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• TTh meeting pattern: -150 minutes
• MWF meeting pattern: -50 minutes
• MW meeting pattern: -75 minutes
• A once-a-week class on M or F: no change
• A once-a-week class on T, W, or Th: -150 minutes

Yes.

• Federal Title 34 definition of the credit hour allows for institutional interpretation of instructional class time as approved by their accrediting agency.
• Colorado Commission of Higher Education guidelines define a base contact hour as a standard measurement of consumption of faculty resources by students. One base contact hour equals a minimum of 750 minutes. However, the final examination period may be included in contact hours.

Yes. Our campus accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission, makes sure we are in line with federal law but does not interfere with reasonable institutional interpretations of instructional class time. Many of our AAU peers who have 70 instructional days per semester are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Those same institutions also have accreditations in the same academic disciplines that we do.

The Office of the Registrar and the Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Planning & Assessment will work with departments to optimize schedules. Other large AAU peers with 70 instructional days per semester (e.g., Michigan, Minnesota, UT-Austin) may serve as models for scheduling and curricular structures.

It’s necessary to equalize the number of MTWRF instructional days.

Perhaps. However, a Thursday midterm reading day will have less impact in this regard, since the campus offers a lot fewer classes on Fridays. For example, in Fall 2023, there were 2,697 Monday classes, 2,834 Wednesday classes and 1,901 Friday classes. In other words, we typically offer a third fewer classes on Fridays than we do on Mondays or Wednesdays.

No. Faculty may schedule exams and other due dates at any time.

No. The revised calendar shortens the calendrical ground covered by the semester by one day. Three days of instruction are removed, and one midsemester reading day and one final exams reading day are added. Put another way: Currently, the semester ends 16 weeks and 2 days after it begins. (Where "end" = the last day of final exams.) Beginning Fall 2025, the semester will end 16 weeks and 1 day after it begins.

No; the midterm reading day functions like the final exam period reading days. Class sessions or graded assignments of any kind, including papers, lab practicums, presentations, portfolios and projects, may not take place or be due on a day designated in the academic calendar as a reading day. However, unlike the final exam period reading days, the midterm reading day is not a “blackout date” for concerts, sports events or other campus events.

No. Departments and the Office of the Registrar will need to review scheduling of common midterm exams so they do not fall on the midterm reading day.

They will be shortened to 35 days, or a true seven weeks.

The Registrar’s team is working with the Colorado Law School to preserve the distinctive features of its calendar.

There’s no change on this. The chancellor will make a decision if excessive instructional days are lost to weather or other emergency circumstances.

The Boulder Valley School and St. Vrain Valley School Districts have agreed to align their spring breaks with CU Boulder’s starting in Spring 2026.

Former Chancellor Philip DiStefano made this decision in December 2023 after considering input from campus constituents impacted by the academic calendar including faculty, students and staff. The CU system and the Board of Regents have been informed of these changes.

The chancellor makes this decision. Spring commencement is a large-scale public event and thus involves many considerations, not just academic ones.

The events team in the Office of the Chancellor works with departments and programs to schedule recognition ceremonies held in the fall and spring semesters. See Commencement for more information.