(DePaul University/Randall Spriggs)DePaul’s 2022-23 academic calendar has raised a few questions for its winter quarter start date: the quarter is scheduled to begin on Jan. 2, 2023, a date the federal government is observing the New Year’s Day holiday.
There is a reason behind the schedule.
Every few years, the way the calendar falls forces Academic Affairs to make some difficult choices about the start and end dates to each term in order to ensure that each quarter includes 10 full weeks of instruction.
This year, the choices were to start winter quarter on Jan. 2, or remove a day from spring break. Neither of these options was ideal.
Academic Affairs, University Registrar and Faculty Council, which votes to accept the calendar, agreed in 2019 that starting Winter Quarter on Jan. 2, 2023, was the better option for the 2022-23 academic year.
This will not be an issue for the 2023-24 academic calendar, however, it will arise again down the road.