Central Michigan University may join the likes of Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan if the Academic Senate's recent proposal to start the fall semester after Labor Day is approved.

A recommendation to support the proposed schedule change was passed at the last A-Senate meeting by a 67 percent to 33 percent vote. The new schedule would shorten the fall semester by a week, though it first must face finalization from administration and faculty.

The proposal would be implemented for the fall 2013 semester, though concerns about the schedule were addressed in the A-Senate's Calendar Committee report. Concerns included a need to adjust master course syllabi, a shorter time span to cover the same amount of material, maintaining the Thursday and Friday before exams as a study break and overlapping eight-week terms for off-campus students.

The schedule change may also affect activities held before the beginning of the semester such as Leadership Safari and the schedule of groups such as Residence Life, athletics and the marching band, which arrive early.

For the schedule to be altered, the calendar section of faculty contracts would have to be re-opened and amended and the proposal would require approval from the board of trustees.

Megan Goodwin, chairwoman of the department of human environmental studies, said her department gave overwhelming support in favor of starting the fall semester early. Goodwin said among other benefits, giving students extra time to work over the summer and faculty more time to be with their families were some of the reasons for support.

"We’re supportive of making the change," Goodwin said. "We understand it’s not without some drawbacks, but we believe there are quite a few positives that come with starting later."

Goodwin said her department was aware significant changes would have to be made for curriculum to adapt to the shortened schedule, though they felt the benefits were worth the transition.

"As we look at the other universities able to accomplish it, everyone knows it’s going to take some adjustments as to how we’re delivering the content," she said. "But it definitely seems capable of being done without completely jeopardizing the semester schedule."

Phil Squattrito, professor of chemistry, said the proposed schedule would be difficult for courses with labs and instructors would undoubtedly have to drop one laboratory assignment.

"I wanted to point out when the discussion was taking place that particularly for lab sciences, when we lose a week of class, we lose a lab session," Squattrito said. "So unlike lectures that could be made up in alternative ways, there are fewer ways to change scheduling for a lab."

Squattrito was chairman of A-Senate when the Calendar Committee was formed and said he acknowledged arguments to start after Labor Day for students to have an extra week of work and for faculty to have more research time. However, Squattrito said restructuring lectures and labs would be difficult.

"There are other schools in Michigan that have calendars in that kind of 14-week range, so it wouldn’t be like we were out in left field by ourselves," he said. "But lecture content would definitely have to be restructured and we will undoubtedly lose a lab."

Shelby Township sophomore Kyle Burch said he would appreciate the extra week of summer for employment reasons, but the lost week of class could make the semester more stressful.

"At the beginning, I would probably appreciate the extra week of summer," Burch said. "But then, come the end of the semester, students might start feeling that lost week of class when the teachers have to compensate by pushing classwork closer together"