The 4-1-4 Bandwagon.
The task of describing current national trends among schools which have adopted the 4-1-4 academic calendar is quite like Charles Darwin's attempt to describe the many varieties of finches which adaptively evolved on the Galapagos Islands. There are now over three hundred colleges which have adopted some version of the 4-1-4 plan during the last decade' and although some trends have clearly emerged, there is likely to be more divergence than convergence as the concept continues to evolve. Two early interim term programs which originated in the early 1960s, at Florida Presbyterian College and Colby College, were intended primarily as periods of independent study and were based on a fairly structured plan for development of study skills. Macalester and Gustavus Adolphus colleges began interim terms in 1963-64 with different ideas in mind: faculty experimentation with new courses, increased use of off-campus resources, and increased student freedom and responsibility, in addition to independent study.2