The semester hour is the unit of credit a student earns for one classroom hour of instruction a week for 16 weeks. A typical class meeting three times a week counts as three semester hours. Laboratory time may add semester hour credits to a course. A student will accumulate approximately 62 to 70 semester credit hours to graduate with an associate degree. The figures for enrollment are the total number of students in each class, summed for all classes.
Enrollment is a duplicated headcount.
Grades are issued for each class enrollment. The Division of Arts and Sciences taught 65 percent of the total student FTE and 57 percent of the total contact hours during the fall of 1996. While contact hours increased 2.7 percent last fall as compared to fall 1995, the semester credit hours increased by only 1.6 percent. For the fall of 1996, full-time student equivalency dropped 2.7 percent compared to 1995 in the Division of Arts and Sciences, while the Division of Business increased 5.9 percent and the Division of Occupational Education and Technology increased 17.5 percent. During the summer sessions, an average of 19 percent of the semester credit hours are taught by part-time faculty.