Administrators, faculty consider switch to the semester system

By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Reporter

UCLA administrators and faculty are considering following a
recent trend in public universities to move from quarters to
semesters.

The change would be costly and involve changing every course on
campus, but administrators and faculty are willing to do this for
what they say will improve the quality of education.

“I have not yet met anybody who has been in both
extensively who believed that students learn more in the quarter
system,” said Chancellor Albert Carnesale.

While Carnesale would not say if he approves of the change, he
is concerned about how much students can learn under the current
quarter system.

“There are not very many first-rate universities in the
country that have stayed on the quarter system,” Carnesale
said.

Many universities, including Georgia Institute of Technology and
the University of Minnesota, have changed to semesters in the past
few years.

UCLA originally used the semester system, but converted to
quarters in 1966 when the UC Regents made all campuses change to
the quarter system.

UC Berkeley is the only UC campus which has changed its entire
schedule to semesters. UCLA’s medical and law schools are
currently on the semester system.

Judith Smith, co-chair of the joint administration and faculty
committee investigating the change, said it is an ideal time to
change to semesters because it would cost less now since UCLA is
reformatting another administrative system.

Other advantages of semesters ““ which are five weeks
longer than quarters ““ include being able to teach more in
one course and give students more time to learn and perform
coursework.

Smith is also concerned that entering freshmen and community
college transfer students ““ neither of whom have been on the
quarter system before ““ may have a harder time adjusting to
UCLA because UCLA uses quarters.

However, she said that students learn faster under the quarter
system.

In addition to their slower pace, semester courses would be less
specialized and there would be fewer courses available if UCLA went
to a semester system, reducing flexibility of course offerings.

“About 25 percent of the courses we currently teach would
disappear in a semester system,” Smith said.

Smith and Knapp both said that another problem with changing is
the amount of work involved in redesigning the curriculum.

The Academic Senate will make a recommendation, but it is up to
Carnesale to make a decision, which the UC Regents would then have
to approve.

“This is not an easy thing to get consensus on,”
Smith said.

Smith said it would take three years after a decision is made to
make the change.

UCLA hopes to bring in people from the University of Minnesota
who have experience with the change, but has yet to do so.

“I think changing is a decision each campus needs to make
for itself,” said Peter Zetterberg, who directed the
University of Minnesota’s change. “I would never claim
that a semester calendar is absolutely better than a quarter
calendar.”