For students who have been at Northeastern for a few years, this summer felt different. The sleepy summer city was thrust into the spotlight with the DNC, Nomar Garciaparra, a member of the Red Sox for 9 years, was traded to Chicago and, on campus, students were adjusting to the first summer under the semester calendar.

Now, students and faculty can reflect on the differences.

University Registrar Linda Allen said the university is planning on conducting an online NU Pulse survey in September to see if students prefer the divided summer semesters to last year’s quarter system. The survey is a request from Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Philomena Mantella, said Mark Putnam, director of university planning and research. NU Pulse surveys are conducted by the department headed by Putnam.

“[NU Pulse] is going through a transition. In the past NU Pulse was a phone poll,” Putnam said. “There would be students who would be trained to place phone calls to other students.”

Now, due to the prevalence of cell phones and numbers being less available, Putnam said the survey will be placed on the myNEU portal.

“Students could click on it and respond,” he said. The survey should be available online by the end of August.

Allen said she has heard from some students that they like the new, short format of classes –two classes per seven-week “mini-semester.”

“We don’t have a lot of real information, we’ll see if we can get some information from students and faculty [in the survey],” Allen said.

A NU Pulse survey conducted during the winter quarter in 2003 showed the majority of the 760 students surveyed believed the change in calendar from quarters to semesters would be good for both students and faculty.

One concern the research showed, however, was a lack of courses and sections offered under the semester calendar.

The number of courses offered for the summer, Allen said, is comparable to last summer’s offerings. The difference lies in the number of courses being divided between the two sessions.

“Quarters allow us to take a wide range of classes, semesters don’t,” said one student in the 2003 survey conducted by telephone.

Another complaint in the survey was the increased workload for students –