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VII. Student Issues

Promoting the Summer Quarter
Implications for Student Services--Especially Financial Aid

From the outset of its deliberations, the paramount question before the committee was what might be required to attract greater numbers of students to participate in Summer Quarter. Indeed, this question was the focus of extensive discussion and speculation and the committee opined that students who take advantage of Summer Quarter offerings do so for a variety of reasons. This period provides an opportunity to enroll in courses that are difficult to access during the academic year as well as the possibility to concentrate on one especially challenging course and engage in intensive, short term offerings, such as the intensive foreign language offerings. Additionally the committee recognized that summer is used as a vehicle to accelerate time to degree.

From another perspective, discussions of reasons why students do not participate in Summer Quarter yielded several possibilities including a lack of awareness of course availability, financial constraints (the lack of financial aid and the need to work during this period), and a number of personal and family considerations. On this point, the committee acknowledged the powerful influence of tradition and the mindset of this society which defines the summer months as a time to step back from the routine and attend to family, vacations, work, and other pursuits.

In an effort to gather more information on our students and their motivations for participating in summer quarter, the committee commissioned the Market Research Unit of the Office of Educational Outreach to conduct a series of focus groups involving matriculated undergraduates. A total of four focus group sessions were conducted for the specific purpose of identifying student perceptions and key issues that might prompt or prevent participation in summer quarter.

The perceptions and ideas expressed by the focus group participants closely mirrored the Committee's views on the factors that might prompt greater participation. Specifically, the focus group participants indicated:

Access to required classes is the major barrier to moving through the University in four years.
For non-resident students, reduced tuition in the summer is a clear and powerful incentive to participate. Additionally, students perceive summer as an opportunity to focus on one especially challenging class.
On the other hand, students perceived summer as a time of limited class offerings--especially upper division or departmental classes--that is characterized by minimal involvement of professors and a disproportionate number of teaching assistants carrying the instructional load.
There is a sense that summer quarter is an opportunity for students to accelerate movement toward graduation, take advantage of smaller classes and enroll in high demand courses.
Predictably, the students asserted that the most significant drawback to summer quarter was financial--participating would prevent them from working and saving money to defray educational expenses during the coming academic year. Moreover, students touched on a number of the cultural and attitudinal influences explored by the Committee, especially the sense that summer is a time for a break from the routines of the year, to be spent with family and friends.
The students identified a number of features that might invite their enrollment in the summer, the most powerful of which were reduced tuition and a more robust array of course options at the upper-division level. They also noted several secondary incentives including enhanced schedule flexibility, additional financial aid and more professors teaching during summer. They were quite clear in the view that University efforts to require participation in summer quarter would not be appreciated or well received.

In the aggregate, the weight of information considered by the Committee, including the focus group outcomes, data on enrollment patterns in summer quarters over time, and the varied perspectives and experiences of those at the table, led the committee to conclude that Summer Quarter should remain "market sensitive" and that it would probably grow in response to student demand. Thus, a Summer Quarter responsive to student demand would be characterized by several elements including:

Sequential courses
Intensive courses
More upper-division offerings
Fuller participation of professors
Adequate systems of support, especially in advising and financial aid

Promoting the Summer Quarter

There is agreement that summer quarter growth should focus on matriculated UW students and that a comprehensive, aggressive strategy for promoting this expansion should be put into place.

Marketing the Summer Quarter will require enhanced promotional funding that should pursue two communication objectives: (1) to establish Summer Quarter as the "fourth" quarter--equal in all respects to any quarter in the academic calendar and (2) to dispel the widely held perception that Summer Quarter is like summer school--for those who can't keep up during the academic year, etc. Strategically, both objectives can be achieved in a single, carefully crafted communications campaign. Both existing and new media should be employed to create awareness, promote interest and invite application.

Summer Quarter currently spends $130,000 per year promoting offerings. This figure includes printing, postage, fulfillment, posters and brochures and media advertising. In contrast, beyond the Time Schedule, there is no quarter-specific promotional budget for Autumn, Winter or Spring Quarter. The Time Schedule is currently budgeted at $10-12,000 per quarter.

Campaigns designed to reshape perceptions and create new attitudes are usually budgeted at 2.5-3 times the current budget levels. However, since most of the media employed in this campaign would be on-site and local, a more realistic estimate would double the current budget for the introductory year, scaling back to 1.5 the second and budgeting accordingly in subsequent years.

