I write to contest your editorial on  moving to semesters.  There are numerous flaws in your arguments.

First and foremost, Cal State Online is not tied to the campuses in the way you suggest.  CSU East Bay offers numerous online courses for students already.  Many, if not most, of these courses cost the same as the courses you take on campus.  Cal State Online is being run through “self-support” (sometimes called “continuing education” or “extended education”) mechanisms.  That means students pay by the unit and without state subsidies;  i.e., there is already additional cost involved.  The last goal of switching to semesters from the students’ and the faculty’s point-of-view should be to align better with Cal State Online.

The Editorial Board of The Pioneer failed to consider reasons for keeping quarters.  Using the quarter system at CSU East Bay, there are 4 full terms available.  In semesters, there are 2 full terms, plus a short-session summer.  Students who take advantage of the summer term currently are able to graduate faster.

Students who have to drop out because of health problems or job issues are able to get back on track more quickly, as they don’t have to wait for 15 weeks for the next term.  Students have more ability to transfer into the quarter system, as we admit students at 4 points in the year, not 2 or maybe 3.  Students only have to take 3 or 4 courses at a time to graduate in 4 years, not 5. (If you think juggling the materials and midterms in four courses is tough, try five!)  Part time students would still only take 1 or 2 courses per term and therefore graduate more slowly.  More classes are offered on the quarter system than on the semester system (it takes 40 courses to graduate on semesters;  45 on quarters).

If semesters provide better education to students, why aren’t Stanford, University of Chicago, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, or UC Santa Barbara switching?

Undergraduates pay $7047 per year currently for tuition.  $6 million is a ballpark estimate of the cost to convert CSU East Bay to semesters.  That is the same as providing 850 students free schooling for a year or giving 212 students a full-ride scholarship for 4 years.

The Editors of The Pioneer are free to take-  and pay the extra fees for-  their classes through Cal State Online, if they so choose.  After doing so, they should write a follow-up editorial espousing the virtues of Cal State Online.  Lining up this University, including its thriving online courses, to a costly and unproven program is foolhardy.  If the other 5 CSU campuses on quarters go down that path for whatever reason, so be it;  we are Pioneers and can go it alone.