INTERTERM DISCUSSIONS REPORT 2010-11
Interterm has been the subject of several conversations during the 2010-11 academic year; it is
part of the larger discussion relating to the general education program as well. The information
below, prepared by Kim Jarvis, Director of Interterm, is intended to be a summary of the issues
raised during these conservations. Conversations about Interterm, and about the General
Education program, will continue during the 2011-12 academic year.
At the end of this report current Statement of Policy in Interterm and several articles relating to
Interterm. The articles are briefly explained in section II, no. 2.
I. Current focus of the Interterm program (from the 2004 Statement of Policy in Interterm,
revised April 2011; the complete statement is on page 4 of this document):
 Interterm is an integral portion of the academic program.
 An interterm course (ITM prefixed) is defined as an intensive study of a particular
subject. It may be in a recognized academic area and may be experiential in nature. It
should not be a regular catalog course. The amount of work involved must be equivalent
to a three-credit course.
 Interterm courses are meant to be extensions, not repetitions, of the regular curriculum.
As such they should provide a change of pace, a range of new dimensions, for Doane
students.
 Interterm courses should be integrative and/or experiential. They may be integrative in
breadth by cutting across traditional lines or divisions of knowledge to focus on
significant topics or works, or in depth by pursuing specialized topics within a given
discipline. They may be experiential in the sense of involving students directly in the
applications of theory to practice in subject areas and settings not normally available
through fall or spring term courses.
II. Current questions for discussion: The discussions focused on the primary questions of should
Interterm be retained and, if so, what form should it take? The four questions below come from
the February Conversations with Colleagues meeting and were presented to the Interterm
Committee for discussion. The responses come from three additional discussions: the Fall 2010
Faculty Forum discussion about Interterm; the April 2011 Interterm Committee discussion;
Interterm articles from The Owl; the Senior Honors project about cultural diversity at Doane.
1. What kind of courses and learning experiences in the term would fit best with the
college-wide mission learning outcomes? (Note: this question will continue to be a focus of the
Fall 2011 discussions; this question did not figure as prominently in the 2010-11 discussions.)
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Travel courses should remain (maybe be limited to May?) as they provide students with
valuable short-term domestic and international travel experiences. If the January oncampus Interterm session is eliminated or modified, find some way to integrate shortterm travel experiences into general education curriculum, maybe in Cultural
Perspectives or Liberal Learning aspects of current Doane Plan.
Make Interterm optional for students and faculty, offering January and May courses for
travel and research only, with an emphasis on selectivity for research courses.
2. What unique role does Interterm serve, if any?
Doane students are generally in support of maintaining Interterm as it currently is. Students have
indicated a variety of reasons for their support. An editorial in the January 27, 2011 edition of
The Owl (see page 5, below) indicated that “Interterm has always help a special place in the
hearts and minds of Doane students…[T]hese three weeks allow students to expand their
knowledge beyond their typical Doane Plan or major classes. We appreciate the laid-back
format of the education we are obtaining and we appreciate the subjects of these classes.
Changing Interterm to incorporate a more traditional or Doane Plan curriculum would ruin the
term we enjoy most.”
This year’s Senior Honors project (“The Doane Experience: Exploring Diverse Opportunities of
the Crete Campus”) surveyed students about issues of cultural diversity at Doane; Interterm was
a focus of a few of the survey questions. Of the 255 students who responded to the survey, 46%
indicated that they would use their travel scholarship for an international Interterm travel course
(8% indicated that they would use their scholarship for a travel course within the United States).
Of the 61 students surveyed who had already used their travel scholarships, 67% indicated that
they used their travel scholarship for a U.S.-based or international Interterm travel course and
96% of those 61 students agreed that their Interterm travel experiences increased their cultural
understanding over classroom experience alone (pgs. 20-28, Appendix B, questions 6-9).
Included with this Interterm report are several articles that speak to the unique nature of
Interterm at Doane and elsewhere. The three Doane articles (pages 5 and 6) appeared in the
January 27, 2011 edition of The Owl and are in support of the current Interterm program. The
next article (page 7), which was cited in the Senior Honors project, is from Nebraska Wesleyan’s
student newspaper; Nebraska Wesleyan does not currently have an Interterm session. Two
articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education are included as well. The first (pages 7-9),
focuses on the benefits of short-term study abroad programs (defined as four weeks or less),
while the second (pages 9-11) indicates that the current focus of the programs mentioned in the
article are similar to Doane’s current Interterm program: “On some campuses, the January
term—also known as winter term, interim, or winterim—is an opportunity for students to take a
credit-bearing reprieve from the usual rigors of academe.” (http://chronicle.com/article/Half-a-Century-AfterThey/126043/)
3. Should there be more flexibility in the kinds of courses offered? In the number of
interterm courses required?
