Reading days may be added to future Dead Weeks, as members of Student Government are trying to add them to the University’s calendar today, according to Amber Joyner, a junior in political science and business management and chairman of the academics committee.

The calendar committee is meeting today to finalize the calendar for the next three years, and while Joyner said it is too late to add reading days to next year’s schedule, it is possible to add them to the 2009 to 2010 school year calendar.

Joyner said she and other students have felt that Dead Week is not sufficient in preparation for exams, with many professors adding on to students’ stress with extra assignments.

“It’s fairly unenforceable,” she said. “Students end up with a lot of extra papers and tests.”

Student Body President Bobby Mills said he has had heard multiple complaints about Dead Week.

“‘Dead Week makes me dead by the end of it’ is what I’ve heard a lot,” Mills, a junior in political science and economics, said.

According to Joyner, the reading days she, Mills and Alisha Graham, chairman of special commission on the academics confirmation, will propose at today’s meeting will occur the Thursday and Friday before exams begin each semester.

They have also recommended optional study sessions during the reading days to allow students other opportunities to prepare for exams.

“If we have these reading days, students will be able to read or study and do whatever they need to do to get ready for these exams,” Graham, a junior in political science and women and gender studies, said.

According to Mills, they have been planning for revisions in Dead Week since the end of the fall semester.

The three first met with Thomas Conway, Jr., dean of the undergraduate academic program, to discuss revising Dead Week policy.

After researching other UNC-system schools, Mills said they learned that all 16 universities have Dead Weeks, and 14 of them have reading days.

Mills said he and Joyner also met with Lewis Hunt, vice provost for enrollment management services, to discuss the efficiency of the calendar, which he said could also be aided by starting classes at 8:30 a.m. instead of 8 a.m.

But while Joyner said they have been discussing revisions for a while, just last week the chair of the calendar committee e-mailed her, inviting her to discuss the issue at today’s meeting.

Last Thursday, Joyner started petitions to raise awareness for the cause, and she said the online petition has received more than 1,000 signatures, and the paper petition has between 300 and 400.

A Facebook group Joyner started in support of reading days also has 1,481 members, and Graham said she thinks more students signing the petition will help get reading days approved.

“If there’s enough student support for anything, change can happen, and as a student government, that’s what we’re here to do,” Graham said.

Mills agreed that the cause is necessary.

“It’s a reasonable issue for students to bring up and for students to have their voices heard,” Mills said.