Choosing a new calendar

Change comes slowly and cautiously at Princeton, a University known for holding fast to its traditions. Even so, the University's unimaginative proposals for a new academic calendar were surprising. In a previous editorial, we advocated Calendar C, which would bring Princeton into line with nearly all other universities in the United States by having semesters end before the winter break. We are concerned that through a process that appears to lack transparency, this option, as well as several other innovative calendars, seem to have been permanently taken off the table.

These issues aside, we also find disturbing the administration's efforts to seek student input on the two new proposed calendars. As reported in Wednesday's Daily Princetonian, the administration decided to forego holding a student forum due to low attendance at previous such events, replacing this channel of communication with an email address and an email explaining the current proposals. This is not sufficient. A change in the academic calendar is an issue of tremendous concern to students and must be accompanied by substantive dialogue with the administration. This purpose is not adequately served by email. The use of email is one alternative for student input, but it must be accompanied by other channels, a forum being the most important example. That said, the responsibility of the administration to provide multiple channels for student input is matched by students responsibility to use them.

We have some other concerns about the transparency of the decision-making process with regard to calendar reform. It is unclear why the imaginative original proposals are no longer eligible for consideration. We believe a key ingredient in any such process must be the result of the student survey of calendar options. Given the lack of transparency in the process, it is unclear what role the survey data had in the decision to propose two new calendar options to the exclusion of the others.

We hope that the administration will address some of these concerns over the coming weeks before any final decision is made. Student-faculty forums and meetings about Whitman College and issues of race and diversity on campus have encouraged critical and constructive debate in the past. We would like to see the same type of transparency from the administration on this issue. At the same time, however, students opposed to the current proposals must make their voices heard, whether through email, visits to administrators' office hours or student-body referenda. While it often makes genuine attempts to seek student input, on issues of this magnitude, the administration must offer multiple channels to do so.