It was announced a couple of weeks ago that January Term is going to be required for the students who will be entering Linfield College next year.
This will help the Linfield community come together more and give students the chance to become more academically secure.
Normally when Jan Term would come around, Linfield is a ghost town. Fewer than half of the students are on campus and it’s normally too cold to go outside willingly, so not a single student will be walking around.
When the rule takes effect next year, the Linfield community will come back too.
Now, when there is a basketball game or a concert in Ice people will actually show up which hasn’t happened in years. Before, even if everyone did show up that did Jan Term it would only fill up half of the courts.
Now that every student will be required to take Jan Term, student sections will be louder and student activities will be more full.
Another great thing about the Jan Term ruling is that students wont have to deal with the awkward lag between Christmas break and the spring semester.
Two months is too long of a time in the middle of the academic year. The summer break is an expected break that people can plan other classes to take or have a job. This winter break is at a weird time, because no company will give someone a job during this time and no other college does a break like this so you can’t add more credits at another college.
So now that people are going to be here for all of Jan Term, they won’t have the weird lag in their academic calendar.
This will also give students the chance to take classes that are only offered during the short semester. There are classes such as “Economics of Star Trek” with professor Randy Grant and a InDesign class in the mass communication department that aren’t offered at any other time.
There are also classes that are basic requirements for different majors that in Jan Term students are able to take in just a month.
This is really helpful if a student is falling behind in credits or decided to change their major during their sophomore year.
They are able to catch up in a beginner class without having to waste a whole semester.
Overall, the changes to the January Term requirements will help the Linfield community come together in a normally dull period and provide students with the chance to go farther with their academics.