Oklahoma Christian University announced its decision to return to a more traditional academic calendar. Instead of continuing the post-COVID schedule, the university will revert to its fall semester beginning in late August and continuing until December.
Students have had mixed responses to the news. The majority of the negative feedback stems from the shortened winter break, giving students less time to spend with family and increasing travel costs.
Junior Alista Richardson expressed her view of the change.
“The new academic calendar schedule is frustrating for me and my academic plan. I spend the extended winter break catching up on general courses and internships I would otherwise be unable to take part in,” Richardson said. “The removal of this time is going to drastically throw off my remaining semesters.”
Sophomore Maggie Overbey gave a more positive view of the change.
“If the school succeeds, then the students will succeed as well. The hope with this change is that student enrollment will increase,” Overbey said. “We need to stop thinking about it from the student’s point of view. Starting earlier than all the other schools means our teachers must find extra childcare.”
Overbey also found a benefit in a more traditional schedule.
“A lot of internships have been cut short. It will be nice to be able to finish the summer with a full internship,” Overbey said. “I know this is not an ideal schedule for some, but overall, the future of this school is more important than whether we get to go home for two months for winter break.”
Provost Brian Starr emphasized his desire for students to have summer internships as one driving reason behind the change.
“It’s imperative you have a good internship in order to get a good job, and we want to set our students up for success,” Starr said. “We were setting our students up at a competitive disadvantage compared to all the other universities because businesses are making their cadence subject to a standard university calendar.”
Starr shared another factor in the decision. Due to the early start of the semester, incoming students had plenty of time to transfer and start at another university with relative ease. Oklahoma Christian students were doing so at a larger rate than other universities.
“Incoming freshmen often face some anxiety; college is a big life event stepping forward into being on your own. At most universities, what happens is the students know it’s too late to transfer. Most of the students then get the tenacity to go ahead and finish what they started,” Starr said. “That’s one of the greatest things we can instill in students. We don’t do that with our early start.”
Starr addressed the effects on winter term classes.
“We’ve seen a diminishing demand for winter revenue, but that was not a primary driving factor for consideration. We had a really robust demand for online winter courses, but it has tapered off in the past couple of years,” Starr said. “It was another signal that maybe it was time to return to a more normative pre-COVID schedule.”
Winter term classes will still be available, but they will follow a shorter schedule in accordance with the four week winter break. The courses will only last three weeks instead of six.
“What we’re planning to do uniquely this year that we have not done in the past is let students and faculty observe the week of Christmas and have it off,” Starr said. “When we had the former winter terms, we effectively said, ‘You’re going straight through the Christmas week,’ and everyone hated that.”
Study abroad programs will look different, but still be offered during winter term as well.
“The Vienna trip will happen right before or right after the Christmas break. It will be more abbreviated,” Starr said. “That will mean doing some of the work either before or after travel so more of the time actually in Vienna can be spent in Vienna itself. Students won’t have time to travel the whole continent of Europe during a one to two week trip.”
Starr plans to incorporate an extra day of rest by allowing the campus to observe Labor Day in the coming years.
“Having these little breaks along the way is really helpful for the student experience. I admit, I looked at our calendar and found it a little intimidating. In most colleges, you have that little day where after the initial rush of the semester beginning, you can catch your breath,” Starr said. “I want everyone to be able to catch their breath. We can observe Labor Day and get a little miniature break after the wonderful, energetic but somewhat tiring start to the year.”
Starr gave a message to students who prefer a COVID schedule.
“Thank you for bearing with us as we make the transition back to the pre-COVID calendar. We know the COVID calendar had some efficiencies,” Starr said. “We do think that for the whole Oklahoma Christian family, including our students, this is going to be a better outcome, and the benefits of switching back to a normal college schedule are going to outweigh the costs.”
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