Although the wheels have been set in motion for Ohio University’s quarters-to-semesters switch, only a fraction of students have formally planned their transitions.
Since the end of December, the registrar’s office has entered about 750 students’ transition degree completion plans into its system — with about 29,000 left to complete, said Jeff Giesey, co-director of the Q2S transition.
The first batch of about 600 forms from the arts and sciences and business colleges were completed in December, said Linda Lockhart, manager of communication for the Q2S transition.
“We reached an advising milestone over break,” she said.
Although it appears that only a slight dent has been made in the pileup of transition forms, Lockhart said the switch is still on schedule.
“Many of the departments planned not to start until this quarter, so we expected a low number at this point,“ she said.
Each department fills out the forms differently, Lockhart added. The forms are not considered complete until they are approved by all levels of a student’s college — including the adviser, department head and dean — and scanned into the system by the registrar’s office.
All students not graduating this year are required to fill out one of the forms, Lockhart said. In addition to preparing students for the switch to semesters, it will make scheduling for the upcoming Fall Semester easier.
Students who have not yet filled out a form can expect the process to take anywhere from 40 minutes to 90 minutes, Lockhart said.
“It is more intense than most regular advising sessions,” she added.
Students’ completed forms can be accessed under the “MyOhio” section online and can be compared to their DARS.
“We want to make sure a student is on track, and they should be making sure they are on track too,” Giesey said.
Advisers are asked to have all transition forms completed by May 1 so that registration for Fall Semester can begin in mid-May.
“We’re proactively getting feedback,” Giesey said. “We are learning concerns early so we can proactively access them.”
