Community Education Center Association

The Compressed Calendar, Part 1

Oct 29, 2002

The Compressed Calendar: Its History and Implications for Non-credit Instruction at the Community Education Center.

By Mark Hayden,CEC Association President

The origin of the Alternative Calendar for Community Colleges in California had its roots in a change to the Education Code (Art. 58142) that allowed the traditional college "day" to be as little as three hours in length. In order for a college to receive its full apportionment of funding there must be a 175-day academic year, but now it is possible to offer classes outside of the traditional 18-18-6-6 models, preserving the same number of instructional hours per course.

By the fall of 1999, many colleges began to consider alternative calendars. In fact, Santa Monica College actually implemented a 16-6-16-6 calendar before the 175-day rule change and had been operating in this mode for years. Riverside College moved to this calendar for the fall 1999 academic year. Other community colleges followed suit. The compressed calendar allows for the student to have more contact with faculty per day, for fewer weeks, with no loss of instructional time over the course of the "primary" term (16 weeks).

The daunting task of recommending alternative calendars was left up to the academic senates of each community college. In the September 10, 2001 minutes of the PCC Academic Senate Board meeting, Roger Marheine, Chair of the Calendar Committee reported that implementation of a new calendar would not begin until Fall 2003 at PCC, and that a "revised calendar would be educationally sound for a significant majority of PCC?’s students who are mature learners with jobs, families and extensive commutes to the campus."

At that same meeting serious concerns were voiced however.

1) A compressed calendar would create hardships on both the teacher and students within certain divisions;
2) Students would have fewer hours to work and earn money to go to school;
3) Part-time faculty work schedules on other campuses would conflict with a winter intersession on this (PCC) campus;
4) A compressed schedule could affect certain articulation agreements;
5) If a faculty member only teaches fall and spring there may be problems in fulfilling non-teaching obligations, such as committees and division meetings.





What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of the
Traditional 18-18-6-6 Academic Year?

The traditional calendar is easily scheduled and manipulated, and since it is widely used, it is easy to schedule meetings between colleges. The early ending of the semester in May is popular with faculty members. On the negative side, the early start may be preventing parents from enrolling due to child-care problems. Also, although there is no definitive evidence, the longer semester may be the cause of a higher drop out rate.

What are Intersessions?

Colleges offering intersessions usually plan them to be 4 to 6 weeks in length, so long as they keep the Carnegie unit/hour ratio. Intersessions are not meant to offer a full menu of courses, but rather as safety valves for students needing to repeat courses, or to meet pre-requisites.

Which Calendar is PCC moving to?

The PCC Academic Senate approved the 2003-2004 Compressed Academic Calendar Option 1 on Sept. 23, 2002.

May 27-August 16, 2003
Summer Session (12 weeks)

September 2-December 20, 2003
Fall Semester (16 weeks)

January 5-February 12, 2004
Winter Intersession (6 weeks)

February 17-June 12, 2004
Spring Semester (16 weeks)


What are the Advantages and Disadvantages?

In the report entitled "Alternative Calendars: Recommendations and a Progress Report" by the 1999-2000 Educational Policies Committee of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, the following advantages and disadvantages for the 16-6-16-6 calendar were summarized (1):


Advantages

1. Fall semester starts later than usual and ends before Christmas;
2. The fall semester starts closer to unified school times.
3. Increased contact with faculty (from a student perspective.)

Disadvantages


1. there are fewer final-exam days;
2. Longer class meetings may not be best learning mode for some students;
3. Creates increased difficulty with classroom scheduling;
4. Assignments for counselors, librarians, and certain classified positions must be carefully reconsidered and perhaps redesigned;
5. Some special programs and activities may need to be specially scheduled beyond the shortened semester,

It is apparent that the decision to change to an alternative calendar is monumental. The impact on instruction at CEC will be enormous. There needs to be the highest level of shared governance and the best wisdom of ALL members of the college community must be called upon. Where do we stand as a noncredit division of the college? Have we shared in the decision-making? We will continue this next month in Part 2.


(1) "Alternative Calendars: Recommendations and a Progress Report", full text of report is located at Academic Senate for California Community Colleges website:
http://www.academicsenate.cc.ca.us/Publications/Papers/Alternative_calendars.htm