The calendar change is the result of a UNC-system Board of Governors decision in February to allow individual system campuses to trim their academic calendar by about two weeks.
Originally UNC-CH officials said they did not want to change the 2002-03 academic calendar because the calendar had already been published and the University had made plans around it.
But David Lanier, University registrar and the head of the committee that submits calendar proposals to the chancellor, said he received calls from students, faculty and administrators asking him to revise the 2002-03 academic calendar.
The committee members decided to cut some of the days from the 2002-03 year, making it a transitional year before the revised calendar is put into effect.
The committee took three days from the end of the fall semester and three days from the end of the spring semester.
The majority of changes to the to next year's calendar will affect exam week.
There will be no exams on Saturdays, and the exam period is longer than usual because the committee did not want to make any changes to the Commencement schedule, Lanier said.
The last day of classes for the fall and spring semesters were slated to be December 7 and April 30. Under the new calendar, classes will end December 4 and April 25. Exams will end as scheduled in the fall on December 17 and one day early in the spring on May 9.
The final changes, implemented in the 2003-04 academic year, will include a total of 70 days of instruction per semester, compared to the 75 days that have been in place the last four years, he said.
