This week I’m going to attempt to wear the hat of storyteller and historian. Enjoy the ride, we’re going back a few years.

It is 1999; Northeastern University President Richard Freeland was fairly new to the university, making his debut in September of 1996: the “classroom building,” now known to most as Shillman Hall was a year old, and the proposals of Behrakis, Squashbusters and West Campus G and H were merely a blip on NU’s radar screen.

September 1999: The Northeastern News reports that President Richard Freeland is reviewing a possible semester model, which would toss quarters out the window. The arguments for the calendar swap were the same then as they are now: elongated class sessions would allow for a more in-depth education and richer experience at NU.

Oct. 6, 1999: Things haven’t changed a bit at The Northeastern News. Once word of semesters hit the newsroom, reporters turned to the Macs that now sit in the Apple graveyard on the fourth floor of the Curry Student Center and began doing what they did best in those days, tearing apart the opposition. The target? A possible calendar conversion. At the helm was former columnists and long-time News Editor Christian Meagher.

Though still a figment of the administration’s imagination, Meagher saw semesters as clear as day and called Freeland out.

“Now Kaiser Freeland wants to shake up NU’s wacky quarter system and make us just like MIT, BU, HU and BC. His plan is to use his marshmallow magic and change the current system into two 16-week quarters and two six-week quarters (sounds more like dimes to me) in the summer. Now, nothing is set in stone yet, and the Kaiser is giving us a chance to say our peace,” Meagher wrote in his column, “Dare to eat a peach.”

Judging by past conversations, I have had with Freeland, this column probably didn’t go over very well. Let’s hope this one doesn’t warrant the same reaction. But Meagher hit on the same theme that the Student Government Association began pushing for in the fall quarter of 1999, when it voted against converting to semesters, and continues to fight for Northeastern’s identity today.

Northeastern is a co-op school, always has and hopefully always will be. But NU is no stranger to change, especially when it comes to the academic calendar. From 1909 to 1962 the university saw constant change, eight times over. And yet, NU was still the school that everyone attended via a commute, of course. So what’s the big deal about this conversion?

I’ll have to back up Meagher on this one; it has to do with the school’s identity. It is the co-op program that sets NU apart. It is also the students. The students that relied on co-op to put them through classes in the 1950s, 60s 70s and even 80s and Northeastern was the school that could pitch an education to those who had a short attention span and were craving real world experience. That is Northeastern.

If converting to semesters means losing the spark of co-op and driving away the charismatic students who have always fought for what they deemed as right and fair, then count me out. Convert my credits and I’m out the door. If the fine print says that Northeastern is switching over to the other side just to say it is on the same page as the remainder of colleges and universities, or to tap into the infamous top 100 – it is not worth it.

To sell the sale of semesters to students, stand up and take center stage, tell us why and honestly how. The clock is ticking it is not 1999. The logistics have been tentatively set since May 4, 2000 when the proposal for semester conversion was brought before Faculty Senate. Proposals and fictitious models based on “average” students will not get the job done and the student’s were not and are not yet satisfied.

Fast forward to March 2003, spring quarter is breathing down all of our necks and semester conversion is just crossing the horizon. Honestly, students are confused, angry and they have questions.

The knocking on the door is getting louder.

It’s here.

“This is the end of the tour ladies and gentlemen, please watch the doors. This is the Northeastern of the future,” Meagher said in the final lines of his infamous column. “The doors open. What do you see?”