Make-up class day added to end of semester

Tufts will hold an additional day of classes on Tuesday, May 2 for the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering (AS&E) to compensate for two snow days this semester, according to an email announcement sent to the Tufts community on March 28. For all AS&E students, reading period will take place on May 3 and 4, and final exams will still begin on May 5.

The decision to add a make-up day was made by the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Dean of Engineering, according to Dean of Undergraduate Studies Carmen Lowe. A make-up day was needed this semester because the snow days were on a Thursday and a Tuesday, meaning that many classes on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule have missed two classes, Lowe noted.

The make-up day will follow a Tuesday schedule, and the announcement stated that students should expect to have classes unless they are instructed otherwise. Nonetheless, the decision to hold a class on that date is ultimately left up to the discretion of individual professors, according to Lowe.

"The make-up day simply sets a class schedule ... and allows professors to stay in the same classroom to avoid the chaos of professors trying to re-schedule," Lowe told the Daily in an email.

The protocol for calling a make-up day was set in December 2016 by the faculty Educational Policy Committee. The policy allows the Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Dean of Engineering to add a make-up day, generally on a holiday or during reading period, Lowe explained.

This policy was created partially in response to the spring 2015 semester, when a succession of blizzards caused five snow days, according to Lowe. That semester, Tufts added two full make-up days during reading period, as well as a make-up day for evening classes on Patriots' Day, according to a February 2015 announcement.

"The Tufts faculty adopted this policy to avoid a lot of the confusion we faced that winter and spring, when we had to find space in the limited weeks that remained," Lowe said.