by Connor Parks
After an inaugural run last year, Summer Term at Centre is preparing to begin its second year of operation, with 11 courses (most with desirable tags) being offered across multiple disciplines. Last year, in preparation for this fresh program and a bold move in Centre’s history, I co-authored a facts and opinions piece regarding the format of the program, the history behind its inception, and faculty and student outlook on it. One year out, with a refreshed slate of courses to choose from and an initial class of Summer Term students in the books, I wanted to revisit the subject. I’ve collected the opinions of someone involved, taken a look back at my past predictions, and provided a glimpse at this year’s selections and the potential short-term future of the program.
To begin, I sat down and discussed Summer Term with someone I knew who had taken a course last year, one of only 18 students to do so. Important to note is that this student combined their summer course with on-campus work they were already planning on doing over the entire summer, which allowed for a more full schedule. The entire program costs between $5-6,000 (an official financial breakdown is available on Centrenet), most of which goes towards housing, board, and meal expenses. They took Psych 110 during their time here to knock out an E3 credit, which was apparently the course with the highest number of students: a whopping 4 in the class. Generally, they considered the more positive experiences of their Summer Term to have been with professors and staff who ran the program and taught courses. They described Dr. Amos Tubb, the program’s coordinator and mastermind, as a kind, approachable, and always-present figure during the term who truly had the best in mind for students and faculty involved. Reassuringly, this maps well onto my preliminary expectations last year, where I got the sense that Dr. Tubb was genuinely interested in giving students a more relaxed time frame to fit in classes they needed rather than just a quick cash grab for the college. It seems the holistic ethos behind Summer Term is alive and well!
Other benefits included a more relaxed atmosphere than regular semester-long courses despite the condensed time frame- 2 hours daily for 5 weeks, much like CentreTerm- and the ability to spend more time working internships, side jobs, or generally taking the summer off. They noted that many students went home as soon as the weekend started, and some local resident students didn’t even board, only coming to daily classes. Cowan was operational at a limited capacity for the first few weeks (before external camps and more student research began), yet they seemed to believe the food quality was around the same as normal, with nothing much to complain about. Counselling services were also offered. The biggest negative overall seemed to be a traditional lack of air conditioning in the dorms, something which facilities came to check on multiple times to no avail. Campus environment was quieter than normal, they said, but the combination of research students, internship participants, international students, and summer course students made Old Quad dorms at least moderately full. They generally considered their overall experience to be a very positive one, and recommended that interested students not take an on-campus job while taking classes if financially possible, due to the difficulty of combining the two.
This year, Summer Term courses will run from May 28 to July 1, the date of finals. Courses to be offered include the following:
ARS 233 (E1 + A)
BUS 260
CHE 131 (E3)
HIS 127 (E2 + D)
HUM 155 (E1 + D)
MAT 130
MUS 116 (E1)
POL 410 (LSAT Prep)
PSY 110 (E3)
PSY 111 (E3)
SOC 110 (E2)
This seems to be an apt slate of offerings which get at the heart of the program’s purpose: providing students the chance to get important tags knocked out through basic classes when they may otherwise be too busy, without the ordinary pressure of a semester course. With last year going smoothly, who’s to say what kind of success this year’s Summer Term could have? Given the breadth of courses offered and their usefulness for gen-eds, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a few more students each year signing up. Dr. Tubb certainly took some risks organising Summer Term, but I believe it still has lots of potential to be a serious and consistent success.
As with last year, my biggest concern for any long-term future for Summer Term will be profitability. I admittedly didn’t inquire about how concerned program directors and faculty were about this, but the relatively low number of students involved has definitely given Centre something to consider going forward. I anticipate that these first few years will serve to gauge interest in what courses students respond to best over the summer or need most to graduate. Following this, I believe a choice could be made whether to hone in on a few specific courses or keep options open for a potential influx of more students. Last year, I remarked that I hadn’t heard much discussion of students interested in the new program, which mirrors what I’ve experienced this year. This makes me expect that 2025 numbers will likely be similar to 2024, with perhaps a few more now that the program has had positive results. Regardless, Summer Term could be a great solution for anyone looking to complete credits or tags in a shorter, more relaxed time frame, and we now have a whole class’ worth of student experiences to prove it!