Sydney Grossman / Roundup
School during winter break sounds dreadful. But, a winter intersession lasting five weeks and causing the spring semester to end in June sounds even worse.
Pierce College’s winter session begins too late, ends too late and causes the spring semester to last longer than our sister schools.
With Pierce beginning the winter semester on Jan. 3 and ending Feb. 6, students are left with a feeling of starting school later than their friends.
CSUN has a winter schedule and begin classes for the spring in January. Furthermore, the campus will close on May 27, the last day of finals.
CSUN is home to more than 30,000 students and is able to accommodate a calendar with dates that make sense, even with their budget cuts and furlough days.
It seems odd that with budget cuts effecting a shortage of courses being offered and the economy still struggling, that Pierce would offer a lengthy winter semester.
The Admissions and Records department needs help fast.
Begin the winter intersession the week following fall finals. They will have their one-week break during the holidays and classes can continue the Monday following the New Year.
Also, make the winter session four weeks. The class time can be extended by an hour and each class can be offered every day of the week.
This now allows the spring semester to begin in late January. We start the term earlier and finish with finals in May.
It’s no fun being on winter break when your friends are back in school and it’s definitely worse when they are done with classes in May and you’re stuck in school until June.
Lastly, with the awkwardness of the spring semester dates, why would finals week be the first week of June and the following Monday?
This now means that some unfortunate students have to come back to school one more day. It feels as though we [Pierce] is not in sync.
It’s called finals week—Monday through Friday—keep the scheduling simple and allow students to be done with a college semester in May.
I remember thinking that ending school in May was going to be so special and fun. It was going to be one of those differences that distinguish high school from college.
Let’s face it. I don’t want to have a longer winter break than my friends, I want to be done in May and I unquestionably want finals weeks to be just one week.
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sgrossman.roundupnews@gmail.com