Show LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Editor For the past three or four years a standard topic for editorials in the Chronicle has been the condemnation of the present quarter system of dividing the school year at the University of I have read half a dozen articles singing the praises of the semester It is about time someone came to the defense of our quarter Advocates of the semester system refer to the quarter system as and ask that the university step with the progress of other hy adopting the semester Yet the quarter system is the newer and was introduced at the University of a recognized leader in progressive to do away with the outmoded semester The idea spread to such universities as Ohio Stanford and the University of Perhaps the chief argument used by the is that the quarter system breaks the school year into three terms of such short duration that the student changes classes just as he is getting acquainted with the instructor and the subject matter of the in my opinion a student can get hotter acquainted in a more intensive than in a class meeting only a few times a week for a longer a class continues throughout a the student may got the same instruction by cither method with the exception of test Most students would welcome the opportunity to change instructors at the more frequent Under the quarter system a student has the opportunity of taking a course to see if he likes that type of and then changing to an other class at the end of a shorter time if he This advantage is particularly appreciated by lower division students who are in the different groups of lower division These students constitute a large part of the student body at the University of The quarter system also permits large numbers of Utah students who work on farms or in businesses to attend who might otherwise be unable to do Farm boys may be required to spend the spring with planting or the fall with Under the semester system they would be forced to miss half of the entire year for either of these Perhaps the chief advantage of the quarter system is that it makes possible the summer Then students who wish may take courses in summer and receive credit which is compatible with regular session Most schools using the semester system are forced to give credit for summer work in quarter hours rather than semester This practice leads to a great deal of In the opinion of the present writer the many advantages of the quarter system justify its retention at the of Earl |