Intersession isn’t even a part of Spring semester.

I think that having an Intersession schedule is a great benefit for Palomar students because it allows  one to finish a semester’s worth of classes in up to a four-week period.  The biggest downside besides the extensive hours of a compacted class is that it also counts towards one’s Spring semester units.  This is not fair to students trying to advance and speed up the school process because it falls under the 19 unit maximum allowed for all students at Palomar.  As the “Winter” Intersession ranges from Jan. 3-27, this is before the actual “Spring Semester” starts (which is Jan. 30). So, how can a class that starts before the Spring semester count towards one’s total units for the semester?

Also, looking at this from a teacher’s perspective may even be worse.  Not only do some teachers have to teach during the actual Spring semester, but if they also work Intersession, their Winter break decreases by 4 weeks (alike students).  This not only puts added stress on professors because of the extra workload, but they also must adhere to additional dates where student’s grades must be entered before or just after the Spring semester starts.

This design needs to be re-engineered, where Intersession becomes its own semester or entity.  Only with this change will students and teachers (who participate during this period) see the true benefits of an accelerated class while feeling more accomplished by fully completing units to work towards a degree or graduation.  Staff and students of Palomar College should be rewarded for taking extensively accelerated classes, not penalized by reducing these units from one’s total unit load.  Just like Summer is its own semester, Intersession should fall under the same category