Ashley Updike | @whatsupupdike
The first day of the University of Kansas fall 2025 semester was originally supposed to be August 25. After a board meeting over winter break, the university decided to move the start date up to August 18.
The change might be good for some students, but for students who move in early for different campus organizations, a lease that begins in mid-August isn’t going to work. Most apartment lease dates around Lawrence were set for the coming year before the change to the school start date was announced.
The panhellenic organization typically moves in to start work week two weeks before the start of school. Now that the semester is beginning earlier, all of the girls will have to move in a week earlier.
“The biggest issue is just gonna be with people being able to move back into their apartments and move back into all their housing. For all of the girls that are living in the chapter facility it’s fine, but the biggest issue that I’m encountering is with that. And so you know to have to tell about 270 girls ‘hey you got to be back in Lawrence by August first’, it’s not exactly the most fun thing to do,” Delta Gamma Vice President of Recruitment Gabby Jesse said.
While some landlords may allow students anytime after August 1 to move in, there are some who set move-in dates as late as August 15. This would only allow students three days to move in and get settled before school starts.
The marching band is another campus organization that has been impacted by this change, as members typically arrive on campus a week before classes for band camp.
“I mean it’s been a huge stressor, especially when it comes to finding apartments. I haven’t signed with anyone but, the more I try and talk right, I ask them ‘hey I need to be in by this day’ and they say ‘well, we can’t really do that that’s not gonna work for us’ and I say ‘can you make an exception’ and they say ‘nope, this is just how it works,” Marching Jayhawk Zachary Lemke said.
As students continue to struggle to find accommodating housing, the university says this earlier start date will support three goals:
- To better align 15-day intersession instructional periods
- Allow more time for faculty to report grades before recessing for winter break
- Allow for a full two weeks of classes before the Labor Day holiday
Another huge factor in this decision was the KU football schedule. The first home game is scheduled on August 23, meaning if KU kept the original fall start date as August 25, the first football game of the school year would occur before classes start and would interfere with move in.
One positive aspect of the early start date for students is that stop day will be on December 4, and finals week will run from December 8 – 12. This allows students more time at home with family before the holidays, which was a huge complaint from students this past fall semester.