Implications for Student Services--Especially Financial Aid

As envisioned, Summer Quarter would expand incrementally--in the early years it would remain a self-sustaining proposition and, over time and given certain conditions, it would transition to a full, state-supported fourth quarter. During the early years, when growth might reasonably be anticipated to be modest, the implications for various support and service units on campus would likely be minimal. However, if enrollments increase significantly over their current levels, the campus community will need to be attentive to its possible effects. Significantly higher Summer Quarter participation rates will likely place additional pressures on academic advising and a range of other academic support services. Additionally, a substantially expanded summer quarter would have implications for the array of programs, services and systems falling under the purview of the Vice President for Student Affairs. Here, for example, the committee acknowledges the possible long term effects on the housing and dining system. Currently, the system manages a comprehensive conference program during the summer months--a program that provides a significant source of revenue to the department and requires the commitment of a substantial percentage of residence hall rooms and food service facilities. If a substantially larger summer quarter indicates the possibility of providing additional on-campus housing and food services, the implications must be carefully examined. Similarly, the University administers a comprehensive, integrated student database encompassing systems for admissions, registration, student accounts and loans and financial aid. Here, too, the effects of increased enrollments on these support systems must be carefully assessed. Ultimately, therefore, as the campus approaches a full fourth quarter, broad consultation with units that might be affected by this movement will be important.

The matter of financial aid for Summer Quarter is an especially challenging issue. The University administers a comprehensive program of scholarships and financial aid, and over half of our enrollments--17,500 students--will have received some form of support this year. The Office of Student Financial Aid administers four types of aid--scholarships, grants, loans and employment through the work-study programs--and the majority of support is derived from federal and state sources.

In general, an overall increase in the University's enrollments, either through new students or greater numbers of current students participating in Summer Quarter, will not result in a corresponding increase in financial aid flowing to the University. Stated differently, as enrollment increases, the same pool of financial aid funds would simply have to be stretched across additional students for an additional quarter.

As a matter of policy, the Summer Quarter has traditionally been considered an optional period of enrollment for aid purposes. With the exception of the aid made available to the select few students required by their programs to enroll, additional aid for the Summer Quarter is not available. The common pattern calls for determining the amount of aid a student is eligible to receive during the regular year and then spreading that fixed amount over four quarters instead of three. Additionally, the summer work-study program has traditionally emphasized full-time employment--students desiring full-time work-study jobs during the summer are given priority over those desiring to attend Summer Quarter and work part-time under the program. The committee acknowledges the importance of providing proportional financial aid for Summer Quarter and has identified a number of possibilities for enhancing support.

During the regular academic year and under authority from the Legislature, the University provides 3 percent of its total tuition and fee revenues to needy students in the form of tuition waivers. Given its self-sustaining nature, the University has refrained from extending this existing authority into the present Summer Session. Doing so would provide approximately $240,000 in additional support for summer and the Committee recommends that this option be given serious consideration. Further, we are authorized by statute to redirect another 3.5 percent of tuition and fees into the financial aid program for grants to needy students. Summer Quarter tuition and fee revenues generate approximately $280,000 for this pool, but these funds have traditionally been awarded to student during the regular academic year--not Summer Quarter. The committee recommends that this practice be modified--funds generated during the summer should be dedicated to students attending during this period.

Second, the University dedicates about $1.6 million of its annual allocation under work-study to the summer period but, as noted earlier, priority for this support is given to UW students who wish to work full-time and who will not enroll in the summer. A straightforward modification of policy, giving Summer Quarter participants first priority for this support would improve the financial situation for many students. This option should be pursued.

Third, given limited funding and the substantial needs during the academic year, scholarship support is not currently provided to students who enroll in Summer Quarter. However, the University has redoubled its commitment to enhancing the privately supported scholarship program. The Office of Development has created a new position for a major gifts officer, to be dedicated to increasing private support for scholarships. As this support grows, some portion of the scholarship pool should be directed to students attending Summer Quarter.

While these actions would not bring Summer Quarter financial aid fully proportional to the amount available during the academic year--substantially more money would be required to achieve this--they would improve support by at least $2 million and begin to reduce some the financial barriers to participation.

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