Sister Jennifer Lane, Associate Academic Vice President for Curriculum, announced there will be a second summer session in order to make the transition to the new academic calendar. This upcoming summer students will be able to attend a seven week summer term that will be half tuition and won’t count as a semester for the nine semester in residency policy. “In order to have the Fall 2015 semester start in time, the summer ‘semester’ is just a term now. That’s why we’re trying to make some accommodations so that it has the least amount of impact as possible,” said Lane. Students will need to take a minimum of six credit hours to be considered full time, qualify for scholarships and receive federal aid. Nine credit hours is the max. Those who live on campus will be able to keep their housing for Fall. Lane said that with the new academic calendar students will be able to take a leave semester without having to reapply. “We aren’t trying to go with the direction of BYU-Idaho which is saying, ‘We tell you when to come.’ We are in the same situation where we need to offer three semesters year round. For some people, going year round may be great but others may want to go for a few semesters and then take a semester off. We have those pieces in place to have that be an option.” Seniors who were planning on graduating in the summer will have to work change their graduation date or they will have to graduate the following semester. “I would encourage anyone who falls under that category to work with their academic advisor and department chair to see if they can possibly finish everything by this summer term. There may be a few people that it’s just a little painful for which is sort of the price of being able to make a transition at some point. Either we’d have to do it this summer or the next,” Lane said. Aditya Mongan, a junior from Indonesia studying business finance, said, “I think the people it affects a lot are the IWORK students. Most of them are stressing out about it because they don’t know that it doesn’t count towards their nine semesters, so really more people just need to know about it. For me the transition was a pain until I talked with my advisor. Knowing it’s a bonus semester now, students could try to even get an extra minor or major.” “I think going forward it will make life more stable for everybody,” said Lane. “Most departments have made changes when considering which classes will be offered.” Robert Miller, an associate professor in the Psychology department, said, “I think the new academic calendar is great because it will allow more classes to be offered more frequently. I have a PSYC 390R class on Game Theory for example that can only be offered in the summer term but not a lot of students are here to take it. Now, more students will have the option to take those classes.” The summer term will begin on April 27th and end on June 12th. For more information on the summer term and the new academic calendar, visit academics.byuh.edu/calendar.
Writer: Joshua Mason ~ Multimedia Journalist
