BACKGROUND MATERIAL

1. Attain equal number of teaching days, classroom minutes, and lab minutes in each of the three semesters. Currently, fall and spring semesters more closely follow 14-week semesters than the published 15-week calendar (see specifics here).
2. Increase overall FTE generation by increasing overall student enrollment and FTE generation during the summer semester. Ideas include the following:
• Reducing the current 7 different parts of term to 3 options (one 14-week, two 7-week) would facilitate students being able to schedule a full load during summer—especially for students on scholarships, Veterans Affairs benefits, Vocational Rehabilitation benefits, etc.—which often require or reward full-time attendance.
• No empirical studies have been conducted. However, there is a reasonable expectation that overall summer FTE generation will increase given the consolidation of course offerings from 7 different parts of term to 3 (one 14-week and two 7-week). Currently summer term has about 8000 students with undergraduates taking only 6.6 average credit hours per student. If 50% of the students enrolled in one more 3 hour course—an additional 800 FTE would be generated.
• Implement a summer English as a Second Language (ESL) only program aimed at international students. We currently have the capacity to double the student enrollment in ESL courses.
• Increase the number of full-time international students beginning summer semester since they would pay resident tuition.
• Increase the number of full-time non-resident students beginning summer semester since they would pay resident tuition.
3. Increase the number of days for faculty to submit grades—from 3 days to 5 days.
4. Allow greater flexibility for faculty to work with department chairs and deans in determining teaching schedules (fall, spring, and summer semesters).
5. Maintain flexibility in course scheduling in each of the three semesters. Options include the full 14-weeks of instruction, the first 7-weeks of instruction or the second 7-weeks of instruction.
6. Achieve more efficient use of our annual physical plant costs (i.e. average variable cost of electricity, heating, cooling, custodial, landscape maintenance, snow removal, etc.). Currently, summer terms use 31% of the annual physical plant costs while enrolling only 12% of our annual student FTE. During fall and spring semesters 69% of the annual costs are expended while enrolling 88% of the annual FTE.
7. Although this would most likely be a small number who would participate, there is the potential of academic departments offering students an accelerated plan to graduate by attending year-round.
8. Reduce spring break by two days. In exchange, spring semester ends one entire week earlier.
9. Possibility of moving the three days of spring break to coincide with UEA break.
10. Possibility of moving the one day of fall break to coincide with the Thanksgiving holiday to accommodate student travel.

1. Loss of classroom instructional minutes depending on fall or spring semester (see specifics here).
2. Reduction of 8-week instruction blocks used by some graduate programs to 7-week blocks.
3. Need to resolve scheduling of one-day-per-week classes.
4. Need to resolve scheduling of labs and clinical experiences.
5. Students may be confused over the Tuesday which becomes a Monday.
6. Adequate staffing resources during the summer semester if more students enroll.
7. Only 3 days for spring break rather than 5 days may encourage students to take the other two days off as well.

• Deans Council
• Presidents Council
• Department Chairs Retreat (March 23, 07)
• Faculty Executive Committee
• Faculty Senate (April 19, 07)
• Open Meeting for all faculty (April 26, 07)
• WSU Student Gov Officers (March 25, 07)
• Graduate Coordinators (Graduate Council)

Fall Semester Enrollments

Budget Related Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

Budget related FTE's are calculated on all courses that are charged regular tuition rates and funded through State tax dollars. To calculate an FTE one must divide student credit hours (SCH) by 15 for undergraduate courses and 10 for graduate courses.

WSU Average Annual Physical Plant Costs

*Average annual variable costs of physical plant (electricity, heating, cooling, custodial, landscape maintenances, snow removal, etc.)

Academic Calendar

View a mock-calendar showing how the tri-semester could be implemented over multiple years. This example shows a 3-day spring break and the fall holiday being scheduled the day before the Thanksgiving break. This is an EXAMPLE only and does not indicate a final decision on the number nor specific days of any break. The calendar can be found here.

Instruction Days and Minutes

To see the PDF spreadsheet showing instructional days and teaching minutes click here.

Graduate Courses

Graduate courses being taught on the current 8 week block.

Graduate courses taught on the new proposed 7-week block.

One day per week Classes

Several graduate courses are taught one-day-per-week on an 8-week block. Many of these classes are hybrid courses combining in-class and on-line material. The total number of teaching minutes can be calculated as follows: meeting 1 day per week from 5:30 – 8:20 p.m. (170 min) x 8 weeks = 1360 total minutes.

*Using the proposed 7-week block and adding 20 minutes per class session would result in the following calculated total number of minutes: meeting 1 day per week from 5:30 – 8:40 p.m. (190 total minutes) x 7 weeks = 1330 total minutes.

Mock 14 Week Calendar [html | pdf]

PDF Spreadsheet
Analysis of instructional days and minutes