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IV. Comparative and Historical Perspectives

General Issues
Other Institutions' Experiences
Research
Strategic Studies
Comparative Data: Current Nature of UW Summer Quarter
Funding History
Other Summer Models
Summary

General Issues

Increased demand for access to higher education in the State of Washington will require its institutions to grow. Since fewer students enroll in the UW Summer Quarter, converting to a year-round operation might enable the University to respond to increased student demand. How can the Summer Quarter be expanded to be an equivalent term in a year-round operation? What are the impacts of year-round operation on the students, faculty, instructional support, capital facilities, student services? What are the benefits? What are the obstacles? How can such change be effected? What are the costs for year-round operation?

The committee first arrived at an understanding of what is meant by describing the present Summer Quarter as a "self-sustaining" program. The twelve-month funding for student services of the University, including registration, Computing and Communications, Libraries and the annual budgets of the various schools and colleges support the summer academic activity. Moreover the basic University infrastructure, electricity, security, personnel, payroll, etc., are also provided by UW annual budgets. Thus, the Summer Quarter instructional budget, funded by tuition, is the only truly self-sustaining part of the Summer Session. It is worth acknowledging, though, that nonresident tuition is not charged during the Summer Session now. Thus, the state's contribution to this instructional period is not offset by the increased tuition revenue from nonresidents as it is during the traditional academic year.

Other Institutions' Experiences

Discussions about developing a Summer Quarter equivalent to other terms are usually undertaken by institutions on the quarter system. Universities on the semester system find it difficult to consider an 8-week Summer Session as equivalent to a 14-week academic year term. One alternative structure is the trimester, but the Summer Session remains a separate, shorter session in this academic calendar structure.

Research

No Summer Sessions were discovered (either quarter or semester system) with enrollments equivalent to an academic year term. In addition, the source of funding has apparently little or no influence at present on the size of the summer term; Wisconsin has a state-funded subsidy for its summer student fees, and its head count enrollment in Summer of 1995 was 33% of its Autumn, 1994 enrollment. By comparison, the self-sustaining UW head count was 41.9% of its Autumn, 1994 enrollment. In public institutions, the trend is toward greater reliance on a self-sustaining Summer Session model. A few universities retain a modest subsidy from state allocations, but these resources are eroding. Private institutions are self-sustaining and none has established a Summer Session equivalent in size to the academic year terms.

Strategic Studies

The conversion of Summer Session from a self- sustaining instructional program to part of a year-round operation that require state funding has been explored by some universities and systems. The University of California introduced a fourth summer quarter at Berkeley in 1967 and at UCLA in 1968. The Governor vetoed operating funds and conversion planning support for summer quarter at UC in 1968. UC Summer Sessions have been self-sustaining since that time.

Earlier, the California State University (CSU) System launched year-round operations at four campuses with additional operating funds and additional planning money from the legislature. The CSU lost funding in 1968, but local resources were allocated to sustain the year-round programs at Hayward, Pomona, San Luis Obispo and Los Angeles campus locations. These programs remain smaller than academic terms as a result of student demand.

In 1992, the CSU revisited the question of year-round operations, and in 1994, the UC System also reviewed the idea. Their reports focus primarily on four inter-related areas: use of capital facilities; time to degree; access or enrollment growth; and use of faculty resources. Both systems reached similar conclusions: low student demand in the summer, which created uncertain capital savings, and the need for substantial new state-funding for capital and faculty argued against year-round operations. The reports suggested that institutional and system goals were more likely to be realized by increasing enrollments in the existing self-supporting summer programs.

The issue of year-round operation continues to be a topic of interest as evidenced by a 1996 publication of The California Higher Education Policy Center entitled, Shared Responsibilities (Appendix 4). Year-round operation has been identified as one of the eleven strategies to enhance quality and opportunity in California higher education and state funding is recommended. Enhanced participation of students in an expanded and equivalent Summer Quarter is identified in this report as the single factor that could contribute most to enhancing the capacity for student participation in the academic year. While this possibility is identified, the committee, as well as other institution's experiences, indicate that a wholesale conversion at present simply would not succeed in attracting the potential number of students afforded by the capacity. The committee does, though, believe that the eventual conversion to a full Summer Quarter is a very good and appropriate strategy for increasing student access to the University.

In a 1996 Western Washington University research document (Appendix 5) produced by that institution's Office of Institutional Assessment and Testing, an effort was made to determine student demand for Summer Session. WWU enrolled 10,192 in Winter of 1996; Summer 1996 was estimated to be 2,500, or 25% of Winter. Students surveyed (1759) indicated that they would be more likely to attend summer if a full curriculum was available in their major field, if tuition was the same as during the academic-year, if financial aid/work study was available, and if summer courses were included in the annual timetable. The study optimistically estimates a potential increase of 51% beyond the 1995 enrollment based on Western Washington University's ability to meet the conditions identified by students as incentives to attend the summer (see above). The projected increased participation in the WWU summer would raise the total to 3,815, or 37% of the winter term.

