The plan to switch Ohio State from quarters to semesters is "inevitable," said Josh Rackers, Undergraduate Student Government representative on a committee set up to evaluate the change that is expected to take effect by autumn 2012.
"There is a possibility to lose funding if the switch doesn't occur," Rackers said.
Rackers serves as the USG representative to a committee established by the Faculty Council to assess the "desirability and feasibility of switching to semesters," according to Faculty Council minutes.
The committee was established after Gov. Ted Strickland and Chancellor Eric Fingerhut strongly encouraged the university to consider a switch.
Rackers admits to having only a "limited view" of what students would like to see.
"There hasn't been a big push to survey students," Rackers said.
"Any survey of students should be taken with a grain of salt. There is more at work here than how students classes go.
"A lot of students like quarters, but they aren't opposed to the switch."
No survey has been put out by USG to poll opinions about the issue and Rackers himself "doubts the effectiveness of a student survey."
Rackers sees his appointment as twofold. His "primary objective" is to serve as the "voice of the undergraduate student population" with a commitment to see the "greatest benefit of the long term goals of the university" coming second.
Rackers wants to make sure the switch allows for a curriculum review to "weed out unnecessary classes."
Graduate students are eager for the conversion, said Adam Kolatorowicz, graduate student representative to the committee.
"We're really looking forward to it," he said.
Since most graduate students come to Ohio State from semester-based schools, the transition to a fast-paced quarter system can be hard on those who are used to the "deeper learning" that can be accomplished with the semester system, Kolatorowicz said.
"There's no time to take a breath on quarters," Kolatorowicz said.
When he arrived at OSU, Kolatorowicz thought of quarters as being the "goofiest, most backwards thing."
The committee will present a recommendation about the switch to the Faculty Council at the end of winter quarter.
Conversion efforts would begin in the spring and be completed by Autumn Quarter 2012.
The potential switch presents a host of problems to regional campuses.
OSU and its regional campuses function primarily with five-credit-hour courses. Under semesters, they would be changed into three-credit courses.
While students should be switching their schedules from five-credit-hour classes to three-credit-hour classes, there is often an overlap time of "about a year or so before students start taking the full course load," said Professor Brian McEnnis, who serves on the committee, representing regional campuses.
This reduces the number of full-time students the university has, which can result in a "reduction of in-state subsidy for the university with students graduating later," McEnnis said.
Regional campuses deal almost exclusively in five-credit hour GECs and the cost of conversion will be "concentrated in the regional campuses," McEnnis said.
The re-evaluation of courses and installation of a university-wide Student Information System to facilitate the move to semesters is "stuff that would be done anyway," McEnnis said. "It's just being compressed to happen before 2012."
Catrina Otonoga can be reached at otonoga.1@osu.edu.
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