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Starting in January, Montclair State University is expanding its academic calendar to expand the summer term to a 14-week session, making the university’s operations a 12-month cycle as opposed to eight.
Montclair State
Starting in January, students at Montclair State University won’t have to spend their summers away from campus but can instead continue learning, thanks to a new three-term model at the university.
The initiative, announced this fall, is designed to give students flexibility in their learning opportunities through various modalities and time blocks, helping reduce barriers to completion. The process has required Montclair State leaders to peel back the layers of institutional operations and reconfigure the university to consider students’ needs first, shares President Johnathan Koppell.
“We do need to dismantle—we need to look at everything about the university and ask if it’s been put together and designed in a way that’s been optimal for student success, and student success for contemporary students,” Koppell says.
What’s the need: The decision to move to a 12-month academic year involved a confluence of factors, Koppell shares.
One was being responsive to the needs of today’s students. Historically, schools have held classes for eight months to align with the agricultural calendar, allowing students to help out on the family farm during the summer months.
“Having a model that’s based on a 19th-century model of who goes to college and what do they need and that’s how we’re organized, that’s not going to get it done,” he says.
Additionally, housing is a growing expense for students and often a large contributor to student loan debt, Koppell says, so providing a 12-month student year aligns more closely with students’ leases.
From the Outside
Ad Astra, which provides course scheduling software and academic planning services, has seen more institutions expand offerings in the summer term, both in eight- and 14-week blocks.
"It’s hard to pick up the number of credits needed to get out on time if you’re not doing that," explains President Sarah Collins.
The strategy benefits the students, the faculty and the institution, Collins says.
Montclair State has seen an uptick in students enrolling in summer classes, though quantifying and analyzing interest in year-round classes specifically is difficult because the university has never offered a 14-week summer course before.
Expanded state funding also opens doors for students to take advantage of summer offerings. The state of New Jersey’s Higher Education Student Assistance Authority extended the Tuition Aid Grant, a state financial aid program for low-income students, in 2023 to allow students to apply funding to their summer courses.
How it works: Each full term at Montclair State is now 14 weeks instead of 15. The university will also offer partial terms, lasting seven weeks. Students will still have a monthlong winter term, which provides opportunities for even shorter courses, study abroad opportunities and internships.
Class sessions will be slightly longer, based on their weekly frequency, accounting for fewer days in the academic term. The weekly schedule has two common-hour blocks to allow for student events and other activities. The adjusted calendar also includes three breaks (fall, spring and end of summer) to allow students, faculty and staff to recharge, according to the university’s website.
The shift is “very important to the success of Montclair Unbound,” Koppell says, referencing the university’s strategic goal to deliver courses in a variety of modalities such as online synchronous and asynchronous courses. With the new schedule, students will have more flexibility to choose how and when they take classes.
Many consider summer as the time when students study abroad, complete internships or take on other experiential learning activities. With the new structure, students will be able to say yes to fall or spring experiences without losing progress toward their degree, Koppell says.
Montclair State officials anticipate the summer term will expand opportunities for nontraditional students including adults, working learners, international students and transfers who may want to hit the ground running.
Gutting the house: While shifting dates on the calendar is one undertaking, the next steps in the process include realigning class registration, reconfiguring curriculum and extending operations throughout the summer.
“Everything has to be rewired,” Koppell shares. “We’re getting down to the studs.”
Getting faculty and staff buy-in has been one of the challenges of the new model, as it will require all campus stakeholders to adjust their work. Administrators have tried to create a participatory process, Koppell says, accounting for the faculty and staff perspectives and listening to their concerns.
Koppell sees an opportunity for faculty to flex when they’re teaching versus researching, similar to students choosing to intern during one of the three terms, but ultimately the change will take time and adaptation.
One of the benefits of the new model is optimizing campus resources, using facilities for 12 months instead of eight. With that, operations like maintenance, which typically take place during the summer when the campus is less busy, will look different.
“That’s what it means to be a success-oriented, student-oriented university, to adapt ourselves to the student rather than teaching everyone to adapt to us,” Koppell says.
What’s next: While the new calendar will roll out in January, Koppell expects to see a less-than-capacity summer offering for the first few years as students enroll in summer classes, faculty increase course offerings and the university ramps up programming.
Montclair State leaders hope to see improvement on student enrollment, outcomes, debt and time to degree, as well as growth in summer offerings and utilization of those programs, as a result of the restructuring.
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