Students find summer classes more intense than expected
By Jennie Herriot
July 20, 2003 9:00 p.m.
It’s summertime and the living’s easy – but not as
easy as many students taking summer classes at UCLA thought it
would be.
Students who choose to take regular UCLA classes in one of two
condensed six-week sessions often find the classes more intense
than classes taken during the regular academic year ““ despite
a presumption that summer courses are easier.
Jessica Houts, a fourth-year English literature and Spanish
linguistics student, said she thought summer school would not
require much work, but she found that assumption to be far from the
truth. Her two English classes kept her busier than she would have
liked.
“Teachers should realize that it is impossible to read a
515 page book and write a six-to-eight-page paper on it in one
week,” Houts said.
Houts said she had hoped summer would be more relaxed than the
academic year but soon realized her summer was likely to be just
like the rest of the year.
It’s no wonder students feel this way ““ summer
school classes follow the same curriculum as the courses taught
during the regular school year, said David Unruh, assistant provost
for summer sessions and special projects.
“The intent is for them to be the same,” Unruh said,
but adding that some classes are inevitably different.
Despite students’ complaints about the increased intensity
of classes, sometimes summer classes like English composition
can’t require the same number of papers as during the regular
academic year, Unruh said.
Gaston Pfluegl, a summer session lecturer, agreed with students
that summer classes are intense.
“Students don’t have very much time to learn
everything,” he said.
Unruh explained that from the students’ perspective,
missing one class during the summer is equivalent to missing more
during the academic year.
“You can fall behind very quickly,” he said.
Students take only one or two classes during the summer,
allowing them to focus on a more demanding class, Unruh said.
Taking fewer classes also “balances out the intensity,”
he said.
Bekkah Schear, a fourth-year mass communications student,
explained that she found ways to cope with the increased
intensity.
“We have to be way more academically committed,” she
said.
Still, Schear added that though her summer classes were more
difficult, she found them more exciting.
The intensity of summer sessions does not only affect students;
faculty members say they feel the strain too.
Pfluegl, who is currently teaching Life Science 2 and 4,
lectures for four hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Another summer session issue centers on the make-up of the
summer school faculty.
A few of the summer classes are taught by different faculty
members than those who teach them during the year, a factor that
many students said does not affect the quality of the
education.
Pfluegl is one of a handful of these instructors; some of his
qualifications include conducting research at UCLA’s
Microbiology Institute since 1994, though his current title is
lecturer.
The majority of summer classes are taught by the same people who
teach the course during the regular school year, Unruh said, though
some classes are taught by visiting professors and advanced
graduate students.
