UTC takes look at its calendar

REVISED SCHEDULETuesday: Classes beginJan. 28: Last day to change from credit to audit or audit to credit (contact the Records Office)Jan. 30: Last day to register, add or change sectionsJan. 30: Last day to drop before a "W" is recordedFeb. 28-March 4: Faculty notify students of mid-term gradesMarch 13: Last day to drop classesMarch 14-20: Spring breakApril 1: Fall "incompletes" dueApril 22: Spring holiday

It's too early to tell whether graduation will be postponed, but UTC officials on Thursday revised several key dates for spring semester.

The campus was shut down all last week by snow, and the first day of class has been pushed from Jan. 10 until Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

"We're not dramatically changing our calendar. We're not canceling our spring break or anything like that," University of Tennessee at Chattanooga spokesman Chuck Cantrell said.

He said it would be difficult to change the date of graduation because many students already may have made plans for summer trips or internships.

So far, only dates such as the first day of class and last day to drop a class have been altered, but officials will meet next week to decide whether the university will have to tack on extra days at the end of the semester, Cantrell said.

"In terms of actually changing the semester schedule, that would be done [this] week, if at all," he said.

One possibility might be to use UTC's annual "reading day," a day before final exams typically free of classes, to make up missed work, Cantrell said.

University Chancellor Roger Brown said he also asked state officials if UTC could use Good Friday, typically a state holiday, as another day of classes.

"We might need to shorten the summer term," he said. "We'll make sure students get the same amount of class time."

UTC senior DeAngelo Williams, 22, said several of his second-semester teachers have sent e-mails telling him to learn his syllabus and come to class Tuesday ready to ask questions and get started with class work.

Williams, a finance, accounting and economics major, said he has spent his extra week off from school working on an online computer science class and reading ahead in other subjects.

"Teachers will probably just cut down what they teach in class and have us learn more stuff on our own," he said.

Contact Kelli Gauthier at kgauthier@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/gauthierkelli.

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