This is the third story in a five-part series on the potential effects of Curriculum 2000. Tomorrow's story will address the impact on the advising system.
With Curriculum 2000 requiring students to meet a broader range of academic requirements, administrators have begun wondering whether the role of summer session will have to change in order to meet these demands.
Dean of Trinity College Bob Thompson speculated that enrollment in summer session courses may equal that of their fall and spring counterparts, as students begin to use summer session as part of their "strategic academic planning."
Now that students will be unable to drop any area in the core curriculum, in addition to meeting various other seminar and writing requirements, it seems likely that they would use summer session to spread out curricular requirements and diminish some of the intensity of other semesters. Currently, 19 percent of returning undergraduates take classes during summer session.
However, Paula Gilbert, dean of continuing education and summer session, does not foresee an influx of students into summer session once Curriculum 2000 begins with next year's freshman class.
"I think it is highly unlikely that summer classes would ever have enrollments similar to academic year enrollments...," she said. "Unless we want to go to a year-round model..., summer will never approach in size a fall or spring semester."
If more students take summer school, one potential problem would arise because students on financial aid can only use their loans for eight semesters. They would need to pay more out of pocket for summer classes, which are slightly less expensive than regular courses.
"We do not now meet full need for summer school attendance," said Jim Belvin, director of undergraduate financial aid. "If that policy changes, it will have a significant impact on the financial aid budget."
Belvin added that it is too soon to tell how large of an impact Curriculum 2000 and summer session will have on students receiving financial aid.
"I understand that we have a resource problem, but that said, I believe that we will do what we can to be supportive of students who need financial assistance to go to summer school," he said.
The University has created a Summer Session Task Force to try to answer these and other questions, but it has resolved little so far.
"We know enough to raise the question... but we don't have the answers," Thompson said. "We're trying to think through the process."
The committee must also address another pressing issue: If more students use summer session, there may not be enough faculty to meet the demand.
Many faculty currently use the summer to do research, develop new courses or take family vacations. Thompson speculated that others, however, might welcome the opportunity to teach over the summer.
"It's a highly variable thing," he said.
One answer to this dilemma may be an increased number of visiting faculty or non-tenure track faculty to teach summer session classes, Thompson said.
Gilbert agreed that faculty recruitment for summer classes may continue to be difficult in certain departments. "The issue of faculty is a complex one," she said.
She added that she hopes summer session will become more appealing to students under the new curriculum, especially because summer classes tend to be in a more relaxing, distraction-free environment.
Leslie Dempsey, a Pratt junior who took cell biology last summer, agreed. She said she took the course so that she could get it over with without having to take additional classes at the same time.
Trinity sophomore Andrew Chatham also took courses last summer in an effort to get ahead. "Most people are [in summer session] to get lower-level requirements out of the way," he said.
One way that summer session may be used more effectively is through the creation of a Summer Language Institute, an intensive language-immersion program that will allow students to receive credit for the first two courses of a language.
Maria de la Fuente, director of the Spanish language program and assistant professor of the practice in Spanish, said students who participate in this program would have to sign a formal contract, agreeing to speak only that language during the summer term. Field trips, conferences, debates, culture-related activities and movies would also help supplement the course.
The institute is projected to start in the summer of 2001, although discussion on the project is still in the beginning stages. If it gets off the ground, Spanish would be the first language included, as part of an effort to meet the demands of incoming freshmen. Administrators expect that more than half of incoming freshmen will take Spanish to meet their foreign language requirement.
Chatham said such a program would probably be attractive to students, especially those without an affinity for languages or who strive to get language requirements met while not taking regular semester courses. "It might be appropriate for people whose course schedule is heavy already," he said.
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