Some study abroad programs and Spring Quarter courses will likely be dropped because of the shortened Winter Intersession under Ohio University's semester system.
Study abroad trips, including the Andros Island field course sponsored by the Environmental and Plant Biology department and the Global Public Health study abroad program sponsored by the School of Health Sciences and Professions, among others, could be dropped because of the transition.
There are two tentative semester Winter Intersession dates suggested for the 2012-13 academic year, the first year under the new system. Both begin on the Friday of the second full week of December. One lasts for three weeks, while the other lasts for four weeks.
I plan on 2011 being the last offering of my Global Public Health class
a 10-day course offered over the winter break, said Tim Ryan, the faculty director of the Global Public Health study abroad program.
The Winter Intersession dates proposed by the transition team would make the course overlap with Christmas, Ryan said. It will be tough to get enough students to go on the trip given the choice, he said.
The Andros Island program usually begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends about Dec. 13, said Art Trese, faculty advisor for the trip.
With the switch from quarters to semesters, though, the trip would have to be moved to a different time, Trese said. Christmas would fall right in the middle of the trip, and OU would have to reserve a new two-week slot at the already-booked Andros Island educational field station.
He also said his Sustainable Agriculture field course, which benefits from a Spring Quarter that extends to the warmer month of June, is threatened by the new calendar.
With the new calendar, there wouldn't really be a hands-on gardening food-production element of it available because so much of it would be spent in the middle of the winter he said.
Both Trese and Ryan have considered moving their courses to either the Summer or Fall Quarters, but have not made definitive plans as of yet.
David Descutner, co-chairman of the transition team, said anything that is proposed is only a draft report at this point, adding that the deans of OU's ten colleges will have ultimate approval over the calendar.
But Trese said he does not believe the minority dissent to the shortened Winter Intersession of he and his colleagues is enough to create an across the university concern about the proposed time period of the break.
Descutner said that other faculty concerns, including the longest possible summer break for research and scholarships, also must be accommodated.
But specific concerns
such as Plant Bio's
we're taking that very seriously
he said.
This article has been changed from its original version. A quote misattributed to David Descutner has been deleted.
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Luke Wright
