A switch to semesters may cost less than earlier estimates and would not reach the $13 million expected by the University of Cincinnati, according to Executive Vice Provost and President Kathy Krendl.

“I don’t think we can do it for $250,000. I don’t think we can do it
for $500,000, but I don’t think we need $13 million,” Krendl said.

The switch will be discussed by a committee this fall, and it could take effect as early as 2011, Krendl said at a presentation to the Board of Trustee’s academics committee last Thursday.

A report from the Ohio University Academic Calendar and System Committee reported last summer that OU could lose between $8.2 million and $21 million by switching to semesters.

Phyllis Bernt, who chaired the committee, referred to the numbers as conservative estimates in a previous Post article.

The Ohio Board of Regents urged the four Ohio universities using the quarter system to “strongly consider” making the switch to ease the burden on transfer students.

The four schools — OU, the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University and Wright State University — submitted a memorandum to Chancellor Eric Fingerhut outlining what that switch would entail. Cincinnati and OU are the furthest along in making that transition, Krendl said.

Although no decision has been made, increased efforts by the board of regents shows a switch to semesters is very likely, said M. Marnette Perry, vice chair of the board.

“I sort of walked away beginning to get the notion that it will be inevitable,” she said.

Graduate students, staff and OU deans support the switch while undergraduate students are not in support of the change, Krendl said. Faculty is split on the potential change while younger faculty members prefer a semester system.

“You like what you know. Many (graduate) students are coming from universities with semesters,” she said. “(Undergraduate) students prefer quarters because that’s what they know.”

The faculty split is based partly on the interpretation of course load in a semester system, said Sergio López-Permouth, chairman of Faculty Senate who said that he didn’t feel comfortable speaking on behalf of faculty members.

The semester system discussed by the calendar and systems committee was based on faculty teaching two classes each semester for two semesters, a system typical of most research institutions. The administration has not made clear whether faculty would teach two or three courses a semester, López-Permouth said.

If the new system required faculty to teach three courses a semester, the claim that faculty support the switch would no longer be true, he said.

“I have some reservations about the perception that people seem to have about the report (the committee) submitted a year ago,” López-Permouth said. “I feel that the report is being misinterpreted.”

While the switch would initially increase faculty workloads, as they would continue to teach classes while developing curriculum for semesters, the extra labor may not be included in the final costs.

“It just depends on how you count things,” Krendl said, referring to faculty workload as an indirect cost.Other institutions making the change have estimated $250,000 to $500,000 of direct costs. Cincinnati's $13 million estimate includes a student information system upgrade.

The Academic Calendar and System committee remained deadlocked last summer after being charged with recommending whether OU should make the switch.

The committee’s report cited several setbacks with the transition, including the lack of a functioning student information system, scarcity of Group I faculty, university budget problems and low support among constituents.

“It’s not clear to me that those who are (in) favor of semesters would be in favor of a switch,” López-Vermouth said, adding that people are misinterpreting the amount of work a switch would require. “It’s a difference of knowing where you want to go versus being willing to travel or having the expenses to get there.”

— Chris Kardish contributed to this report.