Sean McMinn
seanmcminn.md@gmail.com
After months of tentative discussion surrounding the issue, a presidential task force aimed to explore a Cal Poly conversion to semesters will begin meetings in mid-October.
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong, who will ultimately make the decision on whether or not Cal Poly should leave the quarter system behind, said the Semester Review Task Force will examine costs, actions, phasing and logistics of converting to semesters. The committee will also present Armstrong with feedback from the campus community before he makes a final decision.
Armstrong has repeatedly made it clear that he favors bringing semesters to Cal Poly. Since first discussing the issue with Mustang Daily last April, the president has maintained that the time is right to start preparing for a switch that could take place as soon as 2014.
“I’m pretty much where I was last spring,” Armstrong said when asked if his position had changed since earlier this year. “All things considered, I think it’s something we should consider and something we should do.”
The task force will include 23 members of the campus community, including a chair appointed by the president. Three of the representatives will also be students appointed by Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) President Katie Morrow.
Morrow said she is not concerned by the low number of students on the committee. She said she is confident everyone in the room will have the students’ interests in mind during the decision-making process. The ASI representatives on the committee will serve primarily to ensure others have a clear picture of what students want, Morrow said.
Part of ASI’s role in the task force process is determining what the “informed opinion” of students is, Morrow said. Student government officials will conduct outreach programs throughout fall quarter and bring their interests to the larger committee.
“I want to make sure that the students on the committee represent the student opinion, and I will as well,” Morrow said.
But there are many more interests at play than just those of the students, task force chair and philosophy professor Rachel Fernflores said. The committee has begun to examine the impact of a potential conversion on all aspects of Cal Poly and has already found several different impact areas across campus, she said. Switching to semesters, she said, would impact not only students, but would also require hours of work from professors, information specialists, admissions officers, administrators and others on campus.
Because of this, Fernflores and Armstrong both maintain that the issue should not be decided solely by a student vote. The two said it is doubtful that a campus-wide vote similar to that of the Student Success Fee referendum last spring will occur for semesters.
“It’s difficult to say the input of one group (the students) should trump the others,” Fernflores said. “The logic doesn’t flow.”
Instead of a student vote, Fernflores plans to use a campus-wide survey to solicit input from several different groups at Cal Poly. She intends to outreach to staff, faculty, administrators, alumni and parents, as well as students, to gauge their feelings about how converting to semesters would affect them.
Recent discussion about semesters began last April when Armstrong agreed to co-chair a committee of California State University (CSU) presidents aimed to examine the logistics of a possible switch of all six of the quarter-based campuses in the CSU: San Luis Obispo, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, East Bay and Pomona.
Though CSU spokesperson Liz Chapin said there are no plans to issue a mandated conversion for those campuses left on the quarter system, outgoing CSU Chancellor Charles Reed has been a proponent of standardizing the entire university system on semesters for years, Fernflores said.
But among the complications of a potential conversion is the outcome of Proposition 30, a November tax initiative that could result in a $250 million cut in state funding to the CSU if it isn’t passed. Early estimates predict the cut could bring $14 million of reduced revenue to Cal Poly in next year’s budget. As Fernflores sees it, Proposition 30’s failure could give Cal Poly “reason to pause,” before deciding to commit to conversion timeline.
Fernflores expects the committee members to be finalized by the end of the second week of classes, and the group will conduct its first meeting on Oct. 10. The 23 members will issue a formal report to Armstrong at the end of the quarter, outlining logistics of a potential switch, as well as an overall recommendation if semesters should or should not come to Cal Poly.
This Cal Poly – SLO Alumni says, NO
Let CSU Chancellor Charles Reed go and he can take Semesters with him into the sunset.
As a CPSLO Alumni, I believe a move to the semester will reduce the Cal Poly academic brand, and make it on par w/ all the other CSUs. The advantage of being on the quarter system is that the student is constantly pushed. Pushed to take many different classes, pushed to learn and to be tested – especially when the first mid-term comes in week two or three. There is no time to be bored. I have been in a semester schedule and the end of the semester could not come fast enough! What does it mean for the student who is unable to get into a course in January? The student will have to see if there’s space in the following Fall Semester (nine months later)? Will there be an accelerated Summer program?
I believe the teaching will also suffer. with the school year having two semesters rather than three or four quarters the number of classes available would be reduced. Would that mean that the teaching staff would have to be reduced?
I hate to bring in politics, but since Sean mentioned Prop 30, it does smack of political blackmail. Vote for Prop 30, or we will have to consider switching to the semester schedule to cut costs. If this is the case, it will seem like CP President Armstrong et al failed to put the needs of the students first, but instead favored political expedience.
Did anyone else catch that Cal Poly is obviously intending to use funds from the passage of Proposition 30 to pay for the conversion to semesters? Seems as if this should be made public. “But among the complications of a potential conversion is the outcome of Proposition 30, a November tax initiative that could result in a $250 million cut in state funding to the CSU if it isn’t passed. Early estimates predict the cut could bring $14 million of reduced revenue to Cal Poly in next year’s budget. As Fernflores sees it, Proposition 30’s failure could give Cal Poly “reason to pause,” before deciding to commit to conversion timeline.”
Since it is estimated to cost around $8million to do a conversion that is a huge percentage of the increased revenue should the bond pass.
Makes it difficult for me to decide how to vote. I believe strongly that it should pass, however, I don’t think funds should be diverted to conversion when it is meant to increase classes, etc.
What a betrayal.
I agree with “Another CPSLO Alum” that we must not change to a semester system. When I was at Cal Poly, I averaged 18 to 19 units per quarter, plus was so active on campus that I was listed as an Outstanding Senior and also won a Gold Activity Key at graduation. I needed the quarter system in order to take the many different kinds of classes I took, which would have been impossible if we had a semester system at Cal Poly. We can’t afford to change.
I think all of us Alumni against this need to call up the current president and leave messages, or at least do something to fight this.
this new president sounds like an idiot.