The Office of the Registrar recently introduced a series of scheduling revisions it will implement next academic year. Senior associate provost Christine Maziar said the changes aim to reduce the number of course conflicts.
"What we have done is opened up more scheduling slots, particularly on Monday and Wednesday mornings, that allow for classes previously held on Tuesdays and Thursdays to be held on Mondays and Wednesdays," Maziar said.
Under the new system, some classes will start at 8:20 a.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and last an hour and 15 minutes, Maziar said.
Maziar said the current scheduling system is "inefficient and increasingly causing problems for students." It does not permit the scheduling of courses outside standard offering times unless the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Dean approve that scheduling, she said.
"When courses are scheduled outside of standard times, it creates a series of conflicts for students," Maziar said. "Students encountered difficulties in scheduling standard courses they needed or desired because non-standard courses created conflicts in their schedules, blocking them from taking the necessary standard courses."
The revised system will minimize these conflicts, Maziar said.
"I would imagine that the ability to offer Monday-Wednesday classes on the same course offering pattern as Tuesday-Thursday classes will open up more opportunities for students to put together their schedules," she said. "The scheduling change means that all classes will fit into standard slots, either a Monday-Wednesday-Friday pattern, a Monday-Wednesday pattern or a Tuesday-Thursday pattern, although there are important exceptions like language courses that
meet five days a week or laboratory courses that require a three-hour class period."
Maziar said she expects College of Arts and Letters students, in particular, to benefit from these changes because the Tuesday-Thursday course pattern is so popular within the College.
Maziar said professors brought The current schedulingtconflict to her attention last fall when they were Unable to schedule certain classes because teaching space was largely unavailablr. Upon further investigation, she said she noticedsclassrooms were being used unproductively and proposed adjusting class times in order to increase classroom availability.
Students likely will welcome the scheduling revisions, Maziar said. She said it was important the adjustment occur at the beginning and not in the middle of an academic year so as to ensure a smooth transition to the new system
"We worked diligently so that the scheduling framework would be in place before students registered for classes at the end of this spring semester," Maziar said.
