Most students agree: Spring Quarter at Ohio University is the best time of year.
Blooming cherry blossoms, bikini-clad sun worshippers and raucous fests more than cure the Winter Quarter blues. In a few years, that will completely change.
Springtime in Athens will be very different my senior year, 2013, the year semesters arrive. On warm spring evenings in late April and early May, students will down Red Bull and prepare for exams instead of milling about Court Street. The notorious revelers clogging Palmer Street each spring will recuperate from finals on their couches - not burn them.
The switch to semester has been hotly debated for years now, and picked up when Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents Eric Fingerhut recommended all 13 Ohio public universities adopt a uniform academic calendar. OU insists that semesters' earlier summer recess will provide students with better opportunities to land employment and internships (if the decrepit economy ever improves) and help students digest course concepts.
Not even the university's slickest sales pitch, however, could convince me the looming semester switch is a beneficial move.
The first problem with semesters is a shortened academic calendar. Originally, instruction was slated to remain at 30 weeks. But in January, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit granted Faculty Senate approval to shorten the academic year by two weeks, creating more time for faculty to conduct research during the summer.
It's true that faculty research fosters innovation, generates publicity and helps professors advance professionally. I could also understand faculty's desire for a shortened semester calendar if state funding were abundant and students' costs not escalating. But when faculty members agree students receive increasingly diminishing returns for their educational investment, it is ironic they exacerbated the situation.
Losing a third instructional period could be crippling for students pursuing an additional major, minor or certificate. It's already difficult to earn a double major with quarters. Students must meticulously schedule and occasionally saddle a 20 credit-hour courseload, increasing the odds of a required fifth year. In the future many students might not be as willing to scrape up more money to finish a second, often superfluous major.
It will be also be much harder to accommodate students whose interests range from astrophysics to art history. Students will still sample a diverse mix of classes, but they may not have the opportunity to thoroughly explore as many interests as they could with quarters.
The most overlooked, and least discussed, aspect of the transition is its effect on student social life. Finding that social niche freshmen year is more difficult than most students will admit. Quarters provide students, especially freshmen, three opportunities to experiment with extracurricular activities and mingle amongst different social groups.
With quarters, students can budget time between more activities. One could act in a play in fall, pledge a fraternity during winter and join Fencing Club in spring.
Though quarters are generally better for social life, eliminating the six-week winter break is a change that enhances social opportunities. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, many freshmen are overwhelmed by their new social environment and anxious to reconnect with high school friends.
After reliving intense high school friendships over Thanksgiving, students eagerly form similar bonds with their new college peers. My friends who attend semester schools told me the period after Thanksgiving was when they began solidifying friendships and forming their social identities.
Though it is clear semesters are the wrong choice for this university, it is one of many adjustments students and faculty must accept over the forthcoming years. In order to make what will probably be a rough transition a bit smoother, and help the classes of 2014 and 2015 facing an even more awkward situation, students and faculty should swallow our pride and embrace this new challenge.
Gabe Weinstein is a freshman studying journalism and Monday columnist for The Post. Send him your gripes about semesters
at gw711008@ohiou.edu
4 Opinion
Gabe Weinstein
