The University's pilot program of an optional academic winter term has officially been canceled after two years due to low participation, said John Caron, assistant dean for summer and continuing studies.
The program, called January@Brown, first ran in 2007 but failed to sign up enough students this semester to fund what would have been the third and final year of the pilot program this coming winter break.
Despite extending the deadline for registration from Dec. 5 to Dec. 8, the program only signed up 21 participants, far short of the 40 that would have been needed to fund the program, said Caron. "Unfortunately, there wasn't the interest we were hoping to see," he said.
One of the program's planned course offerings, on persuasive communication, garnered the overwhelming share of interest from students, with no more than three students registering for the term's other classes, Caron said.
The pilot, an optional, not-for-credit experiment modeled on the "J-terms" held at liberal arts schools such as Williams College, was prompted by a student proposal. It enrolled 18 students in its first go-around and attracted 30 students the following year. But while the cost of the program was subsidized by the University each of the first two years, the program would have had to support itself on participants' tuition in January 2009.
The College Curriculum Council, a committee chaired by Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron to review undergraduate academic offerings, voted earlier this year to support offering half-credits for January@Brown courses, a move that some hoped would broaden the program's appeal. But the University subsequently moved away from that stance.
