Beginning in Fall 2018, Cal State East Bay will be a semester system university. The transition from quarters to semesters is a process that takes about three years to implement and is currently underway, according to Eileen Barrett, co-director of the Semester Conversion Initiative.

The primary reason to for “semester conversion, then, would be to smooth the transition for students, enabling them to transfer course credits more easily and apply them towards degree completion,” according to the Framework for Semester Conversion. President Leroy Morishita called this a “critical strategic priority” for the University.

The California State University Chancellor’s Office has been encouraging campuses to use semesters for years, for better transferability between CSU campuses, and outside colleges, according to Barrett. In the quarter system, students are required to complete 180 units, but when the conversion is complete, students will only have to complete 120.

Rather than having four 10-week sessions per year, the school year will consist of two 15-week sessions, with an eight-week summer program, according to the quar-ter-to-semester conversion calculator on CSUEB’s website. The summer class offerings will remain limited, but available for those students who need to complete classes outside of the Fall and Spring semester sessions.

This is a chance, Barrett explains, “for improving pedagogy [of classes], rather than adding more content.” Because classes will be extended from 10 weeks to 15 weeks, it will put pressure on the instructor to not just present all of the information to the students, but to increase both the breadth and depth of the information being presented.

With a longer session it will give instructors a chance to present information in a less rushed way, and give students more chance to understand and absorb the teachings, according to Barrett. Armed with the responsibility of the semester conversion process is the Semester Conversion Steering Committee or the SCSC. The committee released a framework explaining the “Institutional Learning Outcomes and the Universi-ty-wide process used to develop them,” as well as a pledge to the students.

The SCSC “Pledge To Our Students” was the first approved document concerning the conversion, and is, Barrett says, “the single most important document to our students.” The pledge states six promises made to the students, including that students will not lose credits in the conversions and cost of three-quarters will equal the cost of two semesters, with adjustment of fees deemed necessary and approved by the board of trustees.

The pledge was approved February 2, 2015, and is available on the semester conversion website. The steering committee has drawn information from other schools that have transitioned to semesters in recent years. Eastern Washington State University, for example, converted recently and our campus has gathered insight on that pro-cess, according to Barrett. The California State University system has a total of 23 campuses and only six currently use the quarter system. This transition will aid students who transfer from different schools, and allow their credits to be viable when they arrive at East Bay or another CSU campus.

When CSUEB transitions, the campus will be following closely behind CSU Los Angeles and Bakersfield, who will have completely converted to semesters in Fall of 2016. Converting the same year as CSUEB is CSU Pomona. CSU San Bernardino will be converting in Fall of 2019. San Luis Obispo will be staying on the quarter system, according to Barrett.

Over 90 percent of colleges and univer-sities nationwide are currently on the se-mester system and roughly 70 percent of CSUEB students are not native to the East Bay campus, meaning that they have trans-ferred from a different school, according to the Framework. Of the 112 California Com-munity Colleges, 109 are on the semester system, according to the semester conver-sion website.