It should be cautioned, however, that it is still too early to distinguish between long-term effects from the conversion and transitory effects from the process of change, or to assess whether expected improvements will ultimately be achieved. Moreover, the changes that took place during these years coincided with confounding factors, such as an undergraduate population well over campus targets. At this juncture the report can only elucidate some of the immediate outcomes and suggest areas where further observation and analysis are needed. The Student Perspective Planning for the semester system considered the student body the primary target and beneficiary of the conversion. It is not surprising then that the conversion has altered the instructional environment in numerous and substantial ways.
Student life is now different from that of the quarter system.
The unit value of the average course enrollment has been lowered. The reduction derives in part from a policy change which encourages classes to meet three hours per week, on one hand, or from some instructors' replication of the old semester system with its emphasis on three-unit courses, on the other, coupled with the Committee on Courses' policy that unit values correspond closely to the number of meeting hours. The reduction in unit values ensures that undergraduates still take a fairly broad variety of courses. Given the lower average unit value of courses, most students needed to enroll in more courses to maintain constant progress toward a degree. But while students responded by taking additional classes, they did not add enough to counterbalance the lowered unit values.