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Changes Coming to Ease Finals Week Stress This Fall

Faculty Senate adopts new schedule to give students a new “flex” day to end their final exams 

Finals week can be one of the most stressful times of the year for both students and faculty. Every test, paper and project needs to be turned in and graded, and many students face the added stress of moving out of residence halls and apartments. It’s a situation that leaves many people wishing they had a little bit more time to wrap up the semester. This past spring semester, the University of Northern Colorado (UNC)’s Faculty Senate came up with a solution.  

After much discussion and voting, the senate voted to adopt a four-day final exam schedule starting in the fall 2025 semester, replacing the previous five-day schedule.  

“The regular final exams will be scheduled on Monday through Thursday, and Friday will be a day that people would have available open space to reschedule an exam if they need,” said Britney Kyle, Ph.D., professor of Anthropology and the Faculty Senate chair. 

Kyle says several factors led to this decision, with both student and faculty input on the matter. One of the biggest reasons was the unpredictable nature of Colorado weather.  

“If, for some reason, there was an inclement weather event and we had to cancel classes that day, that exam would then be moved to Friday,” Kyle explained.  

Lauryn Benedict, Ph.D., a Biological Sciences professor and member of the Faculty Senate, was a key player in implementing the changes and says even without closures or delays, the new finals schedule will still benefit all of UNC. 

“We needed a backup policy, and as we had these discussions, we realized the current schedule hadn’t been revised since some time in the 1980s,” said Benedict. “It had a lot of scheduled exam slots that didn't make sense.” 

Several of the timeslots on the existing finals schedule were not being used by any classes, especially for the evening and night classes that aren’t taught at the university frequently.  

An overhaul of the schedule will also redistribute the finals more evenly across the week, instead of grouping them up on the same day, easing students’ stress during the exam-packed week. 

“Students are now allowed to reschedule an exam to Friday if they have more than two exams on the same day – Friday provides time for that,” Benedict said. 

Many of UNC’s students are happy to hear that their finals week will be a little bit easier. 

“My last semester was the worst,” said Arlo Hudson, a third-year Public Health student. “I was super stressed, balancing my coursework with my job. I had finite time to work on multiple exams and papers, it was kinda gnarly.” 

According to Hudson, the finals schedule itself was due for an update. 

“Trying to read the master list of all the final exam times is near impossible,” Hudson said. “I end up needing to rely on my professors to post the exam times to Canvas.” 

Victoria Palokangas, a third-year transfer student at UNC, was excited to hear that the decision was made with student input.  

“This is my first semester here, so I’ve never actually had finals here yet,” said Palokangas. “I’m not exactly sure how it all works here yet, but I would hate to have all of my finals on one day.” 

The new schedule will help all kinds of students, from undergraduates all the way through to postgraduate students.  

“I want students, especially graduate students, to feel like they’ve really finished their work before they graduate,” Benedict said, referring to the fact that Graduate Commencement is always held the Friday evening of finals week. “Allowing Friday to be a potential free day gives them a day between finishing their exams and graduation if they want to have some time to see family or celebrate.” 

The Faculty Senate made sure to coordinate with on-campus housing and dining services to ensure that essential services were still open through the last days of the semester. 

“There have been policies in the past that students have to move out of their housing within 24 hours of their last scheduled exam, and that’s no longer an issue because housing is letting students stay a little bit longer,” Benedict said. 

Anything to ease the time spent studying and finishing up projects is a change well-accepted for students getting through their final exams. 

“I’m excited to have more free time at the end of the week,” Hudson said. 

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