academics, traditions

Terms

A “term” is a section of the academic calendar year. There are three common types of academic terms in the United States: semester (typically six months), trimester (usually three terms in a year), or quarter (four terms in a year). Both “term” and “semester” have been used in the academic calendars and schedules of Trinity College, though “semester” only appeared in greater frequency in the Bulletins and Catalogues beginning in the 1920s.

Trinity (then-Washington College) opened in 1823 with three terms – First (Fall), Second (Spring), and Third (Summer), a system which “invited trouble”:

The fall term began in late September and had a recess of two weeks from the Thursday preceding Christmas. In the spring term there was a three-week recess from the Thursday preceding the twelfth of April. Summer term ended with Commencement the first Wednesday in August. It was during the summer term that most of the trouble occurred, and it was usually on Saturday afternoon before sundown when the Puritan Sabbath settled down on Hartford that groups of students ran afoul of the law both on Main Street and on the campus. ¹⁾

The mid-1840s brought a rush of interest from the “high churchmen alumni” to Anglicize “the College into a little replica of the English university colleges in which the Oxford Movement had centered.” In 1846, after the College changed its name, it also adopted Anglican naming practices in what was called an effort to invoke “warmth and life… into the College by clothing it with all the paraphernalia of English nomenclature.” As part of this movement, the three terms were named Advent (Fall), Lent (Spring), and Trinity (Summer) to follow more closely the Christian calendar.

In 1857, the College academic year was reduced to two terms, which were called Christmas (September-December) and Trinity (January-July). Commencement took place in July and was later moved up to May.

Trinity returned temporarily to the three-semester system during the 1942-1943 school year to accommodate the changes that World War II had brought to campus. A Michaelmas term (July 2-October 22) was added to the curriculum and remained until 1945, and commencement dates were altered to allow men to graduate as soon as possible before enlisting.

After the War, Trinity returned to the two-term system. In 1983, a Trinity Tripod article mentioned that the Director of Admissions, Donald Dietrich, wanted to admit more Jewish students and “decrease the Christian image of Trinity by, among other things, deemphasizing the labels 'Christmas Term' and 'Trinity Term.'” The term names were subsequently dropped in the mid-1980s.

In 2013, faculty approved a three-year January term or J-Term pilot program which began in 2014 as a first-year entry point and way to assess student interest in nontraditional courses. J-Term courses are three weeks and typically about 20 hours, to a maximum of one credit, and allow students to explore their interests without interference. Classes have focused on a variety of subjects, including flying drones; hiking Connecticut while studying ecology, geology, and history; studying financial data in the Library's Bloomberg Lab; and studying film in a Star Wars-focused anthropology course. J-Term offers study-away options as well.

Trinity has also had summer sessions throughout its history. Trinity’s Summer 1 and Summer 2 sessions last five weeks and offer the chance to catch up on credits and core requirements or explore new interests, while engaging in small, focused classes.