A Student Government Association proposal that would grant students a preparatory week before finals was debated Monday at the Education Affairs Committee meeting.

The proposal asks the University to designate the seven days before final examinations as a period during which no mandatory tests or assignments may be scheduled for completion.

The current University policy states that no tests or assignments be given within one day of final exams.

SGA President Katy Bowers cited the policies of institutions such as the University of Texas and the University of California at Berkeley, where such an amendment has been approved.

“We’re not trying to have a reading week,” Bowers said.

“You’d be going to classes during the day, but at night you wouldn’t have the burden of extra work.”

The committee debated the proposal for more than 30 minutes.

Dissenting committee members said the proposal seemed to discount academic rigor by giving students more time to study material they should have studied during the semester.

If the proposal is sent to the University Council floor, questions of how it would be implemented and enforced will remain, said Denise Mewborn, the committee chair and academic department head for mathematics and science education.

“If you have 300 faculty, you’re going to have at least 100 different ways of conceptualizing a course,” Mewborn said.

“Am I supposed to go through the syllabi and call in faculty who have assignments due during the final week?”

Mewborn suggested the SGA further “tweak” certain aspects of the proposal, including SGA’s provision that registered student organizations be banned from holding mandatory meetings or events during preparatory week unless they were deemed “stress-relieving activities.”

Regardless of its fate, Mewborn said the resolution would raise awareness amongst students about University final exam policies already in place.

Also discussed during the meeting were amendments to the proposed 2009-2010 academic calendar.

Bowers proposed the date for Maymester withdrawal be pushed three days later to afford instructors ample time to grade and distribute midterms to students.

The committee unanimously voted to send the calendar to the University Council Executive Committee with Bowers’ amendment. The executive committee must approve the calendar.

If approved, the calendar will be sent to the University Council to approve in its meeting.

The new calendar extends the Fall semester midpoint withdrawal period two weeks to Oct. 22.

The committee discussed possible amendments to the University Council’s decision last week to allow students to withdraw from only four courses beginning in Fall 2008. Despite significant opposition from SGA, the council decided to limit the number of course withdrawals. The council also added an “add” day to the drop/add period.

Members said electronic withdrawals took away the human element in the process, leaving students to decide without input from professors or advisers.

Bowers suggested students must receive instructor approval on OASIS before they are able to withdraw from a course.

At the end of the meeting the committee voted to send the proposal to the University Council without amendments.