Summer Quarter Report

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III. Summary Recommendations

Phase I: Enhanced self-sustaining Summer Quarter
Phase II: Regular Summer Quarter

The committee endorses the conversion of the present tuition-based Summer Quarter to a full and equal state-funded Summer Quarter. There are a number of critical and important issues that should be addressed to enhance and transform the present Summer Quarter. Specific recommendations for the modification of the present tuition-based Summer Quarter (Phase I) to a full and equal Summer Quarter (Phase II) are enumerated here. Issues of concern for faculty, students, the curriculum, and administration and budget are discussed in detail in later sections of this report.

There are several possible mechanisms for increasing student access, the primary issue driving the question of creating a full quarter during the summer. Capital expansion likely will be required. The committee understands that the present physical plant limits capacity primarily by availability of specialized instructional facilities and of faculty offices and research facilities, rather than by availability of general purpose classrooms. This is suggested by the relatively lighter use now of general classroom facilities in the afternoon, evening, or weekends, and during the summer. If more students are to be accommodated at the University, it will be necessary to increase the size of the physical plant if daily and yearly times of instruction, dictated by student interest and availability and by faculty preference, remain as they are now. This will be primarily in increased faculty research facilities, office space, and specialized instructional facilities. This may also require increased general assignment classrooms if instructional times remain as they are now.

A second method of increasing student access within the constraints of the present physical plant would be to increase the teaching loads of the current faculty. As an example, the faculty in the social sciences presently teach four courses per academic year. If the number of courses were increased to five or more, then more student access would be provided with a faculty of the same size. New faculty offices and research facilities would not be required, although increases in the number of specialized instructional facilities would parallel an increased number of students. The committee does not favor this solution, however, for the simple reason that the quality of instruction would markedly decrease. This loss of quality would occur first because of the increased commitment of each faculty member to instruction rather than other activities, principally research. The loss of quality would also occur because the University of Washington would lose faculty of quality because of the heavy teaching load relative to peer institutions. Increasing the teaching requirements of faculty here would be tantamount to the University of Washington leading the way in removal of tenure; it would result in a substantial exodus of the best faculty to other institutions with what is now the disciplinary-normal teaching responsibilities.

Phase I: Enhanced self-sustaining Summer Quarter

Faculty

• The amount and assignment of Summer Quarter teaching to departments and schools will be determined primarily by student demand. These allocations are made primarily on the basis of recent student course interest patterns, but some flexibility for placement of teaching resources on an immediate demand basis should be maintained.
• In turn, distribution of summer teaching to particular faculty rests with the departments. Which of the faculty are granted requests to teach will be governed principally by instructional quality and curricular need.
• Faculty compensation should be increased to three month's salary for a minimum of two full-term, standard classes and one and a half month's salary for one standard class. Teaching assistants should receive one and a half month's salary for one full-term course. One five-week course, equivalent in credit hours to a normal ten-week course, should be compensated at one and a half month's salary for faculty or teaching assistants. All courses of less than normal ten-week duration should be compensated by this proportionality. Summer Quarter should continue to contribute to retirement and to pay tuition waivers.
• Summer Quarter should continue to encourage appointment of visiting faculty who would enhance the summer offerings and provide exceptional experiences for UW students.
• A plan to encourage a limited number of UW faculty to teach in Summer Quarter as part of their nine-month academic year appointment should be developed by the Provost in consultation with the Board of Deans.
• Revenue losses to other activities on the campus, such as conferences, should have second priority to increases in student enrollment during the summer.

Curriculum

• Curriculum plans should be formulated at least one year prior to the Summer Quarter and should include Summer Quarter in a coordinated annual plan. This should be organized jointly by the schools/colleges and Summer Quarter. Courses linked in a series should be offered in summer. Coordination of coursework would be encouraged on a University-wide basis, between departments and between colleges, in all quarters. Initially course planning should favor those courses in highest demand, including "bottleneck" courses, during the regular academic year. Requests for experimentation with the curriculum should be favored for Summer Quarter.
• The Summer Quarter term should be changed from a nine-week to a standard ten-week session. A final examination period should be added to the term. A limited number of shorter courses might be added as well, with credit given for course contact hours commensurate with the normal ten-week quarter.
• The Summer Quarter can be considered as a flexible and appropriate means of dealing with course access issues, and considerations of this should be important in curricular planning.
• The number of graduate courses, where student interest is sufficient, in appropriate disciplines should be increased.
• Expanded use of coordinated afternoon and evening offerings should be explored and encouraged. This should apply to Summer Quarter as well as to the regular quarters.

