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On Friday, the American Educational Research Association notified members that the program for its annual meeting (in April in Toronto) would not be available until six weeks before the event. The notification prompted a flurry of complaints on social media from people noting that they can't make travel plans until they have this information (the meeting is five days, so people who are due to present papers frequently go for one or two days, but can't know which days they should be). Others asked why it takes the AERA so long when the deadline for submitting proposals was in July. Sherman Dorn, a professor of Arizona State University, published a short essay outlining the criticisms and noting that the issue has a particular impact on those who are graduate students, adjuncts or others with limited cash. He also proposed ways to simplify the process. Many education professors on Twitter applauded Dorn's analysis.

On Sunday afternoon, Felice J. Levine, executive director of AERA, sent out a message to members pledging to get information out as soon as possible and to improve the process. "The meeting schedule will be released no later than February 15," she said. "I regret that, especially with the earlier dates of the 2019 Annual Meeting, the date to release the program schedule is far too tight. No excuse making -- it is TOO TIGHT! You can count on my re-engineering the 2020 deadlines and release of the Annual Meeting Program to be a top personal priority as your executive director."