While many students spent Winter Break skiing, cruising in the Caribbean or sitting in front of a television, some decided to make use of their time off by obtaining academic credits at the University.
A new University program allows students to fulfill credits during a two-week period in January. The credits appear on their spring transcripts, but they do not count toward the 12-credit minimum each student is required to take. The January Term is comparable to summer programs, with classes lasting four hours a day.
Students said they appreciated the additional college credits and the overall J-term experience.
"The course counts toward spring semester, which helps me because I am doing a research project and I am only taking three courses," said second-year College student Jeffrey Frank, who took Virginia Government and Politics with Prof. Larry J. Sabato.
Dudley Doane, director of the January Term, said applying course credit to the spring term was not initially a target of the program.
"The reason why the term appears on the spring semester is because there are only three terms [spring, summer and fall] on ISIS," Doane said. "We are dealing with a limitation in ISIS."
Dudley said that creating the program required a lot of organization and cooperation.
"To do this we had to work with units all across the University, including Student Affairs, Housing, the University Bookstore, Police, Student Health and ITC," Doane said. "To offer courses at a time when traditionally there were no courses has been a big change."
Difficulties included putting together elements quickly, such as the study abroad courses.
"To support two new study abroad programs in basically two months is a difficult thing to do because that means completing the course proposal process and addressing all risk and liability issues," Doane said. "It was a lot of work, but they did it."
To accommodate the increased numbers of students on Grounds during Winter Break, many changes had to be made. However, not all University services were up and running.
"There was not a meal plan available," Doane said. "There is during the summer session, but very few summer session students take advantage of it."
Doane did not think that a meal plan was essential.
"With small numbers of students, as long as we could make basic services available, it was satisfactory," Doane said.
Some students said they missed dining services.
"It would help to have more University services, like the Pav open or increasing hours of operation because most places closed during the afternoon," Frank said.
While Doane thinks the program does not require full services, there are some he thinks would have been useful.
"The library hours is something we need to look at in the future," Doane said. "I'm sure we'll find other things as well."
Doane said surveys will be used to discover ways to improve the January Term.
"We're going to gather a lot of data from students through the evaluation process," Doane said. "We're just beginning our evaluations with faculty, and then we will go through an evaluation process with all the various operational units that have been involved with this."
The term was comprised of 11 courses in various subjects. The two study abroad classes enrolled a total of about 60 students, and the other classes had about 200 total participants.
Frank said he found many advantages to participating in the January Term.
"It had the benefit of a friendly atmosphere," Frank said. "Some people probably hate this, but the intense amount of work to do keeps you motivated and focused on the subject."
Frank also praised the wide range of courses offered.
"There was anything from an archeological dig to nation building in Iraq, which was based on current events," Frank said.
Joshua Scott, a Politics instructor, said he thought the January Term ran smoothly.
"It was condensed and intensive," Scott said. "The students were living and breathing the material without interruption from other classes. It's appealing because students are able to focus so intently on one subject without other burdens."
Scott also thought that the choice of courses was helpful to students.
"I know that during the semester there is high demand for some Politics classes, so having the opportunity to take the course during January Term helps students," Scott said.
Frank said that J-term classes can be overwhelmingly intense for some students.
"The January Term had the most obscene course work I've ever encountered," Frank said. "There was definitely more work to do than in a normal semester course. I had a friend who had to read a bunch of books and then write a 20-page paper one night."
When it comes to the classes, Doane agreed that the courses required hard work.
"It's a heavier workload for both students and faculty," Doane said. "This may not be for all students, and it may not be for all faculty."
Doane said he was impressed with the academic integrity of the students that participated.
"This time out we had highly motivated, strong students," Doane said. "Students really were engaged and working hard. You couldn't fall through the cracks."
Scott said heavy workloads were necessary to teach all of the important information in two weeks.
"Four hours a day is difficult, it's hard to keep focus and squeeze in everything," Scott said.
One aspect of the January Term that is unique is the ability to leave the classroom walls.
"A lot of people weren't necessarily in classrooms," Frank said. "We even had a field trip in my class."
During other parts of the class, guest speakers taught students.
Scott said that at first he was worried about the class size, since the normal semester equivalent to the Politics course was a much smaller graduate level course.
"We were worried that by changing from 10 students to about 45 that we'd lose the intimate feel, but I think students were able to bond and work together," Scott said. "It was a cohesive class."
The experience generally received positive reactions from students and faculty alike.
"Two weeks is not too short a time to absorb material," Scott said. "It was challenging and comparable to a semester of material"
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