Ohio State may start its semester calendar in summer of 2012, university officials said this week.
A university committee has proposed a revised calendar for the semester switch, which was planned to begin no earlier than fall of 2012, according to a university resolution passed last year.
“To be quite honest, most of the faculty and administrators have been in agreement that [starting semesters in the summer] makes a lot more sense, and is kind of a way for us to kind of try out the semester process on one level,” said Terry Gustafson, executive associate dean of the College of the Arts and Sciences. “But there is still the official approval process that must be gone through to officially implement that. I think this works to the students’ benefit and I don’t think this will be detrimental at all.”
If the semester switch occurred as planned, in fall of 2012, the previous Summer Quarter would overlap into fall’s term, Gustafson said. This is because summer terms on the quarter system are a full 10 weeks, while summer terms on semesters are only half a semester — seven weeks.
In addition, Gustafson said, students generally sign up for summer and fall courses at the same time in the spring, making a summer 2012 semester logical.
Tim Gerber, chair of the Faculty Council, said nothing has been decided yet. Faculty Council members have received the proposal from the University Senate’s Council on Enrollment and Student Progress Committee, and would have to discuss and pass the proposal before the decision became official.
