Vol. 38, No. 18

11-5-2008
By: Jeff McCallister

University Senate to again study semester conversion

Not once but twice, Dick Gunther has been a self-proclaimed “ringleader” in efforts that stopped proposed measures to switch Ohio State’s academic calendar from quarters to semesters.

So he’s the first to see the irony in his announcement to University Senate, in its first meeting with himself as chair of Faculty Council Oct. 23, the formation of an ad hoc committee to study calendar conversion once again.

The announcement even came with a timeline that would, if the studies and approvals go as set forth, implement the change in the autumn of 2012.

“To be sure, things have changed,” Gunther said. “I still prefer the quarter system, but one has to be reaslistic.”

Ohio State has been on the quarter system since 1922, and the question of a switch has been addressed numerous times — including in 1991 when President Gordon Gee, in his first term as president, asked the senate to take up the issue.

A committee chaired by Grady Chism, now an emeritus professor of food science and technology, came forward with a proposal, but senate voted it down as financially unfeasible after vocal opposition from, among others, Gunther.

Senate took up the debate again in 2001 and actually approved a measure for the switch, but only if a number of specific provisions were met first. One of the provisions was the completion of the Student Information System.

So it was dropped and never reached the board of trustees.

But two factors have brought it once again to the fore: Gee’s return to the presidency and the formation, at the behest of Gov. Ted Strickland and Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, of the University System of Ohio.

Gee, in his semiannual address to faculty earlier in October, said the issue was imminent.

“That is an enormously complicated proposition,” he told the gathered faculty. “The discussions are only now beginning, and they start, quite properly, with you. You are the experts. You know best how to configure ourselves to maximize our effectiveness.”

Fingerhut called for all 14 of Ohio’s four-year public universities to synchronize their academic calendars as part of the strategic plan of the University System of Ohio, in order to facilitate student transfers between the universities and allow for distance learning options when certain classes or programs are not available everywhere.

“In the past, the discussion was always one of one pedagogical system over the other, and a careful review indicated no net advantage for this type of university of semesters over quarters,” Gunther said. “So I was primarily concerned about transaction cost, and make no mistake this will be a lot of work and will be very costly.
“But given the strong support shown to us by this administration and this chancellor as manifested in the increase in the biennial budget, we simply cannot ignore their preferences and requests.”

Just four of Ohio’s 14 four-year public colleges — Ohio University, Ohio State, Cincinnati and Wright State — remain on the quarter system.

Cincinnati has plans to switch to semesters with a fall 2011 target and Ohio University announced last month it will change over by fall 2012. Wright State has not yet announced plans to make the switch but currently has an exploratory committee convened on the subject with a report due in January.

In his announcement of the ad hoc committee here, Gunther announced the general makeup of Ohio State’s committee, which will include representatives from the senate’s Council on Enrollment and Student Progress, Committee on Academic Affairs, Fiscal Committee and Athletic Council, as well as from the Graduate Council, Undergraduate Student Government, Council of Graduate Students, Inter-Professional Council, Arts and Sciences Committee on Curriculum and Instruction, one of the regional campuses, the Office of Student Life, Office of the Registrar, Office of Academic Affairs, and the office of the Chief Information Officer.

Faculty Council vice-chair Tim Gerber will chair the committee since he will be in leadership for the next two years. Gunther said because of the size of the ad hoc committee, much of its work will be done by subcommittees.

He called for the committee to present a resolution before the end of winter quarter on whether the university should move forward with the conversion.

Senate and the board of trustees must then approve the proposal, then implementation studies would begin in the spring. Gunther said he anticipates all work on curricular and other related matters would be complete by the end of 2011-12 and a new academic calendar would go into effect the following autumn.
 

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