The latest calendar recommendation consolidates fall break and the Thanksgiving recess into one week, leaving four days for final exams.

This proposal is the final recommendation made by the Joint Committee to Review the University Calendar which was formed to "fix" the "broken" calendar.

This week, the committee submitted this calendar to University Planning and Undergraduate Education.

After roughly six months of research and gathering input from students, administration and faculty members, the group proposed 72 instructional days for each semester and recommended the two fall recesses be combined into one week at Thanksgiving.

The committee said it believes this new proposal offers several advantages compared to the present semester schedule.

First, it does its best to remedy professor's complaints about students leaving early for both fall break and Thanksgiving, which has been a major criticism of the current calendar, committee members said.

Right now, the university loses as many as three instructional days during the Fall Semester due to problems with students leaving before the scheduled break, committee members said. Therefore, the committee believes the duration of Fall Semester could be reduced without any significant educational impact.

The committee's report further explains that by reducing the number of instructional and assessment days, Penn State will be able to begin class three or four days later than it does now. The additional time will allow more days for transition and orientation activities, while it may also ease some of the time pressure on student internships, co-ops and other summer activities.

The recommendation also allows for the possibility of a non-weekend study day before finals.

Regarding finals week, committee members explained that these days, probably Wednesday through Saturday, would allow for different forms of final examinations, including alternatives such as presentations, group projects and term assignments.

D. Josh Troxell, assembly senator for the Division of Undergraduate Studies and the only student member on the calendar committee, said the group understands that the recommendation does not represent everyone's opinion.

"There seems to be room to propose changes, whether people accept them or not is hard to say at this point," said the newly appointed Academic Assembly President Paul Ricciardi.

He said assembly still supports several other options, a 15-week semester without a final examination period and a 14-week instructional semester with five days of final exams.

"Many students think that making a week out of Thanksgiving is too long of a break so close to finals week," Ricciardi said.

Michael Capell (senior-operations and information systems management) agrees that fall break should stay where it is.

"Getting out of here in the middle of the semester for a few days keeps me sane," he said.

Bryan Bisceglia (senior-economics) also feels that being in classes from the end of August until Thanksgiving is too long to go without free days.

"I think that the calendar should be left how it is," he said.

The University Planning Committee and the USG committee is now evaluating the recommendation.

Those two groups will debate and discuss this issue at the University Faculty Senate's Dec. 4 meeting. Faculty Senate will vote on it during the Jan. 29 meeting. Penn State President Graham Spanier will then make the final decision.