There is still time and space to enroll in a class for the Winter Interim for those students interested in getting ahead, making up for lost credits or simply making the most out of their winter break.
The Winter Interim is a condensed three-week semester new to The University of Alabama this year. There are ten courses being offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level, set to begin on Monday, Dec. 17, a few days after the last Fall finals have been turned in.
Denzel Evans-Bell, the SGA vice president of Student Affairs who worked with the University’s Academic Affairs office to implement the program, said the classes are about 80 percent full currently.
“I believe this term is going to be very popular, especially as students complete this very first Winter Interim term and begin to discuss the success and convenience of the courses with their peers,” Evans-Bell said.
Evans-Bell said the idea to implement a Winter Interim came from student requests to the SGA, which responded by surveying for potential interest.
“The University plans to implement this term every winter break so that it becomes a permanent term, like May Interim,” he said. “As the program gains more recognition, more professors and students will want to participate, which will surely result in expansion of the term in regards to number of classes offered and students registered.”
Already, the program seems to have had a favorable response from both students and faculty.
“The last time I checked, I had 14 students enrolled, which is impressive because my initial goal was 10,” Robin Boylorn, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies, said.
The courses offered in the Winter Interim range from traditional courses, like personal finance and geography, to more creative courses, like Professor Boylorn’s “Beyond Sapphire and Jezebel: Representations of Black Women in Film.”
The condensed nature of the minimester allows professors like Boylorn to design new courses that they had been unable to offer as of yet and see how they are received.
“Interim gives me the chance to ‘try out’ classes on specialized topics,” Borlorn said. “For example, the course I am teaching includes some material that is discussed in other classes I teach, but not to the degree that we can unpack it in an intensive three-week period. The classes are extremely intensive, and like the regular interim session, we will be packaging a semester’s worth of reading and assignments into a three-week period. I think it is worth it, though, especially when the classes are creative and the topics are appealing.”
If the Winter Interim turns out to be successful, it is likely that the University will continue to offer the program in addition to the Summer Interim and Fall and Spring Semesters.
“Of course, with this being the first Winter Interim, there will be a time of assessing and evaluation once the term is completed,” Brenda Hunter, the associate University registrar, said. “The response to Winter Interim has been positive, with student enrollment indicating support for an educational opportunity at this time of the academic year.”
