Conversion Cost Shock

We have posted in the past about plans at systemwide to convert UC to a common calendar - presumably featuring semesters rather than quarters. (Use the search option on this blog and search for "common calendar.") In the past, the official UCOP line was this is just an idea - nothing to see here. But the just-an-idea seems to persist. And there are big one-time costs being estimated at a time when UC is experiencing budget pressures. From the Bruin: 

UC is considering transitioning all its campuses to a common semester calendar – but some faculty members are concerned about costs, workload and a lack of staff input. The proposal is being developed by the Academic Planning Council Workgroup, a group formed by UC Executive Vice President and Provost Katherine Newman and UC Academic Senate Chair Steven Cheung. The APC workgroup consists of 28 members – including members of the Academic Senate, administrators and students across the UC system – and is researching the implications of a calendar change. The APC workgroup began to research the logistics of a potential calendar shift last fall and released a 20-page summary report for community feedback.*

A UC Office of the President spokesperson said in an emailed statement that semester systems are the standard across the country and added that a shift to this system would better align the UC with California community colleges, California State University and universities within the Association of American Universities. He also said the UC is still in the process of exploring this change. “Converting to a common semester calendar would also simplify transfer from community colleges to UC, support cross-campus enrollment, and could create better internship pathways for students and new research and collaboration opportunities for faculty,” the spokesperson said in the statement.

...Transitioning the seven campuses from the quarter system to the semester system is estimated to cost between $290 and $370 million, according to the APC workgroup report...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2025/06/02/professors-express-concerns-about-proposal-for-uc-wide-semester-switch.

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Below are the estimated costs of converting all campuses to a common calendar based on semesters. Some costs are attributed to Berkeley and Merced, the campuses already on semesters, to adjust them to the common calendar for all of UC.

Note: UC-San Francisco is not part of the plan.

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*https://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/content-analysis/academic-planning/draft-apc-common-calendar-workgroup-report-for-community-input.pdf. The table above comes from this document.