By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
With only about 350 students enrolled in classes on campus, a visitor would be forgiven for thinking the Bowling Green State University is on break.
But on Wednesday BGSU welcomed the new calendar year with the newest twist in its calendar, winter session.
Despite appearances the new short session has exceeded enrollment expectations. Assistant Vice Provost Paul Cesarini said based on other schools’ experiences with a winter session, the university expected 600-700 students to enroll. Instead the final number came in at 1,076. “It’s going really well. We didn’t know what to expect going in,” he said. Those students just aren’t in Bowling Green.
They may be off in China or New Zealand or other foreign and domestic locations on study abroad trips. Or they may just be at home in their pajamas catching up on a course or getting ahead through an online class.
Cesarini said the face-to-face classes were always expected to be a small part of the session’s academic package. “That is not a bad thing.” The expectation was never that a lot of students would spend the session on campus.
Graduate students also are using the break to work on their dissertations.
Betsy Winters, eCampus program coordinator, said that courses that fill the BG Perspective requirement are the most popular. Those include writing and math, and a number of other disciplines. An Italian course attracted enough students to be offered, she noted. It fulfills two BG Perspective requirements.
While a number of courses were proposed, many were not offered because too few students expressed interest.
About 700 students are taking online classes during the session. Overall, junior and seniors represent more than 60 percent of the students enrolled during winter session.
Not every course is conducive to being offered in the shorter winter session window, Cesarini said. That would be true for lab-based science courses, he said.
Students had about a dozen study abroad opportunities. Those included studying marine and aquatic sciences in Curacao, architecture and
design in Spain, art and the environment in New
Zealand, and culture and mathematics in China. In all, 116 students are participating in study abroad.
While Cesarini is hesitant to gaze into the future, he expects the growth in winter session will be in online learning and experiential learning, which includes domestic and international travel as well as practicums, and field experience.
When the change was proposed administrators said the longer break in January will give students who elect not to enroll for winter session course more time to work.
He noted a couple new study abroad trips are already well on their way through the system to be approved for winter session, 2020.
He said it is important winter session study abroad opportunities do not duplicate and compete with those offered in the summer.
The eating options on campus reflect the dearth of people. The Nest Food Court in the student union is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Also Starbucks is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Dunkin Donuts is open daily 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. All accept cash, credit cards, BG Bucks and Falcon Dollars.
Figures provided mid-week said 14 students had inquired about housing on campus during winter session.
BGSU added the winter session so its calendar aligned better with other higher education institutions.
The change also meant that the fall and spring semesters went from a 16-week to a 15-week schedule.
