By Kassondra Granata
Even though CCSU changed the schedule for this semester, the new campus “University Hour” is still not being utilized to its full potential.
Carl Lovitt, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs since May 2006, recognizes this and plans on emphasizing its importance to the Registrar’s office for the spring semester.
“There has always been an hour that we set aside where clubs can meet or we can schedule events that the university can attend,” said Lovitt. “Somehow, it got dropped.”
Just this semester Lovitt had redone the calendar and the schedule blocks due to its disorganization. Some class ending and starting times overlapped one another leading to the university not having enough classrooms for courses.
For this academic year, the “University Hour” was intended for Tuesday and Thursday from 3:05-4:20, but departments have disregarded the new calendar and scheduled classes at that time.
While turning in the schedule block for the spring semester, Lovitt made it clear that the time slot for the University Hour will not have classes scheduled at that time.
“Hopefully in the future, we will not have classes scheduled at this time and we can really utilize the University Hour,” said Lovitt. “It would really be beneficial for on-campus involvement and for clubs. We are still working on what it can actually be used for.”
In terms of the new schedule, Lovitt stated that he has received positive feedback, with the only problem being night classes. Lovitt has been getting complaints from faculty and students that the time slot for the 7:20-9:55 class is “too late.”
“Even though its only twenty minutes later than the class used to end, people seem to think it’s a problem,” said Lovitt. “If I hear any more resistance, I will take it to the [faculty]senate and find a solution.”
Before the change to the block scheduling , the university started off the spring 2011 semester with twenty to thirty classes without rooms due to over-scheduling. This semester however, only three did not have a meeting space which CCSU still managed to find space for.
“When we took away the competition, it nearly doubled,” said Lovitt. “We had doubled the amount of evening classes and increased the amount of day classes. This was a huge improvement on paper. We now have enough classes to fit all of the courses in.”
Other than addressing the “University Hour,” Lovitt is working hard to adjust the schedule to ensure that the university can offer all courses that students need in a “timely fashion.”
“If we took advantage of morning classes and Friday classes, we can find more room for students to take courses as well.”
According to Lovitt, the university schedule should not be driven by convenience, but by student need.
“If we as an institution want to make sure students get the courses they need, we can’t act like we only have four days to use our classrooms. Our only way to appeal to the students is to spread out the schedule,” said Lovitt. “If you walk around campus on a Friday, there are more than enough classrooms open for courses.”
Lovitt has brought this to the faculty senate and will continue to fight for it.
“People are fighting me on this, but that’s my stance,” finished Lovitt.
