With the end-of-year schedule back to its previous, less hectic form, we at the Phoenix would like to congratulate the faculty for doing the right thing and listening to the students.
We also want to acknowledge and thank the students, particularly the seniors and Student Council members who mobilized around the issue. Their work in pressuring the administration to consider a re-vote as well as in presenting our opinions to the faculty — it was this vigor that made this change possible.
The previous change to the schedule was obviously ill-advised, but more than that, it was ill-considered: student involvement was limited, and most students weren’t aware of the issue until after the fact. Given this, it’s not hard to believe that Swatties were so agitated over this issue — have we ever had such an enthusiastic turnout on a StuCo election or even a referendum? Certainly we have never seen such a one-sided vote.
The schedule is, unfortunately, not entirely settled: although this reversion to the previous schedule is good, it’s only to remain like this for this year and the next. Following that, there will be almost certainly be more changes. We hope that, now the faculty has seen how much we care about this, they will continue to take into account our opinions as they look to make revisions. It seems foolhardy not to.