Summer Session Deans Introduce Moorusmester and DiStefanusmester
The Summer Session Deans announced on Monday that they will be introducing two new sessions to Summer Session. “We’re very excited about this change,” said Dr. Sara Thompson, Vice Provost for Summer Session. “These new sessions will give students more opportunity to enroll, which means more revenue for the university. Based on the record enrollments in Summer 2020, we anticipate that enrollments in these new sessions will generate enough revenue to completely offset the university’s budget shortfall.”
In an effort to facilitate increased summer enrollments, the colleges and schools have agreed to raise the summer credit limit from 16 to 32 credits. While that may sound like a lot, Thompson explained that the sessions would be staggered in a way that will make enrollment in all sessions manageable.
The idea behind the new sessions, as well as the new layout of the various summer sessions, was part of a joint proposal from the History and Classics Departments. “Oh, yeah. History and Classics really came through for us this year,” said Dr. Patrick Tally, Summer Session Dean representative for the College of Arts & Sciences. “You see, summer has two months named after great leaders: July and August for Julius and Augustus Caesar. So, we decided to insert a couple of sessions named after our own great leaders: Moorusmester and DiStefanusmester for our Provost and Chancellor.” Moorusmester will begin on Thursday, June 10th, the new moon, and DiStefanusmester will begin on Friday, July 9th, the next new moon.
To accommodate these new sessions, the Summer Session Deans will move Maymester and A Session to early and late April start dates, and will move B Session and Augmester out to mid-August and early September dates. All other session dates will remain scattered throughout the middle of the summer. “The best thing is,” Tally explained, “the calendar doesn’t have to make sense! As the History and Classics Departments reminded us, the months in the Julian calendar no longer align with their numerical markers, and nobody has ever been confused by that. September, October, November, December – these aren’t the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months like their names would suggest, so why should we worry if Maymester is in April and Augmester is in September? Besides, it wasn’t confusing when the first Friday of the spring semester was a Wednesday, so why would this be confusing?”
Suzanne Classen, Summer Session Dean representative for the Division of Continuing Education, will present these changes at this week’s Conference for Student Success & Advising. “We’ve finally been accepted to present at CSSA!” Classen said while barely containing her enthusiasm. “My presentation will give a brief overview of what the new sessions are, where all the old sessions went, how to talk to students about Maymester and Augmester, implications for financial aid, and what counts as full-time for students using GI Bill. In fact, I just asked Cliff Conner in VMA to whip up a new Training Time Equivalency Table for our military students, and I’m sure he’ll have that to me by day’s end.” Classen’s presentation is at 3:00pm on Thursday, February 18th.
