On Tuesday, Nov. 27, the Faculty Senate approved various changes to the Dead Week policy. The most prominent change was the inclusion of the long summer term, which had not previously been stated in the old Dead Week policy.
“The initial Dead Week policies stated that Dead Week applies to standard terms, which we realized did not include the long summer term, so we added that,” said Dr. Carole Moore, Assistant Vice Provost of Academic Affairs. “However, the policy does not cover the short terms, study abroad, or anything similar.”
According to statements made by Moore in the Faculty and Academic Senate, not having this explicit regulation in the policy caused issues in the past, such as violations during the long summer term’s Dead Week from professors.
Most students feel relieved that summer semester has gained this kind of catch-up time.
“The summer semester is really stressful because you have more material put into a short period of time and less time to study for finals. Maybe, a dead week for the summer will lighten the load a little,” said third-year IE major Maurice Balder.
The policy’s previous use of the term “Week Preceding Final Exams” to denote Dead Week was also replaced by the latter term.
“The change of the name from ‘Week Preceding Final Examinations’ to ‘Dead Week’ is to improve searchability and familiarity,” said SGA Vice President of Academic Affairs Lucy Tucker. “Now, students and faculty will be able to more easily locate the correct document.”
Other, smaller changes to the policy included a reorganization of the policy format. Originally, the policies and rules of Dead Week were organized into a paragraph format within the student catalog, but now, Tech will list its Dead Week policies in an outline format for better clarity.