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College in summer

The state's public universities are busy this time of year as many students opt for a slower pace, to get ahead or to graduate on time.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published July 24, 2006

	[Times photo: Melissa Lyttle]
	USF junior Casey Van Vaerenbergh, 21, of New Tampa is one of hundreds of students who sought a place in the library last week to study for final exams. Van Vaerenbergh, a marketing and management major, is taking two classes during the summer session.

TAMPA - By 8:30 a.m., cars are filling the parking lot at the University of South Florida library. There is a line at the campus Starbucks, and a few students, who already bought their iced coffees, study nearby. At lunchtime, their chatter fills the student lounge in the Marshall Center.

"It gets packed in there," says 20-year-old Monica Calderon, who is taking a course this summer. "I go in there to take a nap, but it's too loud."

So much for the lazy days of summer.

More than 176,000 students are enrolled this summer in Florida's 11 public universities - a record number. USF, the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida each have summer enrollments topping 27,000 students. That's more than most U.S. colleges have in the fall, when student numbers traditionally peak.

Many factors are fueling the summer surge, chief among them the bloated state of overall enrollment. There are about 290,000 university students in Florida. Under state law, each must earn at least nine summer credits before they can receive a bachelor's degree.

Some are nontraditional students who spread their classes throughout the year to accommodate family and work schedules. Others take summer courses because they like the slower pace, or because they want to graduate as soon as possible.

University officials aren't as interested in the reasons as they are the possibilities. Facing the prospect of an additional 46,000 students by 2010, they see summer enrollment as one option for dealing with all those bodies.

"If you get more people taking classes year-round, in theory it leads to them graduating more quickly," says John Barnhill, director of admissions at Florida State University. "And that opens up a space for the next student."

Administrators also like the efficiency of using classrooms year-round.

"Universities have the capacity in the summer," says Terry Hickey, the provost at UCF.

But there are challenges. The Bright Futures scholarship, which covers tuition for Florida residents who have high GPA's and test scores, can only be used in fall and spring.

"It's almost a disincentive to summer enrollment," Barnhill says. "Why pay for a class when you can get it in the fall or spring for free? If you opened that up to summer, I think we'd see even more dramatic enrollment."

University system chancellor Mark Rosenberg says the biggest roadblock to further expanding summer enrollment is paying the instructors.

Most faculty work on nine-month contracts. They get paid extra to work through the summers.

"Right now, we are barely funded for nine months," Rosenberg says. "Our message to the state is, give us the funds. Let us show you we can produce results. Those enrollment figures show, if we put the classes up, students will show up."

C.J. Rosa, 21, wants to go to medical school. He is entering his senior year at USF. He takes "at least" 18 credits every fall and spring semester, plus classes every summer.

Last week, he sat at a table inside Starbucks, poring over notes for a summer class that will help him get his bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences that much sooner.

"I guess everyone's just trying to get an edge," says Rosa of Fort Lauderdale. "It's not as quiet here as the first year I did summer classes."

At the state's largest universities - USF, UF, FSU and UCF - summer enrollment is still only about half what it is in the fall and spring. That means parking spots are easier to find and popular eating spots near campus have empty tables.

But especially in college towns like Gainesville, life in the summer is a lot more alive than it used to be.

Janet Akerson remembers her first summer running Burrito Bros., a 30-year-old Gainesville institution.

"I sat at the counter and read War and Peace," she says. "It was really slow. Now we notice an increase when the students come for Summer B."

FSU's Barnhill says his college enrolls freshmen in the summer partly out of necessity.

"If I want to start 6,000 students in the freshman class, I can't have enough English classes to start it all in one semester. So we spread it out."

USF has 35 percent more freshmen enrolled this summer than last, according to vice provost Ralph Wilcox.

"This is part of a very deliberate strategy as we've recruited more first-generation, low-income students," Wilcox says. "The idea is that these students can get a head start by coming in over the summer and getting some intense instruction and attention."

Still, most of the state's summer enrollment is graduate students and older undergraduates like USF's Calderon.

She enrolled in "Issues in Feminism" this summer to raise her GPA. She has friends who take as many as 15 credits over the summer.

"There was a point in time when the last thing a student wanted to do was spend summer in a classroom," Barnhill says. "We've seen a breakdown in that reticence."

He sees more students renting apartments year-round. Why not take a class in summer, they figure, since they're in town anyway?

"It used to be people tried to delay graduation," Barnhill says. "I'm sure that's still true for some. But now you see more of them trying to finish as soon as they can."

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3403 or svansickler@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 24, 2006, 05:15:29]