Calendar Debate!

As many of you many know RIT is currently on the quarter system. The way the quarter system at RIT works is that each quarter is 10 weeks long with one week of exams. Overall you still have 30 weeks of classes just like a semester system. The first quarter begins on Labor Day and ends just in time to go home for Thanksgiving week. Winter quarter gets a little tricky, because you start the Monday after Thanksgiving, have three weeks of classes then are off for two weeks for the holidays.  Then you come back for 7 weeks of classes a week of finals and have spring break for a week.  Spring quarter starts at the beginning of March and end around mid May.

The winter split always catches the first year students off guard. Many people don’t like the split after three weeks of classes and hate the fact that we only have two week off when many semester schools have almost a month off from school.

I for one do not mind the split it helps me come up with a plan of attack for the rest of quarter now that I have a taste of what my schedule will be like. Honestly what are you going to do with yourself with a month off from school?

The switch of the academic calendar has been a hot topic here at RIT for a while. Switching the calendar from a quarter system to a semester system has been reoccurring throughout RIT’s history. Now with even more schools switching should it be something that RIT needs to consider? Last Friday Student Government (the voice of the students) had an open forum to discuss this very idea.

RIT is thinking about changing the calendar. One of the options is switching to a semester calendar. Bellow are the options the are considering. Option A being the current calaender.

The forum consisted of three panels a “for quarter” panel a “pro semester panel” Each made of one student and one faculty. There was also a “neutral panel” which had different administrative representatives; such as housing and coop. Each one gave a 2 min presentation of pros and con for each, from their prospective. Many of the administrators seemed to have more pros for the semester calendar.

After each administrator had a chance to share it was opened for students to ask questions.  Students had the opposite point of view. Many students were concerned that it would affect tuition and financial aid. There were a lot of students that really seemed to enjoy the quarter system and liked the fact the RIT was different.

I think that the quarter system is hectic and that it may not be for everyone, however I enjoy it! I like staying busy and the way I see it if I don't like a class or a teacher I just have to survive 10 weeks, unlike a semester school which is 15 weeks (yes it makes a difference). Also in a semester school you take an average of 5 classes a semester, times 2. Thats 10 classes a year. At RIT at a minimum you will take four classes times 3 that’s 12 classes. Two more classes a year compared to a semester school. That allows many students to take many fun electives and have a chance to graduate with at least one minor, maybe more. I don’t mean to sound bias. I gave some other opinions above. You can decide which you like better:-P