According to the official policies established by the Administration, all classes must meet during their scheduled final exam period -- even if the classes in question are not administering a final exam. I've always found this to be a very silly requirement for seminar-type courses that have final papers rather than sit-down final exams, and since many of my courses are in seminar format, I find myself running afoul of this academic regulation pretty much every semester.
Adhering to the letter rather than to the spirit of the law (whatever the spirit of this particular law is, something on which I am none too clear), I have been showing movies during that scheduled final exam period for a couple of years now; sometimes I show the movies at a different time during the final exam period, but in any event the class is technically "in session." For all that it matters.
For my sci-fi course, the "final exam session" will actually be 2-6pm on 3 May in the Anderson Hall Honors Lounge, during which time I will show two films -- The Day the Earth Stood Still and Contact -- that I couldn't work into the syllabus for the regular semester. For my Ph.D. seminar, there will be a barbecue at my house sometime after the final essays are due.
I classify this particular academic regulation with the one technically requiring me to direct students to purchase their books from the campus bookstore -- less odious than the thing I once had to sign at a different university contractually obligating me not to speak ill of the U.S. Constitution, but annoying all the same. Some regulations make sense to me, but I can't for the life of me grok the purpose that this one is supposed to serve.
[Posted with ecto]
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