In the final days of shopping period, students, professors and administrators are struggling to organize their academic schedules in the face of over-enrolled classes offered during popular hours.
With a growing number of classes shifted to 80-minute formats, more pressure is being placed on Tuesday and Thursday time slots.
According to University Registrar Michael Pesta, the number of classes per hour each department could hold varied based on the size of the department. A department offering 10 classes, for example, could offer only one course per hour. Class meeting times were determined in March by individual departments.
This presents a problem for students, who prefer certain hours over others. According to Pesta, classes offered between 9 a.m and 4 p.m. are the most popular. Classes at C, D, G, H, I, J and K hours fill to capacity the fastest.
Classes offered later in the day or evening tend to be less popular because professors want to go home and students want to participate in extracurricular activities or study. Classes offered early in the morning are unpopular because college students and professors like to sleep in.
"You can have your pick of rooms at A hour," which meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8 a.m., Pesta said.
But Daniel Butler '09 said he would never take an 8 a.m. class.
"My sleep deprivation would offset any educational value from the class," he said.
Keji Eboda '08 takes a different approach to scheduling. She adjusted her schedule to include an 8 a.m. Spanish class in order to attend a history class at a different hour. She said it was more important to take classes that truly interested her than to sleep in.
"It's easy enough for me to get up," she said.
Though she is willing to wake up early, Eboda said her ideal class would meet between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. She also prefers classes that meet twice a week for 80 minutes, she said.
Pesta attributed the shift toward 80-minute classes in part to the new facilities many classrooms have to offer.
"With the increased role of technology," Pesta said, "the professor needs a few minutes to set up. If that takes 10 minutes, he's still got an hour and 10 minutes to teach." To accommodate this, the registrar is trying to add another 80-minute slot.
"AB hour was an attempt to take a three-day per week class and change it into a twice a week format," he said.
Another change affecting scheduling is the new classroom space available to professors. In the past few years, the University has added lecture halls and smaller classrooms in the renovated Smith-Buonanno building and Sayles Hall, among other locations.
But a rise in faculty members and courses offered has somewhat diminished the effect of the additional rooms.
The lack of space sometimes leaves students taking classes at times they never anticipated. Butler was originally scheduled to take Chinese from 1 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. every day, but the class was so large that the teacher had to redistribute the students to different sections. Now, Butler's meets for the class at 2 p.m while some other students have to take the class at 9 a.m.
Pesta said situations like this one arise frequently.
"Many professors want to move rooms to accommodate more students," he said. But given the current space limitations students must sometimes deal with whatever hours they can get.
