After the UCLA faculty voted overwhelmingly in favor of
retaining the quarter system rather than switching to semesters
this past spring, campus officials say the quarter v. semester
debate is over for the time being.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale approved retaining the quarter
system in a letter to Duncan Lindsey, chairman of the Academic
Senate. The Academic Senate is a body of faculty that votes on and
influences campus-wide academic policy.
“The senate’s strong preference for retention of the
quarter system was a key factor in my decision not to explore a
change in calendar any further at this time,” Carnesale wrote
in a June letter.
The strong support of the faculty for the quarter system caused
David Rodes, former chairman of the undergraduate council in the
senate, to estimate that the debate will not return to UCLA for
five or six years.
Many UCLA students and faculty are happy that UCLA has decided
to retain the quarter system.
Justin Fields, a third-year history student, said he preferred
the current schedule.
“With the quarter system you get a chance to take more
classes and get a more comprehensive education,” he said.
Fred Burwick, an English professor who taught at UCLA under both
quarters and semesters also prefers the quarter system.
“The quarter system offers more curricula flexibility and
a greater variety of courses,” Burwick said.
Burwick came to UCLA as an assistant professor in 1965, when
UCLA was on the semester system. A year later, UC Berkeley decided
to switch to the quarter system, and “dragged the other UCs
with them,” Burwick said.
Eleven years later, Berkeley decided to switch back to
semesters, but all other UC campuses remain on the quarter
system.
Steve Lin has been a student under both systems. He was at UC
San Diego but then transferred to UC Berkeley where he is a
fifth-year nutritional sciences student.
“Once you’re in a class, it takes a certain amount
of time to learn to study for the class and adjust to the
professor; you have to do that less with a semester system,”
Lin said.
However, Lin preferred spring break under the quarter system
because he was between quarters and did not have any
schoolwork.
In response to a request by Carnesale, UCLA conducted year-long
studies to determine whether the quarter or semester system would
be more conducive to the learning environments of their particular
department.
In an online vote that ended on May 16, 20 percent of faculty
voted to switch to the semester system, 78 percent voted to retain
the quarter system, and 2 percent abstained.
“It was an extensive, exhausting and exhaustive
decision,” said Karen Rowe, an English professor and member
of the faculty executive committee.
The vote included faculty members from all of UCLA’s
different schools, some of which ““ such as the School of Law
““ are already on the semester system.
The May vote was the third vote of its kind since the
chancellor’s request. In the other two votes, the faculty had
been more skewed on its decision of whether to adopt the semester
system or not.
In general, science departments preferred semesters while
humanities departments voted in favor of the quarter system.
This was not the case in the most recent vote.
In departments’ reports, 26 of the 33 departments in the
College of Letters & Science concluded the quarter system would
be more beneficial to their department. Four other departments were
inconclusive in their decision, two preferred semesters, and one
department did not report.
“That much faculty sentiment in favor of retaining the
quarter system is not capable of being misread,” Rowe
said.