The plea to end the first semester-long period of classes at Ohio University in decades has students peddling unfamiliar terrain, such as witnessing their first Athens tree lighting and celebrating holidays in the dorms.
It also has some making more frequent visits to the third floor of Hudson Hall, where Counseling and Psychological Services is housed.
The counseling center saw an 18 percent increase from last year in the number of students who sought counseling services during the first 11 weeks of class, said Fred Weiner, director of Counseling and Psychological Services.
The number of visits made to the center spiked during weeks one, two, four and nine, Weiner said, adding that anxiety remained the primary reason for the visits and was not necessarily blamed on the semester switch. He said there is no data to support that the semester switch created an increased level of stress despite some complaints from students about the 15-week stretch.
However, he did note that the ninth week, which showed one of the spikes in patient visits, would have been the week before exams under the quarter system.
“Some students I have talked to have indicated that the increase in the academic work has been noticeable to them compared to quarters,” he said. “A few people volunteered they felt it was a lot more stress to them shifting to semesters because it was an increase in workload and faculty expectations.”
Susan Burgess, a professor of political science and women’s studies, said that though she felt the semester switch provided more time to complete assignments, older students had a harder time adjusting.
“I think especially for juniors and seniors who have been around for awhile, it felt like a long stretch,” Burgess said, adding that many of the same students expressed they were tired toward the end of the semester.
Kevin Uhalde, a history professor, said he felt that overall, the work under the semester system was more spread out than what quarters allowed.
He said he didn’t see any notable changes with how students handled semesters as opposed to quarters.
“One of my classes is a really big class, so there’s often attendance issues for some people,” he said. “But I couldn’t compare one semester to a quarter.”
Weiner said there’s no hard data to conclude whether 15 consecutive weeks of class contributed to student stress levels. Most of the information about students becoming overwhelmed is anecdotal and varies student to student.
“A few students indicated there was an increase in workload from the quarter (system),” Weiner said. “But not sufficient data to say semesters increased stress significantly.”
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