B-School Mulls Year-Round Schedule

The Harvard Business School faculty is considering a proposal to replace the traditional nine-month academic calendar with a year-round system divided into three separate trimesters.

The proposal, first reported in the school's independent student newspaper Harbus News this week, calls for three 15-week trimesters.

Under the initiative, the school would set up a separate admissions process for each trimester. Five sections of 80 students each would be admitted to the Business School in the fall, and three sections of 80 students would enter in both the winter and summer trimesters, according to the Harbus News.

Students would be required to complete four trimesters before graduating.

The change is expected to bring an additional 70 students to the Business School campus each year.

"Currently we have a huge group of students coming in once a year and everything we do has to be done at one time," said Timken Professor of Business Administration Hugo Uyterhoeven,a member of the committee that formulated the proposal. "Through this proposal we can work in smaller units. With smaller units there should be a lot more opportunity to experiment and integrate current programs."

School officials also said the proposed calendar could provide greater flexibility to students and faculty in determining when they wish to study and teach.

In an October 14 memo to school faculty, James I. Cash, a member of the coordination committee, said the proposal would allow for "more efficient use of the School's fixed assets and support staff... [and a] lowering of the opportunity cost of earning an MBA degree."

Discussion of the proposal is ongoing. The faculty took up the matter at its October 19 meeting, and will discuss it further during a meeting Saturday.

Uyterhoeven, for one, is optimistic. Asked if he thought the proposal would eventually pass, the professor said: "I expect it will."

The proposal is the latest in a series of new ideas and initiatives to come out of a Business School reform process known as Leadership and Learning. A faculty and staff coordination committee, which is associated with "Phase III" of the Leadership and Learning reforms, distributed the proposal.

"Curriculum changes [such as this] are designed to insure that the Business School alligns with business world challenges now and in the next century," said Loretto Crane, director of communications at the school

Discussion of the proposal is ongoing. The faculty took up the matter at its October 19 meeting, and will discuss it further during a meeting Saturday.

Uyterhoeven, for one, is optimistic. Asked if he thought the proposal would eventually pass, the professor said: "I expect it will."

The proposal is the latest in a series of new ideas and initiatives to come out of a Business School reform process known as Leadership and Learning. A faculty and staff coordination committee, which is associated with "Phase III" of the Leadership and Learning reforms, distributed the proposal.

"Curriculum changes [such as this] are designed to insure that the Business School alligns with business world challenges now and in the next century," said Loretto Crane, director of communications at the school