WHEREAS, The Faculty Senate formed an ad hoc Calendar Committee in Fall 2010; and

WHEREAS, This committee was charged with reevaluating Cornell’s academic calendar, especially as it relates to student mental health; and

WHEREAS, This committee’s membership included both undergraduate and graduate/professional student representatives; and

WHEREAS, Jeffrey Doyle, chair of this committee, presented this committee’s “Objectives and Principles Guiding the Reexamination of the Academic Calendar” to the GPSA on April 18, 2011; and

WHEREAS, Christoffer Heckman, the graduate/professional student representative on this committee, presented its recommendation for changes to the academic calendar to the GPSA on March 5, 2012; and

WHEREAS, This committee has made commendable efforts to solicit feedback from all constituencies across campus; and

WHEREAS, This committee has been very responsive to said input; therefore, be it

RESOLVED—

1) That the GPSA fully endorses the Calendar Committee’s recommended changes to the academic calendar; and
2) That the GPSA requests that the recommended addition of a “mental health break” between the start of the Spring semester and Spring Break, which it feels will strongly benefit the entire student body, be instated with all deliberate haste; and
3) That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to David Skorton, President of Cornell University; William Fry, Dean of the University Faculty; Barbara Knuth, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School; and Jeffrey Doyle, Chair of the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Calendar Committee.

Respectfully submitted,

Evan Cortens
President, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly