University summer semester different

PNT Staff Writer

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After only three short weeks of calm, Eastern New Mexico University faculty, staff and students will already be headed back to the grind on June 3 for the beginning of the summer semester.

The summer semester consists of two four-week sessions as well as an eight-week session, but all the classes are the same as the spring and fall semesters.

ENMU Vice President of Academic Affairs Jamie Laurenz said the hardest part about these classes is the pacing.

“It is the same courses condensed into half the time, so the students have to spend several hours every day working on their classes,” said Math Professor Joan Brown.

Opal Greer, an English teacher who is teaching over the summer, said summer classes are important, because they allow students to finish classes quickly.

“They allow students to finish faster, which is really important in a time when financial aid is distributed really tightly,” said Greer.

There is no federal financial help, however, for students taking classes in the summer, according to Laurenz.

He said in 2011 the federal government rescinded those options, but ENMU does offer in-state tuition for all students for summer classes. Their tuition is the same otherwise.

Laurenz said another spring-to-summer difference is the number of graduate students compared to undergraduate students.

Altogether, there are currently 1,778 students enrolled for the summer courses with over 800 of them being graduate students, according to Clark Elswick, ENMU vice president for technology.

In the spring, there are 3,000 more undergraduate students than graduate students but in the summer that difference shrinks to only about 175, according to Elswick.

Laurenz said, the other major difference between the summer semester and the spring/fall semesters is the ratio of online classes to face-to-face classes.

Brown is teaching two online math courses and said the key to the summer semester is staying ahead.

“I make sure that all the stuff they are going to need is ready and available for the students as early as I can,” said Brown.