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What Every President and Every Chief Academic Officer Should Know about College and University Summer Sessions—Redux

Authors
  • Loy Lytle (Dean and Professor Emeritus University of California, Santa Barbara)
  • William Kops (Professor, Extended Education University of Manitoba, Winnipeg)

Abstract

Using as a framework a paper titled “What Every President and Every Chief Academic Officer Should Know about College and University Summer Sessions”(based on a 1997 North American Association of Summer Sessions conference presentation by Ronald Wasserstein), we explore the extent to which research findings over the intervening 24 years support or question Wasserstein’s views. Topics include summer term organizational structures and administrative oversight, serving academic needs of students, instructional contributions and benefits of faculty, and the relationship of the summer term to the mission and goals of institutions. As well, we comment on Wasserstein’s arguments encouraging the alignment of the summer term with the rest of the academic year and recommending membership in professional associations to support the functions of nascent and established summer term offices. Finally, and understandably not part of Wasserstein’s discussion, we offer a perspective on the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and will affect the role of the summer term within universities and colleges.

How to Cite:

Lytle, L. & Kops, W., (2021) “What Every President and Every Chief Academic Officer Should Know about College and University Summer Sessions—Redux”, Summer Academe: A Journal of Higher Education 14. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/sa.121

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Published on
27 May 2021
Peer Reviewed