Comparative Data: Current Nature of UW Summer Quarter

The Summer Quarter consists of a 9-week, full-term session and two 4.5- week sessions termed "A-term" and "B-term." In Summer Quarter 1995, 90% of the registrants were full-term, 6% were A-term, and 4% were B-term. These proportions vary considerably between units and between graduate (virtually all full-term) and undergraduate enrollments. Students participate in Summer Session on a voluntary basis, and the summer curriculum offerings are determined by colleges and departments and consist of high-demand UW courses. In 1995, 14,138 students were enrolled at UW Summer Quarter, including 411 at UW Bothell and 392 at UW Tacoma. This level of enrollment has been relatively constant over the past decade, and efforts to increase enrollments with additional sections of popular courses have not produced significant growth. Current student participation has established the UW Summer Quarter as one of the largest Summer Sessions in the nation. With 83.3% of the students either continuing or returning UW students, the program functions largely as a continuation of the academic calendar.

A comparison of the enrollment numbers and student credit hours of continuing or returning UW students in the Summer Quarter compared to the following Autumn Quarter, 1996, reveals the following data:

Table 1: Enrollment Number Comparisons

Student %	Summer, 1996	Autumn, 1996
Undergraduate	59.5%	69.6%
Nonmatriculated	7.8%	4.1%
Graduate and Professional	32.6%	26.4%

Table 2: SCH Comparisons

Student %	Summer, 1996	Autumn, 1996
Undergraduate	67.0%	75.3%
Nonmatriculated	6.3%	1.7%
Graduate and Professional	26.7%	23.0%

During the more recent Summer Quarter, then, there were somewhat more undergraduates and fewer graduates participating than during the adjacent Autumn Quarter. The percent of nonmatriculated students participating also was greater during Summer than during Autumn.

Funding History

In 1985, the UW urged the Legislature to make Summer Quarter a self-sustaining program which would be funded by locally-collected fees. Prior to that time, a series of reductions in the state budget had limited the scope of the program and support for faculty and teaching assistants. By making Summer Quarter a self-sustaining instructional budget, it was possible to restore cuts and actually improve the support level. As student fees increased, Summer Quarter could accommodate programmatic initiatives, salary increases and costs for developing and offering Summer Quarter programs. Instructional support is allocated annually and adjusted to changes in enrollment patterns. The UW faculty elect to teach in the summer for excess compensation (2/9ths of regular salary is full time), and they receive benefit contributions from Summer Quarter. In 1995, the Summer Quarter budget was $6,213,228. Additional Summer Quarter revenues are allocated to the UW Designated Operating Fund; this was $4,069,488 in 1995.

Other Summer Models

The University of Minnesota (Autumn 1994 enrollment of 36,669; Summer 1995 enrollment of 15,823) has undertaken a financial restructuring of the institution and a conversion to the semester system which will change the financial structure of the university and its Summer Session by 1998. As part of the system adopted, the department or unit of admission will receive 25% of student tuition and the unit teaching courses will receive 75% of revenues. This basic policy has prompted units that previously did not admit freshmen to do so immediately. Having student fees follow the students is viewed as an incentive for growth. Summer funding will be the same as the academic year; i.e., derived from the funding system of shared revenues. Faculty summer salaries will be determined by the deans of various colleges.

Ohio State University (academic year enrollment of 54,000; summer enrollment of 15,000) decentralized its Summer Session about five years ago and distributed the resources to the colleges and schools. Most deans have used these funds to accommodate a series of general university budget reductions. The result was a greatly reduced number of courses and enrollments in the summer. In 1994, the provost elected to subsidize centrally certain courses on a per/seat formula to increase summer enrollments. Faculty may elect to teach any three of four terms (very few have opted to teach in summer) and they may negotiate the fourth term as individuals with the chairs. Salaries are typically a flat fee of $3,000-$4,000 per course. As a result, most teaching in the summer is done by junior faculty and teaching assistants. Large enrollment courses with low instructional costs dominate the summer offerings.

Dartmouth College's academic policy requires students to attend year-round, but students may elect to be on leave one of the four terms. Emphasis is placed on service learning and internships for students. The total enrollment at Dartmouth is approximately 4,000, and in the Fall of 1996, 3,350 students were expected to be enrolled. Around 650 students would be on leave that term. Summer is the smallest of the four terms with enrollments of around 1,000. Faculty receive excess compensation for teaching in the summer.

Summary

The Committee did not discover a Summer Session with enrollments equal to an academic year term nor did it find a state-funded Summer Session equal in size with an academic year term. Student demand determines the size of Summer Sessions. The source of funding (state-subsidized or primarily tuition-supported) has little effect on the nature of Summer Session.
At the University of Washington, Summer Quarter enrollments are higher than most peer institutions, with 83% of UW Summer Quarter enrollments are UW continuing and returning students. Matriculated and nonmatriculated undergraduates participate more, and graduate students less, than during the traditional academic year.
While low student demand and new funding requirements argue for the present against wholesale conversion to year-round operation, the potential exists to increase the UW Summer Quarter enrollments under the currently self-sustaining instructional budget arrangement.

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