Spring semester will end early enough to help students get summer jobs or launch their careers, without having to compete with others who had a five-week head start. From the point of view of members of the Board of Regents, the conversion also provides an opportunity to revamp the curriculum at all the schools, and enhance coordination among the Utah institutions. For their part, students are as yet largely unaware of the implications of the change. When pressed, some express concern over the transition, while others welcome the new system. Others suggest that taking off one term to work will be more difficult with semesters.
Semesters afford students more time and interest in a given subject.
I know in my own classes, I always felt that we were rushing to get through material. Some of our best discussions were never finished because we had to move on to the next book. Chaitna Sinha is a freshman and will therefore have considerable experience with both systems before she graduates. I'm also worried about the lack of diversity that results from taking fewer classes. Robert Parry, Distinguished Professor emeritus of chemistry, has been a teacher for 50 years, essentially half of it on the quarter system at the U, and half on semesters at the University of Michigan.