Both the federal student loan program, and the Ohio Board of Regents,
define...
a semester is 15 weeks of classes plus one week of final exams
a quarter is 10 weeks of classes plus one week of final exams
Furthermore, 15 weeks of classes means 75 class days, 10 weeks of
classes means 50 class days. Thus, in either system, there are 150
class days per academic year. Thus, class days is what you really have
to count because the total semester will be longer than 16 weeks if you
have an exam week and if you take off for Thanksgiving, Veterans Day,
Martin Luther King Jr. Day, etc.
In Ohio, the state schools must have 150 class days in the year. The
private schools can fudge around somewhat, but they are supposed to
prorate their headcount if they meet fewer than 150 days. I know this
because I phoned the Ohio Board of Regents when my institution settled
on 14 weeks of classes and 1 week of finals. I had told the
administration that my reading of the definitions said that final exam
days do not count as class days. They disagreed. So I called Columbus
and asked. They confirmed that class days literally mean class days,
and final exam days and holidays cannot be counted as class days. They
said that if we were meeting 14 weeks instead of 15, that when we report
our official headcount we should multiply the count by 14/15. I told
our administration this, and they ignored me. I don't know if it will
ever catch up with them or not.
Apparently exams given within the term can count as class days. In my
case, they don't because I don't give exams during class. I give
two-hour exams at night, and I still meet the class on days that we have
an exam. When I have class in the morning of a day that has an exam at
night, I am willing to do review. But if the students don't ask
questions, I go ahead and lecture on new material. Questions such as
"Will this be on the exam?" don't count. Once substantive questions
end, I stop the review and move to new material. At this point the exam
is written, so new material is not on the exam that night.
Yeah... I'm a tyrant. Just ask my students.
When we changed from quarters to semesters, I was upset over the change,
not so much for changing from quarters to semesters, but because they
shortened the year. When we were on quarters we did have 10 weeks (50
days) of class plus a final-exam week. My year-long 5-hr per term
physics class (4 lecture 1 lab) met 4 times per week for 30 weeks plus
lab each week. In one year I had 120 lectures and 30 lab periods.
Had we changed to 15-class-week semesters and my course remained 5
hours, I would have no change. I would still have 120 lectures and 30
lab periods for the year. Thus, I wouldn't have given a hoot whether we
changed to semesters or not.
But, when they decided on 14-week semesters, that meant I lost 8
lectures for the year, and 2 labs for the year. That is, I dropped to
112 lectures and 28 lab periods. I already felt I had a difficult time
getting as much covered as I wanted, so this just made it worse.
Thus, I argued strongly against the change to semesters, but it wasn't
semesters I was against, it was the shortening of the year I was
against. In terms of class days and lab days, quarters and semesters
are supposed to be the same. If that were true, then for a year-long
course, who would care which system you are on?
For me, I teach year-long physics and year-long physical chemistry as my
"meat and potatoes" courses, so there should not have been any
difference if the calendar change had been done properly. I also teach
one-term astronomy and one-term linear electronics. Those courses are
actually a little nicer on the semester system, but not as nice as they
would be if we had the full 15 weeks.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
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