A town hall meeting will be held this afternoon to discuss the
possibility of switching UCLA from a quarter to a semester system.
Realistically speaking, changing calendar systems would require an
organizational revamp of such proportions that the 2008-2009 year
is the likeliest academic year for implementation. But even though
current students will not be directly impacted by the decision,
they still need to participate in its making for the sake of future
students and the value of their own degrees.
Students currently subject to the quarter system may be
attracted to it because it allows for a greater diversity of
classes, the rapid completion of courses irrelevant to the major,
or the exposure to more of the university’s faculty. But the
benefits of a semester system outweigh the more superficial
benefits of the quarter system.
A semester system allows students to develop closer working
relationships with their professors and engage in more thorough and
meaningful class research, projects and papers given the increased
amount of time per class. Semesters will also allow students to
focus more on their academics; the current quarter system fosters a
marathon-like structure of learning where midterms start as early
as week three and end as late as week ten, just before finals.
There is no real time cushion where professors can ask students to
engage in individual research: Students either just finished a
midterm or are preparing for one, or both.
In many disciplines, ten weeks is too little time to delve into
issues in a significant manner. Depending on their major, students
are asked to learn the value of hundreds of years of literature or
history in just ten weeks. Some criticize the semester
system’s potential reduction of the more eclectic classes
since students will likely be less inclined to take them for an
entire semester. But priorities have to be set: Do students believe
keeping a greater breadth of off-the-wall classes is worth it if
the time allotted to core classes in individual majors will
continue to be measured in Mach numbers? The university might
consider restructuring its Fiat Lux program to include more
alternative classes with varying course unit values if it changes
to semesters.
Most universities of high repute follow a semester calendar for
many of the mentioned reasons. These schools also tend to start the
year earlier, thus ending too ““ this places Bruins at a
disadvantage when seeking jobs and internships. Whereas many
semester school years tend to end in May, UCLA’s year ends
toward the latter part of June, giving non-Bruins a head start.
Quarter system defenses are understandable, but weak. Students
argue they do not want to take courses in general education fields
they dread, but they are going to have to take them anyway and will
hate them regardless of the calendar system. Another argument is
that students who draw a bad professor will have an even worst
experience spending a whole semester with him or her. But in this
case, students need to be proactive. Professor evaluations by peers
are readily available online: Don’t take classes with boring,
uninteresting professors. UCLA will have to phase them out of
teaching if no one takes their classes. On the other hand, students
will be able to enjoy a great professor for a longer time under
semesters.
Some professors have pointed out that they will have to teach
more under the semester system, as opposed to doing research: good.
Refining teaching skills is critical to the proper articulation of
research ““ research matters more if it can be shared and
explained to colleagues and students.
UCLA produces tens of thousands of degrees over the years.
Ensuring these degrees are obtained in an education-friendly
calendar system will produce better students, who will keep the
prestige of UCLA diplomas high. Students who consider their
degree’s value important need to be at the Faculty Center for
the Town Hall meeting today at 3:30 p.m.