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If the January on-campus Interterm session is eliminated or modified, Interterm travel
courses could be integrated into the general education curriculum, maybe in the Cultural
Perspectives or Liberal Learning aspects of current Doane Plan.
Offer option of a 10 day travel course, to allow for more affordable travel options for
students. Currently, the travel scholarship may only be used for a travel course of at least
14 days, so this would necessitate a change of policy discussion about the travel
scholarship requirements. It might also be time to raise the travel scholarship amount,
since travel costs have rise fairly significantly during the past few years. Travel courses
of 14 days or more would still be allowed.
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Reduce the number of required Interterm courses. Currently, 9 of the 56 Doane Plan
credits required for graduation are Interterm credits. Reducing the number of required
Interterm credits could help with faculty scheduling as well. Several faculty are released
from teaching Interterm because of other commitments. As a result of fewer faculty
teaching on-campus courses, some courses can have as many as 35 students enrolled (25
students should be the maximum enrollment, according to Interterm policy).
Graded on-campus Interterm courses have sometimes been promoted as a way to help
raise student GPAs, particularly for those students on academic probation or in danger of
suspension after the Fall semester. These students, particularly first-year students, might
benefit from a required Interterm course designed to build a range of skills necessary for
them to improve their future academic performance.
Allow regular semester courses to be taught during the January on-campus Interterm
session (currently this is not allowed). This might mean extending the hours during
which Interterm courses meet (currently 2 hours 45 minutes per day, 5 day a week) to
accommodate more intensive courses. Anecdotal evidence indicates that some colleges
have added January sessions which focus only on regular catalog courses, in the interest
of helping students graduate on time or have the chance to make up a course that they
have failed during the Fall semester.
4. Are there ways to increase the consistency of academic challenge?
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Have all students meet certain common requirements during the Interterm session (course
specific writing or reading requirements; attendances at performances or speaker
presentations), following the example of LAR courses.
Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their Interterm experiences. If the January
on-campus session of Interterm remains as it is, establish an end-of-Interterm symposium
modeled on Mind Expo where students would offer presentations about their Interterm
projects. This would help students to become more aware of each other’s work, providing
a more academic and interdisciplinary focus to the on-campus Interterm experience.
Provide a (required) opportunity for students to reflect on their travel experiences after
they’ve returned. This could be in writing, perhaps based upon the journals most students
keep while traveling, or in a presentation of some sort, perhaps a symposium like the one
suggested for on-campus course projects.
Offer interdisciplinary team-taught Interterm courses (would require significant faculty
development time).
III. Fall 2011 discussions
Information from the General Education Task Force retreat in June will be forwarded to the
Interterm Committee for consideration and discussion. Any future changes to Interterm will
most likely affect the following, which should be a part of the discussions at some point in time:
changes to the academic calendar and to faculty workload and compensation; winter athletic
programs schedules; Residential Life; Sodexho’s schedule and contract.
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DOANE COLLEGE
November 18, 2004; modified April 12, 2011
Statement of Policy on Interterm
1. Interterm is an integral portion of the academic program.
2. There will be an Interterm Committee composed of faculty and students. This committee
will create policy and evaluate all interterm proposals. The committee will provide
guidelines for creation of all courses.
3. An interterm course (ITM prefixed) is defined as an intensive study of a particular subject. It
may be in a recognized academic area and may be experiential in nature. It should not be a
regular catalog course. The amount of work involved must be equivalent to a three-credit
course.
4. Interterm courses are meant to be extensions, not repetitions, of the regular curriculum. As
such they should provide a change of pace, a range of new dimensions, for Doane students.
5. Interterm courses should be integrative and/or experiential. They may be integrative in
breadth by cutting across traditional lines or divisions of knowledge to focus on significant
topics or works, or in depth by pursuing specialized topics within a given discipline. They
may be experiential in the sense of involving students directly in the applications of theory to
practice in subject areas and settings not normally available through fall or spring term
courses.
6. Courses which are predominantly cognitive may use regular letter grades, pass-fail, or allow
student choice between the two systems. Courses which are predominantly experiential, such
as travel interterms, will be graded pass/fail only.
7. All attempts should be made to maximize the number and vary the content of courses offered
and to maximize the number of courses offered without prerequisite. Approximately 25% of
each division’s courses may have prerequisites.
8. Twenty-five students will ordinarily be the norm for any course. Faculty desiring a greater
number should make such requests to the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
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Interterm articles
1. From The Owl (January 27, 2011)
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2. From The Reveille: http://www.thereveillenwu.com/opinions/interterm-helpful-for-students1.1958021
Feb. 2, 2011.
In the summer of 2009, a group of Nebraska Wesleyan's faculty and staff began discussing the
adoption of some of the academic features of the curricula at other institutions. These institutions
include a January term or a May term (also known as interterm or Winter term). Although this
group has not made any suggestions for a change in next year's schedule, Judy Muyskens
(Provost and a participant in this group) still welcomes students to give their input.
