Though many students choose to spend their summers basking under the sun on beautiful beaches in far-off places, some choose to shorten their time at UB by taking on summer classes.
???This year, UB is offering extra facilities in order to attract more students to the summer sessions. This will help in relieving some of the pressure for seats in impacted courses during the fall and spring semesters. A broad range of general education courses that often fill up during the fall and spring semesters are being offered.
???"We are offering about 250 classes this summer, which is 50 more than last summer," said Jeri Jaeger, associate dean for the College of Arts and Science and linguistics professor.
???One of the motivations for offering expanded summer sessions is that there are so many essential courses at UB that are jam-packed during the spring and fall semesters. Jaeger said that many students that enroll in these courses are repeating the class, which prevents other students from taking the courses that they need for their intended majors.
???There will be classes available for students, who are concentrating on any focus. The university will be advertising to UB and non-UB students as well as high school students and Western New York residents in general, according to Jaeger.
???"The tuition from these courses will go to UB directly, rather than being sent to Albany" Jaeger said.
???Jaeger believes that the summer atmosphere is in some ways more relaxed than the regular academic year.
???If a student has had difficulty with a particular course they can sign up for just that one course and can concentrate on doing well without vying for time amongst other courses. Students' grades for summer courses are higher overall than during the regular academic year, according to Jaeger.
???"Students can sign up for courses they need for their major-both prerequisite and required course-in the summer to get a head start on their studies or get caught up if they have fallen behind," Jaeger said. "This will help students to stay on track with their studies and be able to graduate in four years."
???Summer is a great time to take care of general education courses, especially World Civilization and American Pluralism, according to Jaeger.
???Jaeger believes that the summer courses offered at UB are comparatively more affordable than that of other universities like Canisius.
???"UB's in-state summer tuition is $240 per credit, so for many students it is no more expensive than tuition and fees during the regular school year. UB's summer tuition is the same as all other SUNY Universities, so a student wouldn't save money by taking the course at another SUNY University" Jaeger said. "If you take summer classes at UB you are getting the usual SUNY bargain: outstanding world-class faculty teaching a broad variety of stimulating courses at a major research university, for a fraction of the cost of a private university."
???The summer session includes a large number of interesting and mind-expanding courses, some of which are new and some of which haven't been regularly taught in the summer, according to Jaeger.
???"Since our facilities are available and underutilized during the summer, it is a better use of our resources to spread them throughout the year," Jaeger said.
???Some of the courses which students may find to be of interest are History of the New World, Forensic Anthropology, Politics Abroad, Sociology of Gender, Basic Acting, Introduction to Photography, Chinese Cinema, History of Jazz, Summer Band, Media and Gender, World Music, Modern Dance, Indian Image on Film and many more.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
