Why?

Why?

If you go to the Bunche Hall side of UCLA's sculpture garden on north campus, you will find one piece entitled "Why?". It's a good segue to the ongoing plan to convert the UC campuses that are on the quarter system to semesters. 

As we noted in an earlier post, UC was once on a semester system but with the baby boomers looming in the 1960s, it was thought that a four-quarter system, i.e., year-round operation, could accommodate the expected influx of boomers with less capital expenditure. It turned out that the boomers didn't want to spend their summers on campus so the original goal was not satisfied. But by then, the campuses had already paid the steep price of converting every class and every program to three quarters.

Now there is an push to do what Berkeley did and pay another steep price of converting back to semesters. (Merced, as a new campus, was created on a semester basis.) So the question is Why?

And there is a sub-question. What is the advantage of having all campuses on the same system since they are separate institutions?

Back in the 19th century, railroads that went east-west had a problem. In order for telegraphers to monitor and control the system, there needed to be a standardized time system. You don't have to go very far east or west before solar noon, and thus local time, varied. What would it mean to say the train is arriving at 3 pm if no one agreed when 3 pm occurred? So the railroads divided the country into four time zones, more or less the zones we have today, and decreed that 3 pm meant 3 pm railroad time. Because there was one transportation system that had to be coordinated, there had to be one time system.

So that bit of history leads to a suspicion. Why is UC-systemwide pushing for all campuses to have the same calendar unless, like the railroads, it wants them to operate as a single educational system without the current campus autonomy? And why take away autonomy? The only reason yours truly can come up with - apart from a power grab - is online education. There is always the dream of fewer courses, fewer programs, etc., if the whole UC system was condensed into a single institution.

The various campus faculty associations have raised concerns about the current plan to convert to semesters systemwide.* But the fundamental question is "Why?"

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*https://cucfa.org/2025/02/concern-regarding-the-apcs-common-systemwide-calendar-work/.