AU alters schedule for inauguration

NICK TROIANO / EAGLE FILE PHOTO SWEARING-IN - AU President Neil Kerwin will be sworn in at an inauguration ceremony Feb. 8 in Bender Arena. Dean of Academic Affairs Haig Mardirosian announced Jan. 7 that most classes that day will meet for a shortened period of time to allow more people

Many classes that meet Feb. 8 will be shortened under a modified schedule so all members of the AU community can have the opportunity to attend President Neil Kerwin’s inauguration ceremony, according to an e-mail memo Dean of Academic Affairs Haig Mardirosian sent to the AU community Jan. 7.

All classes that usually meet between 8:30 a.m. and 4:50 p.m. on Fridays will be shortened that day from 75 to 50 minutes. No class meeting will occur between 10:20 a.m. and 1 p.m. because of the ceremony.

The schedule modifications do not apply to Washington College of Law classes. Instructors for special classes, such as the “Campaign Management Institute,” will have the option of either modifying their schedule or maintaining their regular meeting times, according to the memo.

The ceremony is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. in Bender Arena. There will also be a post-inauguration reception from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Shortening class times was the best way to alter the schedule that would allow classes to continue being held and would give students, staff and faculty the ability to attend the ceremony without missing class, Mardirosian said.

“Canceling classes has its own issues, as does allowing classes to continue during the ceremony,” he said. “Additionally, a large number of students are going to be involved in the ceremony, so we needed to keep that in mind as well.”

Mardirosian said he does not recall any previous instances when AU has altered the amount of time classes meet on a specific day, but added that the university has canceled specific class blocks because of special events on campus.

“The idea here was to just clear out that specific block of time for this purpose,” he said.

People who want to attend the inauguration will need to have tickets to enter the event. Planners had not released information on how to obtain tickets as of yesterday evening, but information on AU’s Web site indicated students, staff and faculty would be receiving an e-mail with that information. People serving as delegates from other schools, associations and “learned societies” need to indicate by Friday that they will be attending the ceremony. People will not need to have tickets to attend the post-inauguration reception.