With an approaching end-of-summer deadline, the Academic Calendar and System Committee is finishing its final report that will include a recommendation to either maintain the status quo or to make a change to the semester system.
The committee has the daunting task of pleasing the divergent groups of students, faculty, and staff that are divided within themselves over the possibility of Ohio University moving to a semester system. At least one top university official, however, has indicated her support.
There are many benefits to moving to a semester system, which include greater internship opportunities for students and an easing of the transfer process, said Kathy Krendl, executive vice president and provost.
The Committee posted online surveys in May to find out how receptive students, faculty and staff are to making a comprehensive change, said Phyllis Bernt, a committee chairwoman and ITS professor.
In general
the students'and there is a difference between the undergraduate and graduates'who responded seemed to want to stay on quarters Bernt said. The faculty is split.
One reason for the polarized staff could be a generational rift, said Joe McLaughlin, a committee member and chair of the English department.
Faculty who have been here for twenty years and don't stand to gain the same long-term benefits are generally opposed to doing it McLaughlin said. Faculty who have not been here long and plan on making a career here are generally in favor of the change.
About 68 percent of the 1,707 students who responded favored the quarter system while a narrow majority of faculty members preferred semesters. A plurality of staff endorsed semesters. All three groups supported finishing the academic year earlier.
A major concern the committee addressed is the transitional difficulty any institution encounters with a change of this magnitude, said Bernt.
One of the things that happens to most institutions is they have a short term dip in enrollment because there are people who try to get out
Bernt said.
Aside from financial constraints that the university would face in transition, the main cost'which is difficult to quantify'is the amount of time the faculty will have to spend in department meetings revising curriculum, McGlaughlin said.
To gain perspective on the growing pains inherent in any system overhaul, the university consulted with other schools that have made the change to semesters within the last decade, such as Youngstown State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Georgia. In some cases, outside influences dictated the change to the semester system.
In the case of Georgia
the Legislature
or the Board of Regents
or whoever
basically said
'everybody's got to change
' McGlaughlin said. Some schools did it because they got a new president
who just sort of demanded that it happen.
This does not appear to be the case for OU as the state does not mandate an academic calendar, Krendl said.
There is external pressure to the extent that most of our students who transfer here are transferring from semester institutions
