When is your Fall academic calendar finalized?

[onthefringe]

I'm on a committee that just approved our academic calendar through 2023. I can't imagine not having a calendar for the upcoming year yet!

Does that include class schedules, or basically a list of what courses will be offered with details to be finalized later? The former seems pretty mind-boggling. Here, the tentative schedule for the coming year comes out in March or April, but details (such as for courses taught by part-time faculty) are often filled in in June or July. Also, lab sections can still get added or closed, and so on. Rooms can occasionally change as well if the are big enrollment changes.

No, this is just the academic calendar the OP asked about with things like dates of vacations, add/drop period etc. Actual class schedules are usually available within the first few weeks of the previous semester (so class offering and times for spring 2020 will be available late August 2019). But everything you need to plan a syllabus including vacation dates are currently set out to 2023. You can even figure out when your final is scheduled if you have some way to know when your class would be offered (ie if I want my class to be MWF at 9:30 am in 2023, I could tell you the scheduled time and date for the final exam).

[octoprof]

At most schools, the academic calendar, including dates like last day to withdraw and midterm grades due, is available about a year or more ahead of time.

I'm teaching at one school where they seem to operate about 6 weeks ahead of time. I've asked for the Fall info and I didn't get any reply from the Registrar at all. Another administrator told they are working on it.

Isn't it a bit odd to leave things so late?

Every school is different.

At my previous institution we often received changes in the current semester calendar (especially final exam scheduling) during the current semester. Very annoying.

At my current institution, I'm delighted to report that right now (summer 2019), we have available academic calendars through 2020-2021.  I'm a planner so I love being able to plan far ahead when I want to.

[clean]

A few years ago now, during a time of budget tightening at the state level, the start of the academic year meeting had our president 'reassure' us that 'Welcome Back.  I can announce that there will be no layoffs before August".

Later I became the chair of the faculty senate budget committee and we were again going through budget turmoil.  At the April meeting where we sum up the prior year i was able to announce that the Academic Calendar for the fall was recently posted to the university website, "So it looks like we wont be shutting down before Christmas". 

[Conjugate]

The schedule of classes is made up a couple of months in advance, at least; it is also sent around to people to make sure that there are no obvious problems (such as, no calculus classes that would fit a second-year Biology major's schedule). The rough calendar (Spring Break dates, for instance) is worked out far in advance.  That said, this upcoming year our start date and end date for Fall 2019 were pushed back a couple of weeks, during Spring 2019.

A change this late is very unusual, and we have a few strategic reasons for it.  For instance, we are hoping that students who were turned down by some of the tougher, more selective institutions will be able to turn around and get in here (as we are an access institution).

[the_geneticist]

Here the "broad strokes" of Add/Drop days, first & last days, holidays, etc. are scheduled at least a year out.  There are some classes that are basically a default on the schedule and MUST be offered every term (Basketweaving 101 for all Basket-intending majors).  The upper division & specialty classes are proposed about a year in advance, the exact details of who/when are set a few months out.
We're testing out a system of "scaffolded" courses where the common needed courses are at set days, times, & rooms every quarter.  No changing the days times or rooms due to Dr. Running Late who doesn't want to teach at 8:00am, Dr. I Hate That Classroom refusing to teach in the largest lecture hall, or Dr. I don't do Fridays changing a MWF class to TTh.  Shifts the issue onto departments.

[downer]

I'd be annoyed if I had made plans for the semester and then the dates of the semester were changed a few months before. That sort of last minute change could be interpreted as a strength I guess, in flexibility, but I'd be more inclined to see it as a sign of problematic leadership.

There's a related issue: are the crucial dates for the semester actually made available in a consistent manner on the college website, well in advance? At some places everything is there. At others, I only find out when the Registrar sends out some announcement about how urgent it is to get midterm or final grades in by a certain date, or similar info. Sometimes I write back saying that if it is so important, they should make the important dates available at the time when I'm planning the syllabus.

[Conjugate]

There's a related issue: are the crucial dates for the semester actually made available in a consistent manner on the college website, well in advance? At some places everything is there. At others, I only find out when the Registrar sends out some announcement about how urgent it is to get midterm or final grades in by a certain date, or similar info. Sometimes I write back saying that if it is so important, they should make the important dates available at the time when I'm planning the syllabus.

This annoyed the blazes out of me at my institution. I wanted to know when midterm grades were due because (in a rare fit of advance planning) I put the times for those things on my Outlook calendar. I looked everywhere and could not find the deadline.

Asking a colleague, I found that it is always due the day after midterm day by 5:00 PM (or something like that; I don't remember), but that since "everyone knows it" it isn't written anywhere, and all you get is the mass email from the registrar's office letting you know that midterm grades are due by (whenever), sent a day or two before.

I'd been going by the emails all this time. I will continue to do so, since I don't remember the day and time that "everybody knows." I mean, the actual day of midterm is on the calendar, but "midterm grades due by <whatever time>" is not.

[octoprof]

There's a related issue: are the crucial dates for the semester actually made available in a consistent manner on the college website, well in advance? At some places everything is there. At others, I only find out when the Registrar sends out some announcement about how urgent it is to get midterm or final grades in by a certain date, or similar info. Sometimes I write back saying that if it is so important, they should make the important dates available at the time when I'm planning the syllabus.

This annoyed the blazes out of me at my institution. I wanted to know when midterm grades were due because (in a rare fit of advance planning) I put the times for those things on my Outlook calendar. I looked everywhere and could not find the deadline.

Asking a colleague, I found that it is always due the day after midterm day by 5:00 PM (or something like that; I don't remember), but that since "everyone knows it" it isn't written anywhere, and all you get is the mass email from the registrar's office letting you know that midterm grades are due by (whenever), sent a day or two before.

I'd been going by the emails all this time. I will continue to do so, since I don't remember the day and time that "everybody knows." I mean, the actual day of midterm is on the calendar, but "midterm grades due by <whatever time>" is not.

This is maddening. New faculty are particularly broadsided by such things. Sheesh, just put the damn dates on the academic calendar!