Reporter

Since the campus opened, CSU Bakersfield has used the quarter system, but starting Fall 2016, we made the transition to use the semester system. With the new semester system, some classes have become shorter, making both staff and student struggle to adjust.

Coming from College of Sequoias (CoS) that already used the semester system, classes that were two times a week were usually one hour 50 minutes not including lab times and classes that were held every weekday were about 50 minutes.

Though I am new to the CSU system, I am already used to the semester system because I came from four years at CoS.

Professors used to give out more homework and classes were faster paced due to the 10 week limit associated with quarters. With CSUB now using the semester system that I was generally used to, it does feel like there are loads more work than was common in classes in the quarter system.

I believe some professors are having a hard time adapting to the shorter class times that came with the semester system and still give out a large amount of work.

One of my classes wanted students to read a full novel by the end of a week. Most students have quite a bit of work from other classes, so I think toning the workload of students down a bit to compensate for the extended time of the semester system would help.

However, instead of toning some of the work down, I believe some professors are still using most of the work they were used to giving during the quarter system.

I know this because a friend of mine recently graduated from CSUB. After seeing my own workload, she has told me that the amount of work given still seems to be the same as what the quarter system gave.

One way I think professors can help ease the student’s stress is to create more reasonable deadlines for work and learn to give a certain amount of work per week that stretches out for the entire semester.

I understand that there are professors who have worked with the quarter system for many years and are only now having to change how they teach now that the quarter system is gone. It sucks sure, but semesters are something that you can handle.

I’m still adjusting to how a university works, so I can sympathize with other students who are struggling with this new system. I am positive that once everyone becomes used to how the semester system works, it will be much easier to adapt to in the future.

Although for some, the semester is the worst, but just hang in there and everything will be okay. It takes time for both students and professors to adjust, just have faith in yourself and succeed!

And for those of you who think that semesters suck, you are right! But it is here to stay and you just have to buckle up and learn how to adjust to it. No one ever said it was going to be easy.