A newly formed team of Undergraduate Council of Students members is currently drafting a proposal to establish basic components of a potential winter session. Members of the team, headed by Tristan Freeman '07, chair of UCS's Academic and Administrative Affairs Committee, hope the proposal will ultimately lead to more concrete plans that could be quickly finalized and enacted.
Zachary Townsend '08, vice president of UCS, told The Herald two weeks ago he expected the proposal to be completed soon after spring break.
In a meeting with several UCS leaders last month, President Ruth Simmons indicated the University would support the development of winter session offerings, thereby inviting further discussion of the issue.
Members of the committee said they hope a pilot program will be available to a limited number of students next January to test initial offerings for a winter session. If successful, they presume such a program could be put in effect that would be available to the entire student body every year.
David Greene, vice president for campus life and student services, gave The Herald a list of possible winter session activities, such as travel opportunities, courses for academic credit, non-credit-bearing courses or extracurricular activities like internships, community involvement, service learning through the Swearer Center for Public Service or research experience.
Both Freeman and Townsend said the committee has closely researched the J-Term currently available at Smith College. Committee members are particularly interested in that program because of Simmons' involvement in its development during her time as president of the Northampton, Mass., college.
Smith's J-Term is a three-week long program that offers non-credit courses for which students, faculty, staff and area residents submit proposals throughout the year. In the past, Smith has offered courses such as knitting, fine arts, electron microscopy, Korean cooking and mask-making.
For now, it seems Freeman and other UCS members are exploring more traditional programs for academic credit, but the specifics have yet to be finalized.
Freeman also said conversations with friends and other students on campus have led him to believe undergraduates are generally in favor of a winter session, adding that he can think of very few drawbacks to such a program.
One obstacle, however, might be a financial burden to the University to develop the program as well as fees students will have to pay to participate, Townsend said.
Factors going into the cost will mainly consist of housing, dining and payments to faculty for what Freeman presumes would be a three-week program. UCS is attempting to find cost-effective solutions to address these issues in order to make a winter session a reality.
According to Greene, the initial idea to develop some sort of winter program stemmed from a number of concerns raised by students and parents alike.
"The winter intersession feels like it's too long to just be at home to unwind and too short to get a job or have some other meaningful experience," Greene said.
Freeman echoed this sentiment, saying Brown offers such a unique environment that students would like to take advantage of for more than eight months each year.
