How would you like to have the time to take summer classes at Miami University and have time to complete a summer internship elsewhere?
With changes being made to the summer term schedule beginning summer 2011, students will have the chance to do just that. The fourth summer term is being removed and the entire summer schedule is being redesigned so students will have the opportunity to take classes over a shorter period of time, as short as four weeks, giving the option for them to be able return home at the beginning of June and have time to work or complete and internship that requires the majority of the summer.
According to Dave Sauter, university registrar, a task force chaired by Steve Snyder, executive assistant to the president and secretary to the board of trustees, began looking at various calendar issues a few years ago. Calendar changes this task force has already worked on include the creation of a standard time for spring break to occur and holding class on President's Day to avoid having a Monday/Tuesday switch day.
"One of the big issues that came up in looking at the academic calendar was summer," Sauter said. "We didn't really tackle it on the first go-around. There were some other issues in that first go-around we just sort of set aside, one of them being, ‘Gee, what does summer really look like? Does it work?' It's a very old model."
The current summer model is made up of four sessions. Summer I and Summer III are back-to-back six week sessions beginning in May while Summer III and Summer IV are back-to-back five week sessions starting later in the summer and ending the Friday before the fall semester begins. Sauter said changes were looked into because many students chose to take summer classes at institutions closer to home, which the university receives data on as students transfer the credit back to Miami.
"One of the things that I had looked at way back when was data from what we would call Summer IV," Sauter said. "It has some classes in it but the majority of the credit hours produced are thesis, independent studies, flexible things."
Sauter said sessions earlier in the summer were more popular.
Senior Kersta Carlson has taken summer classes at Miami the past two years.
"I really liked the two six-week sessions," Carlson said. "It was a short enough time to get the credits done, and the first and third sessions didn't overlap at all."
Snyder agreed the credit given out for the session was not necessarily completed during that time.
"As we looked at the Summer IV session, there were very few classes offered because of lack of demand for them," Snyder said. "The work that was being done during that time frame would either be special workshops and then people working on dissertations and that's not necessarily in-class type of work activity."
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Now, summer will be a 12-week model with class options being offered over four, six, eight and 12-week periods. This leaves a one-week break between spring semester and summer classes as well as a two-week break between summer classes and the fall semester.
Carlson said the four-week sessions sounded appealing. Both summers she took classes, Carlson also completed internships, one summer with the Oxford Press and another with WMUB.
"It would be nice because I could get more done in the summer," Carlson said.
According to Snyder, the hope is for the flexible new schedule to draw more students to take classes at Miami during the summer rather than other institutions.
"We find now that a significant number of students are taking classes at institutions at other locations over the summer," Snyder said. "Now, maybe because they're going back home or maybe because of job requirements, but they're taking courses at community colleges and other universities and we would like to increase our share of the summer school business."
According to Susan Mosley-Howard, dean of students and associate professor of educational psychology, these changes will not only benefit students but the faculty who teach during the summer as well.
"As a faculty member, it gives me a chance to offer courses to mental health professionals and teachers in the field in a flexible amount of time," Mosley-Howard said.
She added faculty having the option to choose whether their classes last for four, six, eight or twelve weeks will be advantageous, as certain classes may work better over a shorter or longer period of time than what is currently offered.
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