Night and Day Classes Will Be Divided to Clear Up Overlap

By Jason Cunningham

At Central Connecticut State University, spring marks the brand new course time block schedule that will be implemented next year.

“Whatever scheduling needs each department has, I see it as my job that those needs are brought to the registrar and expressed and that she takes those concerns into account while making the schedule,” said Candace Barrington, English professor and Faculty Senate President.

According to Barrington, one of the biggest problems with the current time-block schedule is that there is not an easy transition from the day classes to the night classes. Expanding the number of time blocks and options by creating common ending times for classes eliminates the scenario where overlap causes a classroom to go unused.

“Day classes would end at 5:15 and evening classes would start at 5 [p.m.] so these classrooms couldn’t be used until 6. They’re trying to begin and end classes at the same time so classrooms just aren’t sitting there not being used,” said Barrington.

Barrington has helped conduct this dialogue for over a year. Often, she said, people haven’t been paying attention to the information that’s been provided.

“All of the sudden [professors] say it won’t work, even though they had the opportunity to express their interests,” said Barrington. “This is trying to address the needs of the largest number of people. Every year there’s a shortage of classrooms. We had to fix that.”

Joseph Paige, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, and registrar Susan Petrosino are two key players in constructing the new time block schedule.

“We’ve done a lot of research on this, we’ve presented it to various committees, faculty senate. We’ve met with I can’t even tell you, I’d say dozen of department chairs. Anyone who has raised a question, we’ve spoken to,” said Paige.

According to Paige, some programs had concerns that made a good point not to change. Most of those, however, had their rooms already set. For example art and music programs, which have rooms dedicated to them, have availability greater than rooms used for multiple disciplines.

“We analyzed the usage of time and classrooms. We understand that a lot of departments are comfortable with what they’ve been doing, but there are students who haven’t been able to graduate simply because timing issues and overlap. Over the past three years, four or five different models of this schedule have been produced,” said Paige.

In a memo sent out to department chairs and faculty, James Mulrooney, chair of academic standards committee of the faculty senate, highlighted various reasons explaining why the spring 2011 time block change will be beneficial to the CCSU community. Mulrooney, an associate professor of biomolecular sciences, sees the change as a necessary one for the university.

“By setting a start time for evening class, we’re doubling the time available for evening classes. Since the new time blocks allow us to maximize the usage of classrooms, we’ll have a lot more time blocks overall. It’s close to 3,100 potential time blocks for classes,” said Mulrooney.

The new plan boasts 755 additional opportunities for evening class scheduling.

“It is going to mean more work for department chairs and a little more effort to be creative in our scheduling. It’s not a major change for everybody as far as looking at different options,” Mulrooney said.

Part of the new time block schedule will include a university hour built in. This is time that will be provided for student club meetings, speakers, community engagement, events and professional development. By installing the university hour, these functions can now take place in a time that’s convenient for the majority of those on campus.

“There’s a better chance for community to develop within the university hour,” said Paige.

The university hour, which falls from 3-4 every Tuesday and Thursday, has been plugged in so that everyone is aware that the free hour is there to be utilized.

“If you’re doing Tuesday/Thursday blocks that overlap with university hour, you’re not going to get to use that time, but it will free up a large percentage of other people on campus. So you see, it’s not something we’re imposing,” said Mulrooney.

Open forums addressing the new time block are scheduled for March 2 from 10-10:45 and on March 3 from 4-4:45 in Vance 106.

“The forums will be information-based. We can provide feedback; we can help answer how one can adapt. It’s critical for students to know that a lot of time went into this. This new schedule should not impact students negatively. It only makes for additional scheduling opportunities,” Mulrooney said.

The university is trying to be very transparent, said Paige.

“It seems like we get a lot of questions right before we’re about present it. That’s why it’s necessary for this time for people to come out and look at what we’ve spent our time doing. We don’t want to disrupt what’s going on, we want to create a better experience for the students and to make better use of our campus,” Paige said.

“According to Paige, there will be a need to move forward once the meetings begin. Afterwards, the departments need to get together to arrange times for their courses so that students can use their time here in the most efficient way possible. This way, the university can better assure that students can graduate at the appropriate time.

“From the students we’ve spoken to, the majority want this,” said Paige.

Last semester, 121 students participated in a survey conducted by CCSU’s Student Government Association to gauge what students’ felt about the proposal of a new time block schedule. Of those surveyed, 121, 66 percent said that they’d prefer the new system, while 34 percent said they’d prefer the current scheduling blocks. The students here today, however, aren’t the only focus.

“We are seeing and will be seeing more people from community colleges. The traditional college freshman straight from a high school is slowly going to decline. With the current economic crisis students will want the cheapest option. They’ll also want the opportunity to be able to work,” said Mulrooney. “We should be able to produce schedules to help the changing demographics of our students. All of the positives outweigh the negatives.”

The idea of additional time flexibility offered by the new time block schedule seems appealing, but whether or not it will actually work is up to CCSU’s five schools.

“Joe Paige and Susan Petrosino have been working on this for a long time. They’ve listened to people’s concerns and adjusted and I don’t expect this to be perfect, but they’re attentive to people’s concerns, and they’ll tweak it until it can work for as many as possible,” Barrington said.