Universities everywhere are offering their students new learning opportunities, which have come
to include an interterm. Interterm courses occur every day over the course of about three weeks
and allow for the intense study of a particular subject. At Doane and Hastings, the cost of
interterm is included in the students' tuition and is even required for their first three years.
According to Hastings Vice President for College Initiatives, Dr. Richard Lloyd, "Hastings
College was among the first colleges in the nation to implement a one-month study term between
the regular semesters....Students consistently tell us that the January Term is a highlight of their
academic experience at Hastings College." The interterm allows students to earn an additional
two to three credits and also helps insure graduation in four years. This opportunity seems
extremely beneficial, especially for students entering college with zero credits.
Currently, Nebraska Wesleyan's winter break is already longer than most colleges. Many
students come back from this time off and must relearn information from the previous semester
in order to move forward in their new courses. An interterm would allow for students to ease
back into their academic lives while still maintaining some of the relaxation incurred during
winter break. If the students of Hastings appreciate this extra time of focusing on a specific
subject, then Nebraska Wesleyan's students should too. Hopefully, Nebraska Wesleyan will
consider adopting a similar program to those of Doane College and Hastings College.
3. From The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/article/Short-Study-Abroad-Trips-Can/1541/
February 20, 2009
Short Study-Abroad Trips Can Have Lasting Effect, Research Suggests
By Karin Fischer
Portland, Ore.
The length of time students study overseas has no significant impact on whether they become
globally engaged later in life, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota-Twin
Cities, a conclusion that is sure to add fuel to the already fiery debate over the efficacy of
increasingly popular short-term study-abroad programs.
The findings of the Study Abroad for Global Engagement project, presented here on Thursday at
the annual conference of the Forum on Education Abroad, suggest that students who go overseas
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for a short period of time, four weeks or less, are just as likely as those who study abroad for
several months or even a year to be globally engaged.
"It's both exciting and disappointing," said Gerald W. Fry, a professor of internationaldevelopment education at Minnesota and one of the study's principal investigators. "On one
hand, you'd hope that studying in a country for a long period of time would be particularly
meaningful." On the other, he said, the study's findings suggest that "if it's done right, if it's done
with intensity of learning, a short-term program can have impact."
The Minnesota study, which surveyed nearly 6,400 graduates of 22 colleges who had studied
overseas during the last five decades, sought to learn the ways in which those individuals had
become globally engaged and the degree to which that engagement could be attributed to having
studied abroad. The researchers defined engagement in several ways, including volunteerism and
philanthropy, involvement in international and domestic political issues, and leadership in
organizations that benefit the community and society.
The project was done in collaboration with the Forum on Education Abroad, a membership
association of American and overseas colleges and independent education-abroad providers, and
supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
A Transformative Effect
The results of the survey, a summary of which will be posted on the project’s Web site next
week, found that study abroad did influence the participants to become more globally engaged.
Indeed, study-abroad alumni rated the experience as the most significant of their college years.
Eighty-three percent of those surveyed said going overseas had a strong impact on their lives. By
contrast, 73 percent of the respondents said college friendships and peer connections had a strong
impact, while 66 percent listed course work as having such an effect.
That result is likely to come as no surprise to international educators, who have long argued that
study abroad was transformative.
More startling, and potentially more controversial, is the finding that program duration, in and of
itself, seems to matter little in predicting long-term global engagement.
Short-term programs, which are typically led by faculty members, have been rising in popularity,
but skeptics have criticized them as being little more than cultural tourism, saying that in many
of them students spend most of their time with other Americans and have little opportunity to
immerse themselves in the local culture.
Advocates for such trips counter that they help make overseas study possible for students who
might not be able to commit the time or have the financial resources to study for a semester or
more.
Mr. Fry, who leads a short-term program to Thailand, said the study suggests that a more
complex combination of factors makes a program effective. He and his colleagues hope to
further mine the data to examine the interrelationship of a number of variables, such as whether
students studied with other Americans or with foreign students.
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Planning Worthwhile Trips
Also on Thursday, presenters at another session offered practical advice for crafting effective
short-term programs. One key, they agreed, is to ensure that such programs, despite their brevity,
have a strong academic grounding.
Marlene Torp, associate director at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad, recalled talking with a
student several years ago who had gone on a trip to Moscow organized by her group, a nonprofit
overseas-study provider. The student, Ms. Torp said, was awed by the sites but frustrated
because she felt that she didn't have the adequate background to ask thoughtful questions about
what she was seeing. Since then, the institute has worked to carefully integrate both academic
and cultural content into all of its programs.
"You see what you know," Ms. Torp said. "If you don't know anything, you don't see anything."
