NIU’s University Council voted Wednesday that summer and fall school sessions of 2005 will start and end a week earlier than originally scheduled — allowing more time for processing student paperwork.

This decision makes the start date for the summer semester June 13 and the end date Aug. 5; the fall semester will begin Aug. 22 and end Dec. 11.

The original schedule would not allow grades to be posted until the evening of Dec. 20, only allowing two days of processing before the winter shutdown.

The paperwork includes dismissal/retention reviews, satisfactory academic progress reviews, housing reviews, degree posting for graduation and transcript request posting.

Before, the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department had about four hours to go through cases for dismissal for more than 350 students, said Steering Committee Chair Paul Stoddard. Now, the department will have two days.

Under the old schedule, NIU’s financial aid office would have enough time to send financial letters to students, but wouldn’t be able to follow up on them because officers wouldn’t be around until after the first of the year.

“We would be dealing with the lives of a couple hundred students that might not be able to come back to the university, and there is the question of how you will notify these students before you turn out their light and say they can’t come back to their residence hall and have to tell their friends,” NIU President John Peters said.

Several council members said they could manage an earlier fall semester with an earlier summer without a problem, despite concerns dealing with preparations for fall move-in.