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Transparent conversion

Posted on | November 18, 2009 | 1,495 views |

The semester committee, leadership in place, has launched a newsletter and Web site to keep the community informed

By Julia Harris

Steve Fink has no illusions about the scope of the task before him.

“As soon as my name went out there, a lot of people I know expressed their condolences,” he said with a laugh. “But the way I see it, the conversion process is going to be happening whether I’m part of it or not, and I prefer to take an active role.”

The process he’s referring to, of course, is Ohio State’s conversion from quarters to semesters, according to a calendar adopted last June by the University Senate.

Vice Provost Randy Smith, who’s leading the switch efforts from the Office of Academic Affairs, tapped Fink, an associate professor of English, as a faculty fellow to help him head up the Coordinating Committee that will oversee the conversion.

“I think even those in the university community who are eager to be on semesters know the actual process of converting to semesters is going to be a little bit painful, a little bit messy,” Fink said. “But it’s not an impossible task; it’s been done before by other institutions and there’s no reason to think that our converting to semesters is reinventing the wheel.”

Ohio State is not alone in the journey: A total of 17 institutions of higher learning across the state, including community colleges and technical institutes, also are undergoing this transformation, with more or less the same target deadline. At a summit held last month at Wright State, Fink and representatives from all 17 schools met to have conversation/commiseration about the process, to learn from other institutions that have gone through it and to engage in break-out sessions on hot-button topics like workload, advising and curriculum.

“It was a good beginning,” Fink said. “It was encouraging to me that all of us turned out to be at roughly the same spot in the process.”

That being said, Fink is the first to acknowledge the scope and complexity of the job can be daunting, especially in light of the fact that there’s no clear-cut “roadmap” out there that describes, step by step, how to get from point A to point B. The one thing that is very clear is the need for ongoing, transparent communication as the process moves along, culminating in the autumn 2012 switch.

Toward that end, Smith, Fink and their committee colleagues have launched a monthly e-newsletter, QSU (Quarter-to-Semester Update), that will go out to the entire university community and detail what actions have been taken and what still needs to be done.

The first installment went out Nov. 10 and highlighted a number of mile markers already passed, from creation of a three-tiered structure to coordinate the conversion, establishment of a Web site to keep the university community informed and conversations around key issues like the definition of a semester credit hour and the possible revision of the General Education Curriculum.

“An important component of the curricular shift is considering the impact on the GEC,” Fink said. “The University-Level Advisory Committee on the GEC, chaired by Mark Shanda from the theatre department, is looking at the general principles of the GEC to make sure they’re clear and can be affirmed before moving ahead with the conversion. Ultimately they will make recommendations to the Council on Academic Affairs on what they may see as appropriate adjustments to the GEC.”

Also being developed is a manual that will include information on the rationale behind the switch, templates academic units can use for submitting courses and programs and timelines indicating when colleges can submit courses for approval.

“We’re generating very specific templates programs can use as they move course conversions through the system,” Fink said. “One of the functions of this manual is to offer some concrete guidance and guidelines. And we’re on schedule for releasing it in December.”

Though the process is in its infancy here at Ohio State — Fink says the committees have only been nose-to-the-grindstone this past quarter — deadlines are already looming, particularly when he considers the flashpoint issue of the shortened “mini semester” in the new academic calendar.

“Everyone’s wondering what this May Term is going to be for students and faculty,” Fink said. “There’s going to be a fair amount of autonomy for colleges and units to decide how they want to use it, but it’s still a big question as to what’s possible with it, what the constraints and opportunities are.”

Even with all the big questions and bigger challenges, Fink remains cautiously optimistic about the overall conversion process. “I feel that my job is not to be Pollyanna-ish or complacent but to make sure we don’t miss anything,” he said. “Let’s try to get things right. If that means I have to weather a fair amount of criticism for the next three years, so be it.”

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