On college campuses, a large number of short-term trips are organized by faculty members. But
the responsibilities involved—acting as travel agent, counselor, nurse, and resident director, in
addition to teacher—can scare off some professors, said Michael Ulrich, associate director of
international-education services at the University of Maryland at College Park. To alleviate some
of the concerns, Mr. Ulrich said, he has tried to find funds so that faculty members can jointly
lead trips. He has also worked with provider organizations, like Ms. Torp's group, to offer
programs together.
Max Savishinsky, director of the University of Washington's Exploration Seminars, said he tries
to work closely with faculty leaders on all aspects of their short-term programs, including
recruiting students and providing training on health and safety, managing money, and mitigating
risk. This summer, Washington faculty members will lead 45 trips abroad, and students on
Exploration Seminars now account for about a third of those who study overseas, Mr.
Savishinsky said.
Leading a study-abroad trip, Mr. Savishinsky said, is like having a child: "No one in their right
mind would take on all the work and sacrifice and money and poop. But once you do it, you
wouldn't have done anything differently."
The forum's annual conference, which drew more than 730 international educators, ends today.
http://chronicle.com/article/Half-a-Century-After-They/126043/
January 24, 2011
4. Half a Century After They Started, January-Term Courses Still Sail Along
Each year during the winter term, a group of students from Birmingham-Southern College
travels to the Caribbean and learns to sail a tall ship.
On some campuses, the January term—also known as winter term, interim, or winterim—is an
opportunity for students to take a credit-bearing reprieve from the usual rigors of academe.
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Students might use winter term to enroll in on-campus courses; others opt to spend it overseas.
But before it grew into a smorgasbord of domestic and international course offerings, the earliest
January-term courses took place on college campuses.
Eckerd College first offered winter-term course work in 1960. Diane Ferris, director of
international education, says the program began with a focus on independent study before it
shifted toward faculty-led courses abroad. "This is really part of our history," she says.
Several of Eckerd's overseas interim courses stray off the beaten path of Western Europe. This
year a group of students is touring Turkey and the Czech Republic as part of a new course,
"Turkish and Czech Spa Tourism." Amy Speier, an assistant professor of anthropology, is
leading her students from Istanbul to western Bohemia as they examine the cultural significance
of health spas in those regions, occasionally indulging in some spa tourism of their own—strictly
for educational purposes, of course.
Winter term at Birmingham-Southern College can be traced back to 1968, when independent
study was the focus there as well. Today students can register for faculty-crafted projects on or
off the campus. One interim course takes the concept of "overseas" literally: "Interim at Sea"
students learn to handle a two-masted schooner and sail the Caribbean while keeping a journal
and studying naval history. On the course Web site, Duane H. Pontius Jr., an associate professor
of physics, warns that the course is grueling, and that "everybody should realize what they're
signing on for." A vital prerequisite: knowing how to swim.
Caitlin Barringer, an alumna who took the course in 2009, calls it "definitely not a cruise, by any
means." She explains: "You'd be up at 4 in the morning in the middle of a squall and you can't
see anything in front of you. You're not sitting back enjoying the Caribbean sun."
St. Mary's College of California offers not one but two January-term courses related to the
popular television series Mad Men: "Martinis, Cigarettes and Sex: Why Are We Fascinated
With TV's Mad Men?" and "Madmen/Madwomen: 1960 and the Sexual Revolution." The
classes used the show as a jumping-off point to explore such mid-20th-century topics as racial
segregation and the advent of the birth-control pill. Although each course has a reading list,
students are being allotted ample in-class time for watching Mad Men.
Among the offerings of Amherst College's interterm, which ended last week, was "Strange
Americans: Exploring American Culture in the Pioneer Valley," a noncredit course that took
a group of mostly international students on a mission to demystify America and its people. The
group dissected such cultural oddities as the rules of American football and the distinct way that
Americans make eye contact (more intensely than the Japanese, but less than most Hispanic
cultures, according to the instructor, Ryan Milov, who works with first-year students). In one
exercise, Mr. Milov asked students to pair off and maintain the type of eye contact that felt most
uncomfortable during a four-minute conversation—constant eye locking for some students, little
to no eye contact for others. The students, who took field trips around the Amherst, Mass., area,
are already planning to extend their activities beyond January. They'll convene next month for a
Super Bowl party.
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Many colleges make January term a time for students to explore areas outside their majors. At
Williams College, that could mean dabbling in the science of romance. "Beyond Hooking Up:
Creating Meaningful Relationships" requires students to consider intimate relationships in the
midst of what the instructor, Rachelle Smith, calls "the hook-up culture vortex." The students use
such tools as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Imago Relationship Therapy to better
understand how to graduate from lust-fueled hookups into committed relationships. The course is
graded on a pass/fail basis, but the prospect of failing at love may offer extra incentive to Ms.
Smith's students.
—Lauren Sieben
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