Students

• Efforts should be made to provide incentives for students to enroll in Summer Quarter. This should be accomplished by social engineering (e.g., sequenced courses available in summer) rather than by requirements of students to participate in Summer Quarter (e.g., must attend one Summer Quarter during career). Advising, for example, should encourage participation in the Summer Quarter, and entering students--freshmen and transfers--should be encouraged to begin in the Summer Quarter.
• The University should work toward providing equivalent Financial Aid in all quarters.
• The Summer Quarter should serve primarily University of Washington matriculated students. To this end, Summer Quarter should aggressively recruit matriculated UW students. Care should be taken to communicate Summer Quarter activities to students.
• Summer Quarter should regularly survey students to determine how well the University is meeting their needs for course opportunities and summer study.

Administration

• Summer Quarter will be administered through the Vice Provost for Educational Outreach, in cooperation with the schools/colleges and the departments.
• Student advising and other support services should be provided as during the regular academic year.
• Departmental and college administration should be compensated from the Summer Quarter, based on their participation in the program.
• An annual evaluation of the success of initiatives to enhance Summer Quarter should be completed, and these results will be reported to the provost and to the deans.

Funding

• Capital construction to accommodate the increases in instructional staff may be required and should be funded by the state. Any capital expansion will, of course, affect capacity for all four quarters.
• Summer Quarter should follow any academic year tuition increases, not lead them.
• As the Summer Quarter enrollment increases, there will be administrative and staffing demands. The University should plan to provide compensation for departmental chairs and staff commensurate with their participation in and support of the Summer Quarter.
• Funds to pay the costs of increasing faculty and chair compensation would be taken out of existing student tuition revenue, thus reducing Summer's contribution to the DOF budget. Any surplus from tuition revenues should be deposited in the University DOF account, as is now the case.
• Summer Quarter support of instructional operations should continue to be determined by student enrollments, with additional operations and support staff funding added as needed.
• The present model of charging resident tuition to nonresidents should be maintained and monitored. If later it is apparent that nonresidents are reducing access of matriculated UW resident undergraduates, then the possibility of reinstating nonresident tuition charges should be studied.
• Funds for publicizing the Summer Quarter and recruiting students will be necessary.

Phase II: Regular Summer Quarter

Faculty

• Faculty who teach during all four quarters will have annual twelve-month salaries.
• Consonant with the University regulation that prohibits working more than five months in any two consecutive summers in addition to a regular nine-month appointment, faculty could not teach more Summer Quarter courses than would entitle them to in excess of five months of summer salary in any two consecutive years.
• The distribution of fourth quarter teaching to departments rests with the colleges and schools, and will be made on a somewhat predictable basis (e.g., evaluate every two years the distribution of Summer Quarter teaching to schools/departments/colleges). In turn, distribution of these fourth quarters to particular faculty rests with the departments. Which of the faculty receive these should be governed principally by instructional quality and curricular need.
• Faculty teaching nine months may be given the option of taking any one of the four academic year quarters off, if afforded by summer enrollments. Salaries for this workload will be on a nine-month basis.
• Care must be taken to ensure that faculty participation in a twelve-month teaching commitment does not substantially interfere with their scholarship and other activities.

Curriculum

• Curriculum planning should be taken up by the departments on an annual basis and curriculum plans should be formulated at least one year prior to the Summer Quarter. Courses linked in a series should be offered in summer as well as in the other quarters, and coordination of coursework would be encouraged on a University-wide basis, between departments as well as between schools/colleges in all quarters.
• Requests for experimentation with the curriculum should be encouraged during the Summer Quarter, as well as other quarters.
• Expanded use of coordinated afternoon and evening offerings during all quarters should be explored and encouraged.

Students

• Efforts will be made to provide incentives for students to enroll in Summer Quarter. As noted for Phase I, this should be accomplished by social engineering rather than by requirements of students to participate in Summer Quarter. Student advising should actively encourage participation in Summer Quarter.
• Entering students--freshmen and transfers--should be encouraged to begin in the Summer Quarter.
• Equivalent Financial Aid should be provided in all quarters.

Administration

• The full Summer Quarter will be administered by the various schools and colleges; any self-sustaining activities (e.g., intensive language instruction) could remain with the present Summer Quarter administration or with the schools and colleges.
• Redistribution of support staff would follow need.
• Department and college administration should be compensated on an eleven-month basis.

Funding

• Funding will be provided by the state for the regularized Summer Quarter.
• Capital construction to accommodate the increases in instructional staff must be provided by the state.

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Provost's Summer Quarter Committee 1997
provost@u.washington.edu
May 1997