Summer session hotter than ever

Who says no one wants go to summer school?

Students flocked to Columbia’s campus to take courses this summer, proving that the Core Curriculum really can be enjoyed in any season.

Columbia’s Summer Term, run by the School of Continuing Education, offers six-, five-, and four-week sessions twice a summer, in addition to a nine- and 12-week session. Students can take any combination of classes, Summer Term Dean Richard Slusarczyk said, so the Summer Term office generally measures enrollment in number of credits taken. Credits were up, as was the unique student count—this summer, 2,726 students enrolled in Columbia classes, up from the 2,603 enrolled last year.

“It sort of defies logic,” Slusarczyk noted. “One would expect in these weak economic times, students might want to conserve.”

With this summer’s bleak job market resulting in cut internship positions and a shortage of jobs, it seems options narrowed for some students in their off-season. According to the National

Association of Colleges and Employers, the number of college internship positions dropped 21 percent in the last year. Other schools observed this trend, with CUNY summer enrollment up by 73,000 students, its highest count in18 years. With students coming up empty on internship applications and job searches, this may have been the summer to catch up on those Core requirements.

Executive Director of Residence Halls Joyce Jackson reported that student housing numbers increased slightly this summer. Broadway, Schapiro, Hogan, 600 W. 113th, and East

Campus—the interns’ quarters—were all open for Columbia students enrolled in courses on campus, visiting students, interns, and group conferences. (Administrators had said they were pushing summer housing to bolster a shrinking endowment.)

While general housing numbers increased this summer, Jackson noted that the number of students staying in Columbia housing for internships had fallen significantly from 559 to 337, a decrease of about 40 percent.

“I think more people had trouble getting jobs this summer,” she said, which may account for the inflated number of overall students despite the fact that one group—student interns—decreased dramatically.

Housing numbers jumped in the second session, though Jackson said that is unsurprising—students enrolling in the second session American Language Program come out of the woodwork, for instance. She also didn’t discount students who signed on with housing for the second term, hoping to finally land a job in the latter half of the summer.

Amanda Wild, SEAS ’11, stayed put in Morningside Heights this summer while she took Linear Algebra, Abnormal Behavior from the psychology department, and an economics course. For Wild, summer was a good time to play catch-up.

“I was a little behind in the classes I needed to take,” Wild said. “I lived in Broadway over the summer, which was surprisingly more fun than I thought it would be.”

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