Academic planning council workgroup on systemwide academic calendar

In the fall of 2024, the University of California begins the process of exploring whether all UC general campuses should operate under a common calendar. Currently, UC Berkeley and UC Merced are on semesters and UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz are on quarters.

As the University undertakes a thoughtful exploration of this possibility, we will consult with a range of stakeholders across our campuses as we evaluate how to best serve our students and the larger UC community. The Provost with the Systemwide Academic Senate Chair has launched as an Academic Planning Council (APC) Workgroup on a Systemwide Academic Calendar.  The workgroup Co-Chairs are Richard Arum, Professor of Sociology and Education at UC Irvine and Ahmet Palazoglu, Vice Chair, UC Academic Senate and Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at UC Davis. Other workgroup members include academic, administrative, and undergraduate and graduate student representatives across UC campuses and at the Office of the President.

The workgroup has produced a draft report summarizing information collected on existing and optional calendar features, a proposal of an alternate quarter calendar, factors to consider before making any calendar changes, and optional common calendars to consider. To produce this material, the APC workgroup drew upon panel discussions with individuals from UC student affairs, related campus offices, and representatives from peer institutions that have already completed or are undergoing  calendar conversion, 90 responses from a questionnaire purposively directed to representatives of campus constituent groups, and over 200 calendar@ucop.edu emails.

 

The workgroup is seeking systemwide feedback through May 30, 2025 and invite you to review the report and submit feedback through this Qualtrics instrument or email directly to calendar@ucop.edu.