Students adjust to summer sessions

Three days. 72 precious hours of freedom. That's all summer session I students and professors have between finishing a grueling week of finals and starting a new assortment of classes.\nDespite the rapid turnaround, summer session I still has higher enrollment than session II, according to Monica Halcomb, who works with the data management department at the Registrar's Office. Both sessions offer a variety of classes and provide students with an opportunity to catch up, get ahead, or retake classes to improve their grades. \n"Summer school is good because you can get classes done and out of the way in a short amount of time," said sophomore Reese Shulman. \nShulman is taking some of his required courses over the summer so he won't have to deal with them during the school year.\nSummer classes also allow students to focus on fewer classes at a time during a less hectic time of year.\nJunior Sarah Moravec, a theater and drama major, is taking a lighting class over the summer because it is an intensive class that consumes a lot of time outside the classroom.\n"I spent 62 extra hours outside class for my previous [theater] tech class," she said. "I wanted to take my last tech class when I didn't have so much going on."\nJunior Mike Gurrieri, an education major, found himself in a similar situation.\n"I was going to take [classroom management] last semester but I already had too many credit hours," he said. "I decided to take it over the summer because it would be easier." \nElaine Rivron, a professor in the School of Optometry, enjoys summer school because it is more informal. \n"In many ways it's more fun," she said. "There's a smaller group and I get to know students faster. There's still a feeling of summer."\nRivron, however, recognizes summer school can be challenging for students.\n"The courses are very intensive, which makes it hard for students to do all the readings," she said.\nFor students, the negatives of summer school are just as varied as the positives. Moravec doesn't like the fact that there is so little time to regroup after finals and prepare for summer classes.\n"I feel like I don't have a break after all that studying because I have to move out of [my sorority] and into an apartment," she said.\nShulman, however, likes starting immediately after the spring semester finishes.\n"If we wait a couple weeks to start [summer school], that doesn't give us time to get a job or do anything," he said. \nInstead, Shulman sees the setback to summer school as not being able to do other things.\n"You could be getting a job and making money or doing something more enjoyable," he said.\nGurrieri has a different complaint. He doesn't like staying on campus after all of his friends leave.\n"The hard part is seeing people leave and knowing you're still stuck here for another six weeks or the whole summer," he said. "Campus is empty and lonely. It's like a ghost town"