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Announcing New Academic Calendar for 2017-18

Academic Calendar

BYU‒Hawaii officially announces the new academic calendar that will run September-June. BYU‒Hawaii will implement this new calendar starting the semester of Fall 2017.  From the revision are significant changes of which to take note.

The new calendar model sets students “on a four-year graduation plan rather than the more compressed 9 Semesters in Residence model”, as listed on the Academics site. Further details in regards to the change of the nine semesters in residence will be determined and updated.

With the calendar change BYU‒Hawaii will extend the current 14-week semester into a 15-week semester for Fall and Winter semesters.  Furthermore, each semester will finish with finals lasting a full week period including reading days, final exams, and graduation, as opposed to the current 3-day finals’ time.

Not only has BYU‒Hawaii lengthened the semesters but also increased the length of breaks.  Breaks between semesters have been changed to at least 10 days rather then the current 1 week. Also, Christmas break will last for 2-3 weeks. No longer will the Christmas break be during the middle of the winter semester, but will be between Fall and Winter semesters.

To permit these extensions of calendar dates, the spring semester will shorten from the 14-week semester, like Fall and Winter, to a 9-week semester.  With fewer weeks scheduled, the course load for Spring semester is calculated to be two-thirds of a normal semester. Thus, the cost for Spring semester will be two-thirds of the Fall and Winter semesters’ costs. During Spring semester, full-time students will need to enroll in 8 credits.

Reason for “the shift” comes from administration “mark[ing] an effort to balance use of resources with student academic experience and closer alignment with the broader Church Education System academic calendars.”

For deciding the change, several administrative organizations were included: the President’s Council, the Academic Council, the Calendar Committee, and the Board of Trustees.  The final call was made by the Board of Trustees in Salt Lake City, January 11, 2017.

Projections for specific academic dates for Fall and Winter are included for future years: 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20. 

In response to multiple requests from faculty, staff, and students for a change to the academic calendar, a proposal was sent to faculty and staff for discussion in November of 2016. A formal vote on the proposal by faculty and staff was conducted on December 1. Students were also given the opportunity to voice their opinions through a campus-wide survey.

Calendar Change Survey

Image by Josh Mason, Ke Alaka’i

The starting, ending, and graduation dates of the new academic calendar have been approved.  Efforts continue to finalize internal academic dates, such as add/drop, and when they are completed the calendar will be updated as soon as possible.

To view the plans for the new 2017-18 Academic Calendar,
To view frequently asked questions about the new academic calendar,
To read the Ke Alaka'i article featuring survey results and early opinions for the new calendar, click here.