BU Students Express Frustration Over Changes to School Calendar

Some students at Binghamton University are expressing frustration over a "sudden" change to the University's academic calendar for Spring 2022.

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According to a petition, Binghamton University students claim that the change to the calendar means that there will be an overlap between final exams and graduation. This also means that the overlap will most likely interfere with move-out deadlines for those students who have opted for off-campus housing.

The students claim that this is not the first time the University has changed the schedule and that the last time the schedule was changed, it led to added stress, especially for seniors and those who are completing graduate school.

The new change to the Binghamton University school schedule would cause final exams and graduation to overlap, causing students to "face additional stress. This decision turns the goodbyes and last moments they could be enjoying with their friends into hectic days filled with chaos."

In the online petition, students are appealing to Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger to consider moving the first week of Spring 2022 classes to an online format rather than pushing them back all together. The petition points out that "students with leases expiring in May will now be required to participate in commencement ceremonies, while moving out and balancing numerous final examinations.”

Students express frustration that rather than be able to "fully celebrate their accomplishments" some may face missing their graduation due to finals. The petition creator, simply known as "student," also points out that changing the school calendar may interfere with summer break for those students who will be starting their seasonal jobs.

The students note that if administrators are concerned about COVID-19 testing, the first week of the semester which generally only consists of a review of the syllabus, could certainly be moved to online learning for a week while testing is conducted.

The changes to the Spring 2022 calendar mean that last day of classes will be on May 11 when they were originally scheduled for May 4. Finals will now start on May 13 when they were originally slated to start on May 6. And, commencement, which was originally planned for May 13 has been pushed back to May 20-22.