While freshmen and transfer students may not realize it, there is something different about the first week of school.

It’s not that the introduction and syllabi filled first week is suddenly less wearisome to get through – the week is actually shorter compared to the year before because classes started the Tuesday after Labor Day rather than the end of August.

Larry Glasmire, director of Special Programs and Enrollment Analysis with Academic Affairs, said the late start is neither unprecedented, nor the beginning of a new trend.

“It’s a decision that has to be made by the university,” Glasmire said.

Classes must start before Labor Day if it falls between Sept. 5 and 7 in order to fit the full 15-week schedule with finals week, Glasmire said.

Since Labor Day fell on Sept. 4 this year, there was just enough time to push back the starting date, Glasmire said.

Before this year, the last time Sacramento State started class after Labor Day was in 2003, according to the Academic Affairs website.

While each California State University has its own academic calendar, all the universities that have semester systems usually have starting days that are not far off from each other.

This year, Sac State is one of three CSUs ?” the other two being Maritime Academy and Northridge ?” that started classes in September.

The earliest among the CSUs were Chico, Fullerton and Humboldt ?” all three started classes Aug. 21, according to the CSU website, www.calstate.edu.

While some students are indifferent about the starting date, others appreciate having Labor Day as part of summer.

“I think it was a good decision, so we can go without the random break at the first few weeks of school,” said Chandra Iketani, a junior construction management major.

The only setback, however, is that finals week and commencement, which will be held on Dec. 23, will cut close to the winter holidays, Glasmire said.

“Because commencement is so close to Christmas, it might be hard for families to travel,” Iketai said. “Other than that, I’m all for it.”

Glasmire said the decision was made with summer and winter sessions in mind.

Since summer session didn’t end until Aug. 28, there were faculty members who teach year-round that would’ve had overlapping semesters if the starting date was earlier.

The Academic Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate develops academic calendars two years in advance, Glasmire said. After the committee agrees on it, recommendations are made to the senate, and if it passes, it’s sent to campus President Alexander Gonzalez for a final approval.

Every university has a certain process in place that has to be approved by the president, and most of them are based on certain requirements for the number of instructional days, academic days and faculty work days.

Those requirements are put in place by the same national guidelines that dictate the number of hours of instruction for certain amounts of units per class, Glasmire said.

“You’ll see in three or four years when the calendar cycles through and Labor Day falls on the sixth or seventh, we’ll start classes in August again,” Glasmire said.

Mary Chou can be reached at [email protected]