By: Kelly Malambri / Contributing Writer
Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, most commuting students travel down various traffic-packed Miami roads in order to attend 50-minute classes at the University. After one class is released, the next may not begin for another 2 or 3 hours. Students’ long drive home during rush hour may then result in more time spent outside of the classroom than in it on an average day.
On Jan. 31, 2011, The Beacon published an article describing students’ and professors’ disappointment with the University’s change from a Monday through Thursday schedule to a Monday through Friday block schedule, which was implemented 4 years ago. Although a change to the schedule was necessary, the short classes that the new block schedule offers affect the University community in a negative manner. The block schedule was put in place to promote efficient classroom use, yet has caused students and professors to inefficiently manage time, and should be revised.
The variety of classes offered before and after the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. block schedule time frame should be extended in order to assist in the creation of well-rounded students, which should be one of the main goals of any university. In a study conducted by Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability, which examined the state’s universities usage of classrooms Monday through Friday between 8 a.m and 8 p.m., a peak in classroom usage consistently occurred from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The OPPAGA concluded the peak was due to student work schedules and other obligations. The University, however, conducts the block schedule from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., leaving classes offered during this peak time on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays limited. The lack of variety of classes offered during these hours, which are mainly utilized by students with jobs, internship, or extra curricular obligations, holds students back by limiting them, and more options should be made available.
In the 50-minute block schedule, students are not the only ones limited. Daily routines like taking attendance, booting up equipment and opening PowerPoint presentations take a significant amount of time out of the short 50-minute class, and limit the time professors have to teach. If “time is money,” then the University as well as students paying by the credit hour simply cannot afford to encounter such delays three times a week at the beginning of every brief class.
While it is true that students may enroll in online classes, the University charges an extra $199 to take them. Such high fees are not affordable by many students who receive financial aid or pay out-of-pocket for school, eliminating this option for many. Because online courses, meant to accommodate those with full schedules, come with such hefty fees and are, therefore, unavailable to many students, it’s only equitable that more flexible options, like many various classes offered beyond the 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday, be available to students on campus.
In such an urban university setting in which many students work before and after school and commute to and from school, flexible class options must be made available. The block schedule the University has adopted has proved to be uncompromising.
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