by Scott Mac Kay
Staff Writer
With the hope of alleviating growing conflicts in class schedules and better utilizing existing classroom space, the University of La Verne is exploring the possibility of changing its scheduling for daytime classes from four to five days a week. The change would have classes meet either on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Dr. Bill Cook, vice-president of academic affairs, said, “A four-day schedule means one-fifth of the time our classrooms are not being used, which means if we had teaching all days of the week, we would have one-fifth more classroom space.”
Classroom space has always been a concern at La Verne, according to Dr. Cook.
“The reason we moved the class time up to 7:30 a.m. is we had maxed out classroom space. We are currently teaching in the Chapel and the rooms under the gym, a couple of spaces that are not good for teaching,” he said.
Dr. John Gingrich, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the schedule change is “a possibility that the faculty has asked we explore. I was expecting a lot of resistance. I took the idea to the faculty meeting last Wednesday (March 6) for the Arts and Sciences. I had an overwhelming response. Many have used this system before.”
The new scheduling system would also allow two-hour time blocks for classes, another issue that many faculty members support. The idea of the new schedule is to have three- and four-unit, one-hour classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays would have two-hour classes each day, for a total of four unit hours. The evening class times, after 4 p.m., would remain unchanged.
Dr. Gingrich also said the new schedule would help lessen the impact of overscheduling during the most desirable class times, between 10 a.m. to noon.
“What we want to happen is better learning. If this schedule can help in that, we are doing our students a service,” he said.
One problem arising from the change is the issue of student employment on Wednesday.
Dr. Gingrich said, “Some students say, ‘Wednesday is when I work.’ My sense is that a person could arrange a schedule with most of their classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and have two days to work. Or can arrange to have two afternoons free. In the end they could end up with more time to work. We know many students have to work, and we are not trying to penalize them.”
Currently, the Registrar’s Office is working on a model to show how the new schedule would effect total class scheduling.
“We do not know the total rooms and how to map the schedule until we have a model, which is what the Registrar is doing now,” Dr. Cook said.
One option for building the model is to purchase computerized scheduling software.
“You can plug in all the variables and it gives you different models. There are several colleges that use this system,” said Adeline Cardenas-Clague, dean of enrollment services, about the software.
“It would be nice to have a computer software package, but that would cost about $25,000,” Dr. Gingrich said. “We also want to integrate the athletic schedules—we’ve had trouble with the afternoon classes. Also the possibility to schedule time for no classes to facilitate meetings.”
Debi Stanley, director of academic advising, said, “There is no perfect schedule for everyone, but we need to find what is the best system. I do not want the University to jump into anything without knowing the impact on the students.”
Until the modeling of the schedule change is completed, the advantages of such a system will not be known.
“It is possible that complications in the five-day schedule could have more disadvantages than the advantages of a four-day system,” said Dr. Cook.
He also said that he was “interested in having ASF look at the modeling” for student input into the new schedule.
