It could have gone on for hours.
So when President Roger Hull opened Wednesday's
faculty meeting on the proposal to adopt a semester calendar, he did so by
holding out as a model Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
The approach served a useful purpose in keeping faculty
to the three minutes it took Abe to deliver his historic Civil War speech.
The last faculty member to talk, Tom Werner, used some
of this time to remind colleagues that the debate over the College's
calendar system already has gone on twice as long as the conflict that
raged during Lincoln's speech.
Finally, after more than a dozen voiced their feelings,
the faculty voted overwhelmingly to call the question. Mail ballots are to
be distributed next week, said Terese McCarty, chair of the Faculty
Executive Council.