A class scheduling change took away the three-day weekend University students and faculty grew accustomed to, but the trade-off is worth every penny.
The University changed from a Monday through Thursday schedule to a Monday through Friday one in Fall 2007, meaning that classes that were once an hour and 15 minutes on Monday and Wednesday, are now 50 minutes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
This change was in response to a projected decrease in funds from the State Legislature’s Public Education Capital Outlay fund in 2006-2007 and a study from Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability which showed the University was lowest in the state in term of classroom utilization.
In an article The Beacon ran on Jan. 31 both students and faculty found the new class schedule to inconvenience students’ work schedules, and didn’t provide professors enough class time.
We empathize with students who have difficulty syncing their school and work schedules. However, we feel professors’ complaints are petty and don’t take into account all the benefits the new schedule has brought to the University.
For the 2010-11 school year the University was awarded $34 million in PECO funding, more than any other university in the State University System received. The previous year the University only received $10 million in funding, according to a June 2010 Beacon report, accounting for an increase of 340 percent. Without more classroom utilization the University would not have seen such a dramatic increase in funding.
Jefferey Gonzalez, associate vice president of Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, said in the Jan. 31 article the University used the PECO funds to renovated classrooms. The funds will also be used for a student support services building, a neuroscience center and a four-story astronomy observation platform.
Stephen Luscher, a business instructor, said in the Jan. 31 article the schedule was a waste of time due to “the loss of time due to the professor getting ready taking attendance.”
Furthermore, Meri-Jane Rochelson, English professor and chairwoman of the English department at the Biscayne Bay Campus, said during a recent interview with Student Media faculty in her department found 50 minutes to not be enough time. “Class would end just as a discussion was getting started,” Rochelson said.
A solution to similar problems would be to arrive to class early enough to take care of tasks such as taking attendance and making announcements, in addition to making an effort to use the time they have efficiently by avoiding going into unrelated tangents during their lessons.
Due to low enrollment numbers for upper-division courses, the English department at the BBC now offers these courses only on Tuesday and Thursday, according to Rochelson. Despite the setback, we feel these adjustments are necessary for a full increase in classroom utilization.
Also, the new schedule is helpful to freshman students said Howard Rock, professor in the history department, in a Nov. 2007 Beacon article. “It helps students stay focused, especially in the lower division classes,” Rock said. “The classes are shorter, so they are easier to handle for the students coming in fresh from high school.”
In all, we feel that the benefits of this scheduling change outweighs the minor gripes faculty may have, and the University is more than capable of making the needed adjustments.
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