Last Friday afternoon, Pomona's faculty decided by a unanimous voice vote to switch the time of the first year Critical Inquiry Seminar from 8:20 am to 11 am for a one year trial period. An evaluation of the change will be made in the spring of 2002, at which point the faculty will reconsider the issue. The vote, which was taken in response to a proposal from the Curriculum Committee, was the third faculty vote in three years regarding the controversial ID 1 time.

The 8:20 am time was set by the faculty at the inception of the ID program in 1986, and has been maintained until now despite recurring complaints that the early meeting time detracted from the effectiveness of the overall experience.

According to Coordinator of the Freshmen Seminar Betsy Crighton, the time has been an issue for at least five years. Past attempts to change it failed due to dissatisfaction with alternative proposals and a lack of student and staff support.

"One of the biggest differences this time around was the opinion of the Senate, [which] backed the proposal, contingent on it being a one year trial period," South Campus Representative Adam Rick '02 explained. In the past Senate had "sent representatives to speak out against [similar proposals] because of conflicts with other activities."

The Curriculum Committee began to reexamine the issue of ID 1 time in the spring of last year, after voting that it was worth revisiting, said Rick, who was serving on the committee at that time.

The New Proposal

At the beginning of this fall, Curriculum Committee Chair Judson Emerick decided that the ID 1 time was an issue of high priority, and brought it back up for discussion in the Curriculum Committee.

They began with the question of what time it could be changed to, eventually deciding 11:00 am was the only suitable option.

In addition to Emerick, the Curriculum Committee is currently made up of Dean of College Hans Palmer, Associate Dean of College Shariar Shahriari, Professors Edward Copeland, Betsy Crighton, Linda Reinen, Jill Grigsby, and David Becker, Registrar Margaret Adorno, Academic Affairs Commissioner Richard Sun '01, and at-large student members Junior Class President Jake Oken-Berg and Alex Hui '01.

The committee's proposal focused on "a contradiction between the night culture of the dormitories and the exceptionally early hour at which ID 1 seminars meet."

It further noted faculty dissatisfaction with the current time, citing a Spring 2000 survey of the seminar teachers, in which 64 percent (27 out of 42 professors responding) marked themselves as being "dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the time."

Many members of Senate and faculty agreed that the 8:20 am time was highly problematic.

"We have a ton of evidence that freshmen are not getting enough sleep, getting up in time, or effectively participating in class discussions," Rick said. "Even if there's a criticism of this as babying the freshmen, it's for a very good cause: the success of our ID 1 program," he added.

"Instructors argue that students find it difficult to be full participants in so early a class, that discussions are less vibrant than they would be later in the day."

The Curriculum Committee's proposal noted, "In an ideal world, our students would cope with their first semester of college by going to bed early, but this is not happening and it is difficult to imagine the revolution in student life that would be required to make it happen."

The decision to propose a shift to 11:00 am was based primarily on its being "the least disruptive alternative to 8:20 am," according to the committee proposal.

The new time, the committee members said, would not conflict with other classes, sports practices, music and theater rehearsals, lab sections, or language courses. While concern remained over the issue of conflict with public events and regular meetings, such as ASPC Senate and CCLA, the members of the committee argued that any possible intrusion would be "manageable, especially in light of the current trend towards scheduling public events at 4:15 pm or in the evening."