SENATE DOCUMENT #31

                         APC Document #25



The Academic Policies Committee recommends to the Faculty Senate the
adoption of the following:

We take the position that the basic system of the University will be
a semester system by August 1980.  Ordinarily, a department should
offer not more than 30% of the total credit hours in that department
during a given semester on a term basis without approval of the
Academic Policies Committee.


RATIONALE:

On March 16 the Academic Policies Committee completed deliberations
on the merits of the term and semester systems.

It is clear that the faculty has ambivalent feelings about the 
educational merits of our current system.  While a large number of
people consulted would be unwilling to see our current hybrid system
scrapped completely, they do believe that our intense pace creates
stress and difficulties.

UNC-A has been committed to the term system for sixteen yeras.  It
was modified in 1969 when semester courses were permitted; since then
their number has increased until today they constitute thirty percent
of our course offerings.  In the fall of 1979, thirty-eight percent of
our courses will be offered on the semester basis.

This steady growth of semester courses has awakened new appreciation
of the advantages of the traditional system.  The extended sixteen
week semester permits students and faculty more time, for while the
number of class meetings is constant under both systems, the semester
has fifteen weekends as compared to seven under the term.  This allows
greater utilization of interlibrary loan, research and field trips,
and other procedures currently hindered by our compressed schedule.
The semester also means that a professor's absence due to illness or
professional trips will lead to fewer lost class days.  The same is
true for students.  It permits maturation of ideas and projects, and
a grace period to re-design courses when enrollment size demands changes.

The term system has also made many administrative functions more difficult
and has been awkward to explain to central university officers.

Some term courses will remain in those areas where the department can
demonstrate that a shorter period is beneficial and preferable to the
semester.  While this will perpetuate some of the difficulties mentioned
above, the educational merits of a short term will be protected in these
cases.

Change to a new system in August 1980 will cause less confusion and 
scheduling difficulties in the long run than if we continue our present
evolution toward the semester system.


(Passed Faculty Senate March 22, 1979)