A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to direct the state board of community colleges to study the community colleges and to design a pilot program to be implemented at selected community colleges to help determine whether such a conversion would be beneficial.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The State Board of Community Colleges shall study the feasibility of converting the academic calendar for most of the constituent institutions of the North Carolina Community College System from a semester system to a trimester system.
The goal of the study is to evaluate whether switching to a trimester system would better enable a college to more fully use its campus facilities during the summer while still maintaining the academic and programmatic integrity of the institution. The State Board of Community Colleges shall consider how a conversion to a trimester system could change campus culture at each college that is included in the study, the challenges of enticing people to participate, particularly in a summer trimester, and the issues related to workload distribution and student support. In its study, the State Board of Community Colleges also shall analyze and evaluate how converting to a trimester system would affect all of the following at each college included in the study: student life; financial aid; athletic programs; student government; student learning; the need, if any, for additional faculty, and if additional faculty are needed, then the academic areas in which they would be needed; faculty research; registration; housing; maintenance; and utilities.
SECTION 2.  As part of the study set out in Section 1 of this act, the State Board of Community Colleges also shall design a pilot program to explore the advantages and disadvantages to different types of campuses in switching to an academic year based on trimesters.  The State Board of Community Colleges shall identify four of the campuses included in the study with different types of campuses to participate in the pilot program.  The State Board of Community Colleges shall determine the time frame for implementing the pilot program and the length of time that the pilot program shall be maintained in order to fully analyze the advantages and disadvantages of switching to a trimester system.  The State Board of Community Colleges also shall determine what incentives, if any, may be offered to encourage students and faculty to participate in the summer trimester.  The pilot program shall not be implemented until after the State Board of Community Colleges reports to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee pursuant to Section 3 of this act and funds are appropriated to implement the pilot program.
SECTION 3.  The State Board of Community Colleges shall report its findings and recommendations to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee by October 1, 2009.
SECTION 4.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Community Colleges System Office the sum of twenty‑five thousand dollars ($25,000) for the 2009‑2010 fiscal year to conduct the study described in Section 1 of this act.  The funds appropriated by this section shall not be used for the pilot program described in Section 2 of this act.
SECTION 5.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2009.