Abstract
This reflective article describes the journey of three new faculty members trying to reconcile the differences between teaching regular length semester courses and compressed summer courses. The authors document their struggle to maintain academic rigor while accommodating the time compressed nature of summer semester courses. An analysis of teaching methodology, approaches to student assessment, and other pedagogical issues is discussed and recommendations for teaching and research are made. It was determined that academic rigor and learning outcomes do not need to be compromised due to time constraints of the teaching schedule.