By Nicolas Rontanini
Every summer from June to August, Adelphi offers students the opportunity to enroll in summer courses--and students seem to be taking advantage of it. This past summer 2,245 students enrolled in 412 course sections or 258 unique courses, according to Raymond Galinski, assistant provost in the Office of Academic Research, Assessment and Accreditation. He added that the 2020 summer enrollment was up significantly, 2,719 compared to 2,203 in 2019, largely due to the unique issues surrounding the spring 2020 pandemic shutdown.
But even without that unforeseen situation, Adelphi students seem to be increasingly aware of the advantages of taking classes during the summer.
“Students could catch up or get ahead during a summer when so many other options were not as accessible,” said Galinski.
Students take these courses for different reasons, whether it be for credit, to fulfill an academic requirement or to take classes that may prove difficult during the semester. According to the university’s website, the scheduling for these classes is flexible, allowing students to pick classes that interest them. Some students seem to enjoy the flexibility.
“I wanted to take two. I even was thinking about asynchronous stuff. That’s why I took the History of Jazz after 1950,” said Michael Caramico, a rising graduate student majoring in Information Systems. “If I had a second class it would still work in the grand scheme of my schedule and everything. Adelphi usually for the most part does offer very flexible schedules.”
Adelphi also offers different options for how classes are held with in-person, hybrid and online options, similar to the spring semester.
“If they have to stay on campus for some reason or another, they don’t have to pay a ton of money to take a plane trip back to their home, and pay more money to take an online class,” Caramico said.
In addition, the university provides student support, even with online classes, like asynchronous ones, in which students and professors have utilized email to communicate about assignments.
“In particular, I use the Moodle email to connect with students outside of our regular Zoom sessions,” said Paul Thaler, a communications professor who this summer taught Newspaper Feature Writing. “These ‘updates’ serve as reminders since students are also working independently during the week. They, in turn, also reach out to me through email.”
Adelphi’s summer classes have their advantages for students. They are able to receive support from the professor and tailor the schedule to fit their needs. It’s a good opportunity for students to fulfill academic requirements. Working during the summer and trying to balance summer courses can be stressful, however.
Dakota Whitaker, a rising senior, took an art history class to fulfill an education requirement. She said that taking a summer course and working at the same time can make a class difficult.
“It wasn’t fun. The lessons were long as is, and plentiful in number,” Whitaker said. “Now throw most afternoons to work and things get more annoying. If it wasn’t for work, things would be different, I imagine. But both at once is not a fun time. Even just in previous years, I would never take a summer class unless there was an absolute necessity.”
Summer courses do have advantages to them, but the choice of whether to take them is yours. Hopefully next summer, Covid-19 won't be part of the decision-making process.