It allows professors to thoroughly cover material with time to spare. We would have more time to ask questions and to grasp difficult concepts. We can reflect on what the instructor has presented and apply it to our lives, without being hustled into the next set of courses. Furthermore, our stress factor would plummet if we only had to take finals twice a year. The semester academic calendar would allow us up to a month to spend time with our friends and family during the winter break.
Longer breaks are a crucial respite for hard-working students.
Since the classes are not broken up during a semester, the way they are now during the winter quarter, students and professors benefit from the continuity. From an economic standpoint, if you get off to a bad start or fall ill during a semester there is more time for recovery and less pressure to drop a course. Finally, a semester system would make it easier to mix and match classes with other universities, most of whom are on semester systems. RIT shouldn't rule out the alternative. Semesters aren't hellish.