NEMCC Moving To Four Day Schedule

BOONEVILLE, Miss.– In a move designed to provide its students with more flexible scheduling options, Northeast Mississippi Community College’s Board of Trustees (unanimously) adopted a four-day-per-week instructional calendar for the 2014-15 academic year at its monthly meeting December 17.

Beginning in August 2014, Northeast students will attend class four days per week instead of the traditional five. There will be no classes scheduled on Fridays, however, the college administrative offices will be open and maintenance staff will use the day free of the student population and traffic to tend projects that otherwise would have to be postponed. The exact schedule for non-instructional personnel has not been finalized.

Currently, four other Mississippi community colleges, Meridian Community College, East Mississippi (Scooba), Holmes (Goodman) and Mississippi Delta (Moorhead), operate on some form of a four-day work week.

In his recommendation to the Board, Northeast president Dr. Johnny L. Allen said the affect the alternate schedule would have on Northeast students was the primary concern he and his staff had as they worked through the process of developing the new calendar.

“Originally, we looked at the four-day work week as an avenue by which we could conserve energy and therefore save on utilities,” Allen explained, “however, as we continued to conduct research and have discussions, we continued to ask ourselves how the change would affect our students. We feel the four-day class schedule will allow students more time to prepare for those classes, as well as tend to their business on campus or outside the educational realm such as taking on more employment hours.”

Under the new calendar, 2014 fall semester day and evening classes begin Monday, August 14. The traditional holiday schedule remains relatively unchanged.