Interesting Article Suggesting More Schools Adopt the D-Plan

Dartmoose · 12-08-2008, 08:09 AM

How to make colleges twice as productive - The Boston Globe

Quote:

Double U
How to make colleges twice as productive

By Charles Karelis and Stephen J. Trachtenberg | December 7, 2008

EVERY WEEK, IT seems, the recession brings more bad news for American colleges. As endowments decline, even prestigious private institutions have announced unprecedented hiring freezes. Public colleges and universities are girding for cuts in state support. The California State University system, the nation's largest, has already warned it may need to reduce enrollment by 10,000 students next academic year. A quality college education is more important than ever, but the economy is making it less accessible for students, and now even threatening the health of colleges themselves.

The nation's higher-education leaders could hardly come to Washington and ask for a federal bailout of their institutions, but there is a step they could take to keep their doors open to as many students as possible: Colleges and universities should use their campuses year-round.

As college operates today, when you take summers and term-time breaks into account, virtually all BA-granting schools shift into low gear for about half the calendar year. At a first approximation, you could run two complete colleges, with two complete faculties, in the facilities now used half the year for one. That's without cutting the length of students' vacations, increasing class sizes, or requiring faculty to teach more. Simply by spreading the fixed costs of a campus over twice as many participants, you could make degrees meaningfully less expensive. More students could go to college and receive better educations.

Pawn_H7 · 12-08-2008, 08:53 AM

The d-plan really is a problem for dartmouth if anything.

original.peace · 12-08-2008, 08:58 AM

Go Dartmouth! = D

Modadunn · 12-08-2008, 09:13 AM

Why So Pawn?

Pawn_H7 · 12-08-2008, 09:59 AM

It just creates rushed classes that don't have time to go into enough depth.

BCEagle91 · 12-08-2008, 10:23 AM

There's plenty of time during the summer for classes. They run from about the third week of May to the end of August and you have enough time for a 14-week class in there. Barely. I do think that most kids need a break from the heavy mental work and stress of college. One can see or hear that in their kids as finals approach right now.

The summer also provides time for internships and jobs to earn money for the following year.

EngrMom · 12-08-2008, 10:51 AM

Most of the article is not suggesting that students entirely give up breaks, just that they stagger them, to distribute the number of students in class throughout the year. That way a larger number of students can attend the college with the same number of classrooms and dorms. However, either teachers would have to teach year round or more teachers would have to be hired (and also take staggered breaks). Personally, if I were attending school in the north and lived in the south, I might find it nice to attend during summer and fly home for part of winter! This may not be the best plan, but it is not unworkable. Not sure about how much cost savings there would be.

BCEagle91 · 12-08-2008, 10:54 AM

We may wind up with a capacity glut in a few years.

Dartmoose · 12-08-2008, 11:02 AM

^ I believe the current argument is not that the individual students attend classes year-round, but that the school operates year-round. They will then be able to support more students.

scottj · 12-08-2008, 12:34 PM

Let's say that the calendar year included three groups of fifteen weeks. You would have the standard end-August to mid-December, now early-January through late-April, and early May through mid-August. Students enrolled would be on an August-to-April, January-to-August, or May-to-December attendance schedule at a campus. Yes, housing is complicated with three moving periods as opposed to just the classic move-in/move-out, but you would increase the number of student positions while decreasing per-capita fixed operating costs. Interesting idea : can you imagine offering a decreased rate based on the less desirable sessions (like May-to-December)?

hmom5 · 12-08-2008, 02:42 PM

Couldn't disagree more Pawn. Many schools successfully operate on the quarter system.

The D plan and that it allows for more and better internships and study abroad opportunities was a major plus for DS.

1down, 1 to go · 12-08-2008, 04:03 PM

For a school in a northern climate, many might prefer May to December! This option might make my D consider some schools she has currently dismissed as too cold/snowy.....

ColdWind · 12-08-2008, 04:20 PM

BCEagle: Are you sure that Dartmouth College's Summer Term begins in May? I thought that it starts in June, similiar to Stanford & Northwestern Universities. Also, aren't the terms at Dartmouth 10 weeks, & not 14 weeks, as suggested above in one of your posts?

menloparkmom · 12-08-2008, 11:20 PM

Dartmouth is on the qtr [ 10 weeks] , not the semester system. And the beauty of the D system is that it allows internships at times other than just in the summer, hence there is less competition for internships from students from other colleges.

sneamia · 12-09-2008, 04:38 PM

Pawn, we go through the same amount of material as other schools do.

BCEagle, the summer term begins late June.