The Whitworthian

Issue date: 2/26/08 Last Updated: 2/29/08

This year, as in years past, students could be walking to a Monday class at 9:15 a.m. and be reasonably sure of arriving on time.

Next semester, they would arrive 10 minutes late.

Beginning in fall 2008, the university will institute a revised weekly planning calendar, the template of class times that determines when each class will begin and end. Among other things, the calendar will allow for staggered lunch breaks and provide better use of classroom space during the day, registrar Bev Kleeman said. (To view the revised weekly planning calendar, click here)

"The big picture goal is to have more schedulable class times, so we adjusted class times to fit into a more efficient schedule," said Barb Sanders, assistant dean of instruction.

With the changes, the Monday-Wednesday-Friday class times will generally move earlier. A 10:40 a.m. class, for example, will start at 10:25 a.m.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, classes will be more condensed around the revised Chapel schedule, which places 30-minute Chapel meetings on both days and took effect last semester.

The current calendar still carves out an hour-long slot for Chapel, so the class times could easily move to provide more time at the end of the day, Sanders said.

"I supported it because it gives another teaching slot during the day," faculty vice president Warren Friedrichs said. "It wasn't a major change, but it was going to make the school run better."

Along with staggered lunch hours and extra class times, the new schedule provides a designated time for faculty governance on Monday afternoons.

Faculty governance refers to department meetings, faculty standing committees, department chair meetings and faculty assemblies, each of which occur once per month, Sanders said.

An additional advantage of scheduling faculty governance on Monday afternoons is that more athletic coaches can participate because many sports have Monday off from practice, Kleeman said.

Kleeman said the staggered lunch times will hopefully provide students more access to lunch facilities, adding that while Sodexho has no problem catering to large crowds, seating has become fairly limited.

The Dean's Council, which includes Sanders and Kleeman and consists of several other members of faculty and administration, drew up three revised calendar options in fall 2007. In their October meeting, the Department Chairs approved the schedule that will take effect next semester, Sanders said.

The Dean's Council proposed two other schedules, one of which cut class times to 50 minutes and extended the semester, which was impossible, Kleeman said. The other schedule designated Friday afternoons for faculty governance.

"It was a challenge to fit science labs into the new schedule, but we have a new science building on the way in a few years so that will free up times," Sanders said.

In a near-unanimous vote, the faculty approved the first option, Friedrichs said.

Contact James Spung at james.spung@whitworthian.com.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools

The Whitworthian encourages readers to comment on any content on the whitworthian.com. Article comments can be posted by anyone. The opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinion of The Whitworthian, its editors or its staff. The Whitworthian strives to monitor and delete comments with profanity, personal attacks, threats of violence or that violate the law or common decency. However, since The Whitworthian does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not find offensive or inaccurate comments on occasion.

For this reason, The Whitworthian asks readers to be responsible and respectful in any comments posted. The responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not the whitworthian.com. Readers are also encouraged to report questionable comments by e-mailing editor@whitworthian.com.