Ohio University administrators joined more than 400 leaders from 20 Ohio colleges last week to discuss the statewide impact of the shift from quarters to semesters.
The summit, hosted by Wright State University, was held to discuss about the issues in a more global sense
said Craig Cornell, OU's vice provost for enrollment management, one of eight OU administrators who attended.
OU is one of four schools converting to the semester system in 2012, a shift that will affect about 200,000 students. The other four-year schools currently undergoing conversion are the University of Cincinnati, the Ohio State University and Wright State University.
Having all of Ohio's schools on the semester system will be beneficial to higher education as a whole, according to officials at the Board of Regents.
The reason we're going to semesters is so we can have a stronger university system in Ohio said Paula Compton, associate vice chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.
The current 10-year strategic plan, the University System of Ohio, requires that member schools be on a semester system.
The goal of the University System of Ohio - the state's new model of higher education that places Ohio's public colleges and universities under the direction of the Board of Regents - is to raise the national profile of Ohio schools by funneling money to each school's elite programs.
The state's top higher education official Eric Fingerhut acknowledged switching from quarters to semesters is one of the real barriers of implementing the strategic plan in a statement.
I'm kind of excited that we're going to move over said Ann Fidler, associate provost for strategic initiatives. Being on the semester system would give our faculty many more opportunities to work with students than ever before.
Fidler said the more spread-out time period allotted in a semester will give students more time to complete course work. But, Fidler noted, the current quarter systems exposes students to a greater diversity of subjects, and the switch will force academic units to reconsider prerequisites.
Changing a university's calendar system involves the entirety of the campus, said Andy Jorgensen, who coordinated the University of Toledo's calendar conversion in 1997. He added that Toledo had to create 5,200 courses to accommodate the switch.
We have a team of faculty and administrators intensely working to assist students with what they will be able to do and what they need to do without hindering them from their academic progresses
Fidler said, adding that the first priority is making the transition for students.
I like the way the schedule is set for quarters
and I think there are a lot more opportunities (in the quarter system)
said freshman Kristen Parrish, adding that she sees the switch as a hassle she and her classmates will have to deal with during an already busy senior year. It's going to be a complete change senior year. Thinking about how my credits might transfer over is not something I'm sure a lot of students will want to deal with their last year when they are trying to prepare themselves for a career.
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Jessica Lovejoy
