City College has begun to explore the possibility of changing the entire academic calendar as an effort to address the current compressed schedule.

After encountering problems during the trial run of two summer sessions this year, the College Planning Council had a retreat and developed a task force to explore the different options for the calendar.

“The real issue is whether we move spring a week early,” said Academic Senate President Dr. Kimberly Monda.

The task force presented its ideas to the Academic Senate, which included two different scenarios.

The first one included offering a winter session in early 2017. The idea was immediately opposed by the senate because of the tight time-frame.

“In my department people were strongly opposed to that intersession, and didn’t see how that would benefit students,” said Senator Monica DiVito, who represents the English department. Other senators stated that the winter session sounded attractive and would enable students to possibly transfer faster, but that the date of the session could be problematic.

The second option would include two summer sessions and move spring semester to early January 2017, creating a break between spring and the first summer session.

The changes to the calendar are attempts to address the many problems encountered with the back-to-back sessions of spring and summer this year, and would give administration time to catch up.

“I think that one-week break would make a difference,” Monda said.

Although many departments were largely in favor of creating a break between the different semesters, they voted unanimously to oppose both scenarios. The senators explained that the senate needed more time to evaluate the two summer sessions before making any further decisions.

The faculty recommendation will be presented at the next College Planning Council along with the ideas created by the the task force.