While a Faculty Senate task force is meeting tomorrow to discuss a possible switch from quarters to semesters, some Ohio University officials are already wondering how it would affect students studying abroad.

If OU switched to the semester system, there would be no reason to keep quarter exchange programs, said Catherine Marshall, interim director of the Office of Education Abroad. In the 2004-05 academic year, when more than 1,000 students went abroad, more than 350 students studied in foreign countries for exactly one quarter, while about 100 studied for longer periods.

Fred Toner, chair of OU’s Department of Modern Languages, said that while studying abroad for a semester would allow students to learn more about the culture and perfect the language, many students favor quarter-long study abroad programs because it is easier to leave the country for 10 weeks than an entire semester.

“I feel that switching to semesters may impact our study abroad programs,” he said. “I think (they are) an essential or very important part of our mission to the university.”

But while OU’s study abroad programs have been successful on the quarter system, most of the partner universities in foreign countries are run on semester system, said Betsy Morley, assistant director of the education abroad office. Currently, students who spend a semester abroad receive roughly a quarter and half of credits, she said.

“If we are the semester system, then our calendar will tend to fit in with their system,” she said.

Countries where OU students travel do not always have the same semester system as the United States. In the United Kingdom, the most popular destination for OU students, the country has classes from mid-September until Christmas. Students must return for finals in January, Morley said, adding that the office might have to help students complete course work once they have returned.

“They (OU students) come back for Christmas, and they take their exams here in the (education abroad) office,” Morley said.

Toner added that while the semester system could benefit students’ research papers, a switch also could cause problems with the number of courses offered by the department.

“On the positive side, we see the semesters allowing our students to do more in-depth research papers,” Toner said. “On the other hand, we worry about losing the variety of courses we offer.”

He said that about 40 to 50 percent of students in the department are double majors and the quarter system allows flexibility for those students that may or may not exist in the semester system. With the semester system, students will have fewer opportunities to take language courses because the department will offer fewer courses.

“We have seen our students do very, very well in nationally competitive awards, and many of those students have taken the time to be a double major,” Toner said.