If you are saddled with loads of term-end projects and papers next fall, don’t blame the Choate faculty, because they did not have any say in the matter.
As was the case with the rash implementation of a tweaked daily schedule and the sit-down lunches last spring, the upper crust of the Choate administration has again coughed up new policy without any significant consultation with either of the two main constituencies here at Choate -- the faculty and the students.
The decision to put an end to fall exams, it appears, came from the Calendar Committee, an obscure appendage of the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs. The idea itself did not even originate within the committee, according to sources; it was the spawn of the Senior Deans.
Faculty are already grumbling, much as they did last spring when Headmaster Shanahan broke the news of his newfangled sit-down lunches as an “F.Y.I.” instead of actually taking into account faculty opinion. Again, after this exam plan had been all but set in stone, the administration offered time at this Monday’s Faculty Meeting to explain and discuss the changes in a “consultative” manner.
But this appears to be too little, too late: the Science Department, for instance, shot down the plan in a near-unanimous vote at its most recent Department Meeting, The News has learned. Despite these pockets of resistance, the new calendar and exam elimination is a “done deal,” as one source described it.
It is no surprise that the Student Council had no say in the matter -- the Council isn’t exactly a bastion of influence these days. Granted, the Faculty Committee was consulted, but apparently that was not much more than a formality.
We as Choate students should consider what the reasons were for this exam change before coming to conclusions on its appropriateness. And once the calendar is finalized, we hope Mrs. Wallace and the parties involved in creating these reforms will explain exactly how this change came about.
Regardless, senior Choate administrators, mostly removed from mainstream academic and residential life -- banished (temporarily, we hope!) from the classroom by Mr. Shanahan -- still have not grasped the concept of being inclusive, not exclusive, in devising policy here at Choate. More opinions, more ideas, more input, more perspectives – all are assets in the policymaking process, not things to fear.
