Western Seminary Adopts a Coordinated Academic Calendar

In an effort to better serve our Western Seminary student body, we would like to announce that all three Western Seminary campuses will adopt a coordinated academic calendar beginning with the Fall Semester of 2008.

It is Western Seminary’s mission to serve as a catalyst and a resource for spiritual transformation by providing, with and for the church, advanced training for strategic ministry roles. Western accomplishes this mission by means of three distinct campuses with distance learning options, though we have made strides in recent years to synchronize the interactions of each campus so they serve as one cohesive institution. Sharing an academic calendar is one more great stride in the right direction.

For our Sacramento and San Jose campus students, this academic calendar will mean a transition from the current 4-Term “compacted semester” system into a new 3-Term “semester” system. You may view the specific dates in this new calendar by clicking here.

Here are some of the new benefits to students in sharing an academic calendar:

• Financial Aid will be available to students in every semester
• Fewer but lengthier semesters make it simpler to juggle multiple classes in the same semester
• Students may take courses at any campus without negotiating different semester dates and registration windows
• Distance Learning Courses are recorded as being taken concurrently with campus courses, making it easier to qualify for scholarships and loans in each semester
• Shared terms allow more opportunities to host faculty from other campuses

Of course, a shift in calendar will involve a shift in students’ academic planning. That’s why the student services staff are committed to helping students successfully navigate these changes without any hindrance or delay in their graduation plans.

Accordingly, we invite all Sacramento campus students to a special advising event on campus on Tuesday, May 13th from 6:00-8:00pm in the classrooms. The Student Services staff will serve a free roast beef dinner, present the changes to our academic calendar in an easy-to-understand fashion, and give students a chance to draw up a new semester-by-semester plan with their program advisor. Additionally, any student who attends this event will not have the annual Summer Advising Hold placed on their SIS student account prior to fall.

We ask that students please hold personal advising questions until or after this evening so that they may be addressed in the greater student community. Students who would like to begin personally planning out their courses for the next year, however, may use the redesigned 2008-2009 Sequence Charts available on the Sacramento Campus/Current Students section of www.westernseminary.edu.

Western Seminary is excited about this new academic development, and we pray that it will serve our students even more effectively in the years to come.