Faculty Meeting Schedule Re-Examined Experimentation with Rotating Schedule Possibility
By Gilbert Tetteh ’08
News Staff Reporter
For decades, the Choate Faculty has assembled for its bi-weekly meetings at 7:15 on Monday.
These meetings are now undergoing an experimental scheduling reexamination that could result in a permanent transfer to a new time or to a rotating schedule.
When asked about the sudden desire for a rotating schedule for faculty meetings, Dean of Faculty Stephen Farrell explained, “We have wanted for some time to move the faculty meetings into the class day, but our current five-days-a-week class schedule does not allow for that, so we have had to retain the Monday evening meeting slot.”
Mr. Farrell insists that, contrary to popular belief, the change to the meeting schedule was not triggered by a fear of illegal coed visiting during the period of adviser absence. Rather, it stemmed from the desire to have advisers in the dorms supervising and engaging students when they should be. A rotating schedule of meetings would allow faculty members to remain at their posts during study hours to maintain an appropriate and helpful working atmosphere. Teachers would also be available for extra help and questions about dorm life more regularly.
“Mr. Shanahan has had concerns for some time about having the entire faculty out on Monday evenings during study hours, so in February the administration decided to experiment with holding the faculty meetings at different times and days,” says Mr. Farrell.
While this may be the case, illegal coed visitation was not as distant from faculty minds as they may want the student body to think. A faculty member who preferred to remain anonymous stated, “Sure co-ed would be a part of it, but it’s not the biggest part of it… And night times are the times when we’re really supposed to be there, and we’re supposed to know where [students] are and what [the students] are supposed to be doing.”
The faculty members have experimented with a wide range of trial days and times that are currently being explored by the Faculty Committee. So far they have tried Monday afternoon from 3:00 to 4:00, Monday evening during the dinner slot (6:00-7:30 pm), this past Wednesday from 9-10:30, and the traditional Monday evening slot that begins at 7:15 pm and terminates well into study hours at 8:45. Another option, adds Mr. Farrell, would be to “consider a ‘split’ meeting in which half the faculty would meet early on Monday evening and then the other half would meet shortly thereafter so we always have the dorms covered.”
The administration will be evaluating the merits and drawbacks of each time slot. “At the end of the year, in our final meeting in June we will discuss possible meeting times for next year with some firsthand experience of what might (or might not) work for us,” adds Mr. Ford. The faculty has a definite say, but the final decision lies in the hands of the administration and Mr. Shanahan.
