Laura Pezzini
lpezzini@mustangdaily.net
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong met with California State University (CSU) Chancellor Timothy White last Wednesday, but no substantial ground was covered on the issue of semester conversion as had previously been expected.
“They met last week, and what President Armstrong told his executive staff was that he had a very good meeting with the chancellor,” Director of Communications Chip Visci said. “They talked about a variety of issues, but it was not an in-depth conversation about semesters.”
This meeting occurred after the Semester Review Task Force’s and the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) student advisory vote results showed a strong preference for staying on quarters at Cal Poly. Further conversation on the controversial topic has been delayed until Armstrong and White can meet later this month, according to Visci.
“They agreed that they need to have a more in-depth conversation and they plan to do that this month,” Visci said.
Visci said Armstrong’s meeting with White covered various other topics, including issues of budget and graduation rates.
CSU Public Affairs confirmed that although discussions are ongoing regarding semester conversion, there is no specific plan of action to convert any or all universities on the quarter system yet.
“It wasn’t discussed in that meeting, and there hasn’t been a timeline laid out yet because it is an ongoing discussion between the presidents and the chancellor,” Public Affairs Assistant Liz Chapin said.
According to CSU Media Relations Specialist Erik Fallis, in the context of the CSU, the issue of semester conversion is still in the discussion stage.
“No recommendation has come forward as to whether or when there will be a change,” Fallis said. “There are no sort of imminent decisions to convert any of the campuses. They’re looking at all the steps and what resources would be needed to make it happen.”
Fallis said the issue has been discussed within the CSU for years and has not yet reached a boiling point where any specific action is imminent.
“It’s something that’s been discussed for decades, and especially over the past few years the presidents have talked about it,” Fallis said. “Conversations have been going on for quite a while and they will continue to go on. There’s no particular timeline and no particular dates.”
Though the consensus from Cal Poly via the task force and the student advisory vote has been strongly in favor of quarters, Armstrong has not yet voiced his decision. In contrast, White has said he is in support of all CSU schools being on the semester system, though he has not given a formal recommendation.
“His opinion of it is that he believes there are several advantages to having all of the campuses on one system,” Fallis said of White’s mindset. “That’s clearly his opinion and what he believes from a policy perspective, but that doesn’t answer all the questions we have.”
The CSU also has five other campuses that would need to think about converting.
“We’re not at the point where we’re talking details of any conversion plans,” Fallis said when asked whether the CSU was planning to take an all-or-nothing approach to converting the campuses that are currently using the quarter system. “All of the campuses are discussing it and all the presidents are on a task force.”
According to Fallis, these preliminary discussions mainly take stock of why semester conversion would be beneficial or detrimental to the campuses as a whole.
“What we’re doing right now is just talking about what would be entailed, what would be required, how would it work and if we even need to do it,” Fallis said.