Enrollment for the three-week winter session last month at John Jay rose by roughly 12 percent compared to the same period a year ago, a development that is being credited to expanded marketing and outreach efforts and a close collaboration between Enrollment Management and Academic Affairs.

Douglas Boettner, Director of the Office of Special Academic Sessions, noted that enrollments rose to roughly 1,700 for the 2016 winter session, from 1,517 a year earlier, and the number of course sections increased from 95 to 110.

“We worked more closely with academic departments to encourage more sections in the winter session, and they came through,” said Boettner. Several departments offered two or more additional sections this winter, including Anthropology; Art and Music; Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration; Political Science, and Mathematics and Computer Science.

“It’s great that departments are helping students by offering classes that they need and want,” said Vice President for Enrollment Management Robert Troy. “It gives students a chance to catch up, or accelerate their studies.”

Winter session classes, whether on-campus or online, cover the same subject matter in three weeks that regular-semester classes do in 15. To do this, classes are held in double periods four days a week. “We’ve found that some students actually do better in a compressed time frame,” said Troy. “It really depends on the student and the subject matter. The three-week session is also a great time to do online courses. The fact is, winter session, just like the summer, provides ideal learning opportunities for all kinds of students.”

Most of the courses offered in the abbreviated winter session are at the 100 and 200 level, with a scattering of upper-level and graduate courses. And in that vein, Boettner observed, most of the students are freshmen and sophomores, “along with some panicky seniors who want to graduate on time.”

Boettner noted that Enrollment Management and Academic Affairs will be working to increase the number of online offerings in the future, to attract even more non-John Jay students for the winter and summer sessions.