CGTC preps students for shift to semesters

Vaishali Patel The Union-Recorder

MILLEDGEVILLE — As officials at Georgia’s 26 technical colleges begin advising students and staff on the upcoming conversion from quarters to semesters, the Milledgeville campus of Central Georgia Technical College hopes to keep enrollment numbers level once the transition begins next fall.

CGTC Vice President of Satellite Operations Hank Griffeth said there are a number of advantages for the Technical College System of Georgia to switch to the semester system, including additional instructional time and calendar alignment with the University System of Georgia that better supports dual and joint enrollment opportunities for high school students.

“One of the biggest advantages we will see in Milledgeville, in terms of conversion, is the schedule will align with the [Baldwin County Board of Education],” Griffeth said. “There’s some advantage in the summertime for those students planning to attend [Georgia College & State University] or other colleges out of town. We’ll make the conversion July 1, 2011 and have a short 10-week term in the summer and the first full 15-week semester will be in fall 2011.”

The conversion is not expected to affect class sizes, enrollment numbers or students’ state or federal financial aid, Griffeth said, but schools that transfer from a quarter to a semester system usually see a decrease in credit hours generated.

“Typically, a full-time student takes 12 to 15 hours a quarter, but a full-time semester student takes 18 hours. I don’t think class size will go up because a lot of classes will only allow a certain student-teacher ratio, but the number of classes offered a term will go up so students have more to choose from,” he said. “We’re encouraging online students who are finishing up in spring 2011 to finish up [before the conversion] and if not, then advise them in a manner that the transition does not affect them.”

According to the TCSG semester website, www.tcsgsemester411.com, which is dedicated entirely to addressing questions and concerns regarding the semester conversion, 80 percent of public and private colleges and universities in the U.S. already follow a semester calendar. Georgia’s technical colleges students will first follow the semester curriculum in the fall of next year, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 22 and run through Dec. 16, with 75 days of required instruction and seven days designated for exams, registration, holidays and breaks.

Griffeth said it is critical to advise and educate students in advance of the system implementation and curriculum change.

“Before we make the change to a semester system, we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that all of the students are not adversely affected by the transition. We are working very hard at Central Georgia Tech to advise students ahead of time,” he said. “We’re in the process of converting the curriculum from quarters to semesters so we can make sure that a student is able to finish [a] cosmetology diploma [for example] in a certain amount of time in the quarter and be able to complete it in the same amount of time in the semester.”

With enrollment continuously increasing at CGTC due to the down economy, Griffeth predicts the college will enroll between 1,050 and 1,100 students for the upcoming fall quarter. The Milledgeville campus had 618 students in summer quarter 2009, compared to 826 students attending this summer quarter based on preliminary enrollment numbers.

“This past fall, we had 982 students enroll at Central Georgia Tech here in Milledgeville compared to last winter where we had 1,035 students. That’s very rare in my experience in 26 years in higher education,” Griffeth said. “When we convert to the semester system next year, enrollment should simply stay level if we have educated students the way we need to, and funding will not go down either. We’ve worked very hard at Central Georgia Tech and as a system to keep the enrollment level.”

For more information about the curriculum conversion, the course numbering system or to view the 2011-2012 academic calendar, visit www.tcsgsemester411.com or call CGTC at (478) 445-2302.

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