Semesters make sense

Re “Cal State L.A. may switch to semesters,” March 25

I was on the Cal State L.A. faculty from 1958 to 1992, and taught under both quarter and semester calendars. For six years, I served as a dean responsible for undergraduate curriculum management.

With a 10-week quarter system, there is a lag in mastery, and students run out of time to catch up. It borders on sadism to subject students to a midterm in five weeks. Term papers, if assignable at all, are superficial.

There is a further problem with a quarter-system curriculum. Community colleges, with rare exceptions, are on semesters. Course content doesn’t align in many fields -- especially those in which subject matter is developed serially, such as math, engineering and most sciences.

Despite the superficial attractiveness of quick, in-and-out quarter-length courses, students are better served by the pace and continuity offered by semesters.

Frieda A. Stahl

Pasadena