16-Week Calendar Resources

Our current academic calendar has 18 weeks in fall and 17 weeks in spring (including finals weeks). The current calendar proposal is to "compress" the calendar so each semester is 16 weeks (including finals week). A shorter semester is sometimes called a “compressed calendar”

Moving to a 16-week calendar means altering the academic schedule to avoid the loss of instructional time in the classroom. This means that most classes will see an increase in the daily meeting times (between 5-15 minutes) and our instructional days will be longer. If you currently have a 4 hour instructional day, it might increase to something like 5 hours.

About 65 of the 114 California Community Colleges have converted to a compressed calendar starting in 2001 (39/72 districts). Three colleges are on a quarter system. We are unaware of any colleges that shifted back to an 18-week academic calendar from a 16-week calendar.

The academic calendar would have these new features:

Each semester would be 15 weeks of classes plus a finals week (16 total weeks)
Fall term would likely start one week later than current, and end one week earlier, unless we go with the "November Break" where there are no classes during the week of Thanksgiving.
Spring semester would start on a Monday, one week after Martin Luther King Jr Day and get out before Memorial Day.
We are not planning a winter intersession at this time, but could add one later.

Discussions about a conversion to a 16-week academic calendar take place every few years. There are 2 factors that have renewed interest in changing the academic calendar:

Cal Poly is moving to 16-week semesters starting in fall 2026, and we may be able to increase enrollment if our calendar is more like the one at Cal Poly.
We've seen a large increase of online course offerings, and we may be able to attract more students if our calendar is shorter.
The college just to the south has 17-week semesters.
In Spring 2023, an Alternative Academic Calendar Taskforce (faculty and management/admin) was formed to examine in detail the benefits and liabilities involved with changing to a 16-week primary term. The Taskforce determined that there would likely be a small but one-time bump up in FTES when switching to a 16-week calendar, provided that enrollment remained constant and that class times were increased.

There are positive impacts:

Community Colleges that have adopted a 16-week semester consistently reported an approximate 2% increase in student success.
The 16-week semester more closely aligns CSU calendars, facilitating the transition of transfer students.
Colleges that have converted to the compressed calendar report overall satisfaction with increased scheduling flexibility. Faculty and administrators report that they appreciate the additional time to prepare for classes, process grades, and bring closure to previous term activities before the start of the next academic term.
Students have more time to work outside of the semester, possibly reducing work hours during the semester.
There are negative impacts:

in some courses, especially sequential courses in math and science, students miss some content/practice in course #1 that hinders learning in course #2.
Courses with labs will meet fewer times each semester, often reducing the number of experiments and other activities that can be offered.
Faculty in math and science disciplines report needing to significantly revise curriculum.
There is less time for governance (is this really a negative?) meaning that more decisions have to get done during the regular term, or out of term when we're not on contract.
Students will have more class time, and more work to do, each week.
If you teach face-to-face, your instructional day will be longer.

If we move to a 16-week semester, we have to increase class times for 2 reasons.

We need to meet a certain number of hours for curriculum and the Carnegie Unit.
The state pays apportionment based on numbers of hours students are in class.
Conversion to a 16-week academic calendar requires that we develop a schedule of classes that replicates as closely as possible the same amount of instructional time for each course that we have under the current semester length.

If a three-unit class currently meets for 54 hours per semester (3 hours x 18 weeks = 54 hours), in the compressed schedule the class would still need to meet for 54 hours, but the schedule would require more instructional time per week.

Because each class meeting time will increase, the instructional day will also increase. 

The accordion below has examples of increased class times. The Community College of California Chancellor's Office (CCCCO) has a rather complex set of calculations for class time that we can discuss later if you're interested. There may be some slight variations for some class times, like the 3 unit, 3 day per week or the complex lab/lecture combos, but this is pretty much set for most classes.

Longer. Scheduling of courses must be consistent with the class hours indicated in the approved course outline of record for completion of the course.  Individual class schedules must be based on five-minute increments for starting and ending times.

Here is an example:

Existing 3-unit course: meets from 9:00 am to 10:20 am two days per week, with 10:20 to 10:30 allowed for passing time before next class.
New 16-week 3-unit course: meets from 9:00 am to 10:25 am with 10:25 to 10:35 for passing time.
We would still have at least 10 minutes of passing time between classes.
Passing times: because the scheduling gets more complex (classes are not simply 1 hour, 1.5 hour, or 2 hour) we may end up having a block scheduling pattern that builds in common start and/or stop times so students, faculty, and rooms can "catch up" and reset later in the day.

Longer. The same method used to calculate minutes of instruction for lecture classes can be applied to lab classes to determine how the schedule would be different under a compressed calendar. The calculated time may be different depending on if the lab meets one, two or more times per week.

