Though it is not the first time in the University’s history, Saturday finals are a new concept to almost every undergraduate on campus. Students in 357 class sections will take final exams this Saturday for the first time since prior to 2008.

In 2007, the Urbana-Champaign Senate Committee on Educational Policy originally set the calendar without Saturday finals. But in November 2011, the committee proposed that finals week be condensed by holding exams on Saturday because the calendar did not give faculty adequate time to finalize grades before financial aid deadlines. It passed by a voice-vote.

Although Saturday finals may disrupt the weekend, the committee felt it was the best option of the suggested solutions.   

“It was nothing mean-spirited; it was the best effort to try to get the semester accomplished in a timely fashion,” said University spokeswoman Robin Kaler. “I think there’s been some confusion with students thinking that this is the new normal and it’s not. It’s an exception.”

Some of the alternative options the committee discussed included shortening Thanksgiving break, delaying the start of the spring semester, reducing the final exam period to two hours and eliminating Reading Day.

Saturday final exams are rare, but they may happen every few years depending on changes in the calendar, Kaler said. The next time this is supposed to happen is during the 2017-2018 school year. 

Jim Maskeri, student senator and senior in LAS, voted against the proposal last year. Maskeri said he believed the change would be stressful for students who are not used to having finals on a weekend.

“I did think it would cause hardships to my constituents, but the vast majority (of senators) did vote yes because it was extenuating circumstances,” Maskeri said. “I do understand why we had to move forward with making the amendment.”

Another concern discussed at the meeting was the strain on students who have religious observances on Saturdays, such as Jewish students who observe the Sabbath.

For those students, there was an option to schedule a conflict exam, Kaler said.

Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel, director of Chabad Jewish Center, said the main challenge with Saturday finals is that many religious students are too intimidated to speak to their professors and schedule a conflict exam. Many students who have Saturday finals have asked Tiechtel to write letters to their professors explaining the situation.

“They don’t want it to affect their grade. They don’t want the professor to think differently of them, and having a test on Saturday is putting students in a very uncomfortable spot,” he said. “Most rescheduling is earlier, so you’re losing review sessions, and the biggest challenge of them all is that the University wants to create a welcoming environment, but most students don’t speak up.”

Despite concerns expressed by members of the University community, Kaler said the University hasn’t received negative feedback from students and faculty about the change.

“It’s nice to have that extra day to study,” Kaler said. “But our students are bright enough and hardworking enough that saying we need to have finals on a Saturday as opposed to extending them out another day at the end — they can handle that.”

Emma can be reached at [email protected].