Semesters for UC
by Pat Krekeler
In October 2007 a Semester Conversion Task Force was created to research the feasibility of converting to a semester-based academic calendar and to develop a plan for conversion. An IT subcommittee was formed to identify all the computer systems impacted by a conversion to a semester-based calendar and to estimate the level of effort. The IT subcommittee is also charged with developing an overall systems implementation plan.
IT professionals responsible for the major core systems of the university were contacted to determine whether their systems would be impacted. Any IT professional with an impacted core system was invited to serve as a member of the subcommittee. The members are made up of representatives from UCit, Institutional Research, Campus Services, the Libraries, the Student Financial Aid Office, the Office of Budget Management, the Graduate School and an undergraduate and graduate student representative.
Communications were sent out via a UC IT LISTSERV to try to identify local departmental and college systems that may also be impacted. A comprehensive list was developed. Each system was evaluated to determine the level of effort involved to accommodate a conversion to a semester-based calendar. Resources that would be required and the cost were determined. Dependencies between systems were identified.
A final report from the Subcommittee was submitted to the Task Force on March 21st. This report included several recommendations, the first being that the conversion should span three years to minimize costs because more internal resources could be utilized. Second, an IT professional needed to be appointed to coordinate the system changes across the university and to serve as a central point of contact for IT related issues for the conversion. Third, that some of the very time-intensive manual processes be reviewed to determine if a web application could be quickly developed to serve as a tool to minimize the effort. Also, it was recommended that applications that would require extensive modifications and are written in out of date technologies be rewritten. The subcommittee estimated that the highest cost for system modifications would be about 1.6 million dollars.
The Semester Conversion Task Force will submit its final report to the President on May 21st. If a decision is made to proceed a recommendation will be made to the Board of Trustees at the June meeting.
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Editor's Note: According to a story in The Enquirer (29 April 2008), the University of Cincinnati plans to convert its academic calendar from four quarters to two semesters starting in the fall of 2011. The newspaper acknowledges that the plan still must be approved by UC's administration and the Board of Trustees.
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