Labs that currently meet for 1 hour 50 minutes would increase to 2 hours 5 minutes. 
Labs that currently meet for 2 hour 50 minutes would increase to 3 hours 5 minutes

No. Since no instructional time is lost under a compressed calendar our paychecks would not be affected.

No. the compressed calendar would not affect STRS retirement.

Regular finals. The current CCFT proposal is to maintain a traditional finals week. We're going with the "fewer disruptions" model to start. Perhaps finals week vs one extra week of classes could be up for discussion in the future.

Colleges have adopted both types of finals week schedules; it will be up for us to decide. It’s likely that the calendar change proposal will have a typical finals week.

In converting to a 16-week academic calendar, some colleges vote to eliminate the finals week schedule and schedule class meetings as usual during the last week of instruction. Most colleges offer finals during the 16th week of the semester.

Cal Poly is being very explicit: their new calendar will have a finals week and so they are calling it "15+1" instead of 16-weeks.

No, the curriculum, unit value, and student learning outcomes would all remain the same under a compressed calendar.

No, we're not proposing one at this time. The current proposal does not include a winter intersession, and we will have to evaluate this for Cuesta in the future. There is no requirement that a winter intersession be offered in 16-week semesters. Some colleges have added a winter intersession as a way to offer students a chance to take additional classes during the academic year. It would also offer additional employment opportunities for faculty. Impact on workload in support services will be an important consideration during this evaluation.

Maybe. It is possible that a longer summer session could be offered, but that will be a function of the discussion and negotiations which would follow a decision to move to a 16-week calendar.

Shorter. It seems like short courses should be fractions of 16, like 8 weeks or 4 weeks, but this could be determined at a later date and may depend on program requirements.

Possibly, but this was not considered a viable option for our current proposal. There are only 3 colleges with this type of calendar and there are significant challenges with a trimester system. It also won't align with Cal Poly's schedule starting in Fall 2026.

Yes. The current proposal includes a spring break at the mid-point of spring semester. There is also the potential for a "November Break" the week of Thanksgiving. 

Unknown. The calendar proposal does not include changes to room use or scheduling, but there will be impacts on room use since each class session will be longer. 

Yes. It's likely that you'll start earlier or end later each day. We may adopt common start times (or common end times). You might have to roll in at 8:30 instead of 9:00.

Class times will increase by 5-15 minutes each in most cases, so classrooms will likely be used for a greater length of time each day. Our days, and our student’s days, will be longer. This might mean starting earlier in the morning, staying later in the afternoons, or both.

Side note: some colleges with excess FTES (and loads of $$) in the mid 2000's did not need to extend their class periods like Cuesta will have to do to retain current funding levels.

The majority of Cuesta classrooms already have a lot of availability on Friday. Friday might be a good option for a one day a week offering, hybrid meetings, and other flexible scheduling models.

Yes.

CCFT will be considering and negotiating changes to the CBA.
In shorter semesters, FLEX days need to be before and after the normal term dates.
We’ll probably end up with 3-4 flex days prior to each term.
The October FLEX days will no longer be in the calendar. Yeah, no more October flex. State rules.

This is a faculty effort. There are quite a few faculty at Cuesta who prefer a 16-week calendar based on their experience at other colleges. CCFT views this as being faculty-driven. The administration seems to be in support but has not asked CCFT or Senate leadership to make it happen. 

Maybe, but wow this would be hard to schedule. This can be investigated when we look more closely at scheduling if we decide to move to a 16-week calendar. Some divisions may be able to adjust class schedules around a college hour and others may not, especially those with labs. A good question would be: Am I willing to be on campus longer on TR so we can have a college hour?

Some implications depending on assignment. Although classified professionals would experience no reduction in their regular annual work schedule resulting from a move to a compressed calendar, the implications for change in their workload timing patterns need to be carefully studied in evaluating the pros and cons of such a move. 

Yes. All fees remain the same from term to term unless there are changes imposed by the State of California.

Possibly. There are registered nursing programs on a 16-week calendar, but this would be open for discussion. Gavilan College has courses longer than 16 weeks in Allied Health.  EMS, EMT, maybe a few others could explore a longer term.

It depends. Some colleges adopt compressed schedules for service faculty (more hours per week, fewer weeks) and other colleges seem to retain a more traditional schedule. This will be a discussion item between CCFT, the service faculty, and the district.

No It may make sense to offer some Saturday hours at the start of each term of courses. CCFT would attempt to negotiate that Saturday assignments be by mutual agreement.

Some colleges adopt compressed schedules for service faculty (more hours per week, fewer weeks) and other colleges seem to retain a more traditional schedule. This will be a discussion item between CCFT, the service faculty, and the district.