.

“It’s one of my goals that while I have the say, we will be having a five day final exam schedule so we can make the situation for our students better,” he said.