Every summer, when most students in the College have dispersed for internships, travel and similarly enriching experiences, high-level teaching and learning nonetheless continues on the University of Chicago’s campus during Summer Session.
Through challenging coursework offered at the high school and undergraduate levels, Summer Session students are given the chance to take intellectual risks and dive deeply into subject matter with instruction from world-class faculty.
Executive Director of Summer Quarter and Associate Dean of the College Maria Lettiere has spent the last few months overseeing Summer Session’s operations for the first time, having been hired away from the same position at Loyola University Chicago in March 2022.
While at Loyola, Lettiere both built and managed January Term, a condensed academic session that takes place just before the start of the university’s spring semester. Given that experience, Lettiere is well-equipped to help roll out the College’s 2022 introduction of September Term, a similar three-week intensive course option offered ahead of Fall Quarter.
“September is a month where many UChicago students are physically at school, but they're not working or studying yet, so this will be a chance for them to make that time more productive,” Lettiere said. “We’re starting with seven courses, but there's so much potential for this to grow, and to really serve students further.”
Lettiere is a lifelong Chicagoan who grew up on the South Side. She spent the last 17 years in suburban Evanston while her daughter attended high school there, and has since returned to the city with her daughter now off at college. After overseeing Summer Sessions at Loyola for 16 years, she became aware of the position at UChicago through conversations with the outgoing Executive Director Christine Parker.
“I find [Summer Session] to be an essential resource for students in particular, but also for faculty and academic advisers,” Lettiere said. “Students may see Summer Session as a respite to focus on a course or two and a chance to tap into new opportunities as they make progress in their academic career.”
Because Summer Session courses, which last anywhere from three to five weeks, are equivalent to courses that last 10 weeks during the rest of the academic year, they are intensive and rigorous. Students often spend five to six hours a day in the classroom focused on one course at a time, and have additional assignments to complete independently on top of exams and papers.
Having just wrapped up her first summer in Hyde Park, Lettiere said the Summer Session, which held in-person courses for the first time since the start of the pandemic, was a “positive program to work on.”
“What I enjoyed most about it was working with the Summer Session staff,” Lettiere said. “They have such a keen understanding of how to develop and implement programs, both at the pre-college and at the undergraduate level. It was a nice experience for me to see how everything functions and works with the wonderful staff that we have here.”
Looking forward to September Term, Lettiere said that interested students have until Aug. 29, when classes start, to enroll in classes they are interested in taking and if space is available (most sections are at capacity). For questions about the new term, and to check on course availability, please email summersession@uchicago.edu.
Course offerings this September include an urban and environmental studies course that includes bike tours of the South Side (Riding About the South Side), a creative writing course in which students will develop the pilot for a TV series set on the South Side (Writing for TV: The Writer’s Room), and a course that will introduce social sciences majors to the growing digital and computational resources that are key to cutting-edge research (Computing for Social Sciences).
An avid cyclist who has also taken part in a 100-mile “century ride,” Lettiere said she has bonded with John W. Boyer, dean of the College, over their shared love of cycling. She said she hopes to join some of her new colleagues, and faculty member William Nickell who will be teaching Riding About the South Side, on a ride through the South Side during September Term.
“Everybody has been so welcoming that I find collaboration very easy here,” she said. “People who work at UChicago are eager and thoughtful, and it makes our job easier. It opens our options to be even more innovative in terms of our programming in future Summer and September Terms, so I’m excited to see where we can go.”