Split sessions put on hold

The Undergraduate Curriculum Committee voted against having an accelerated summer session in addition to the full summer session which will run from May 15 to July 28. However, the committee, according to Registrar Jo McIver, indicate that it is willing to consider a similar proposal for the summer of 2001.

The accelerated summer would have been a six to seven week session starting on May 15. Accelerated classes would consist of the same number of hours of meeting time, which would require more hours per week. Vice Provost Bob McMath states that this "compression would be hard for faculty and students" and would have limited the number of classes students could have taken.

The main benefit that lead to this proposal was that it would have allowed students to leave the end of the summer for an internship or job. The main problem with the proposal according to McMath was preventing the accelerated classes from "diminish[ing] the opportunity for students to take courses." He says this concern is especially important for co-op students.

The two schools who showed interest in the proposal were Ivan Allen and The Dupree College of Management. Other schools would have been invited to offer courses, however there is a reluctance to offer lab sciences in a compressed curriculum.

McMath feels that Ivan Allen and Management were prepared to offer a good number of courses for both sessions. One initial recommendation called for a regular summer term and two accelerated terms. McMath feels that this is compressing classes too much. In addition, while it might be possible to staff an accelerated and regular summer term, he does not feel Tech could staff three terms.

McMath states that the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee has the "responsibility of seeing to it that anything we do like this doesn't hurt the students." Part of the problem with a proposal like this is funding and availability of professors. Professors are paid extra to teach during the summer. Many professors in Ivan Allen College spend the summer researching or teaching in study abroad programs.

McMath feels that this summer will be a "real test for the co-op program." He believes that it is the duty of any school with a large co-op program to offer the core courses during the summer. McMath states that "it is hard to anticipate the demand for [classes] this summer, [because] it is brand new territory for us." He adds that it may be especially hard with the large number of students attempting to finish and graduate on the quarter system. Therefore, course availability will have to be monitored closely during pre-registration. If the courses fill-up too fast, the offerings will be re-evaluated.