10:06 a.m., March 7, 2011----The upcoming remodeling of Alison Hall will affect classroom scheduling campuswide, beginning with the fall 2011 semester.

THIS STORY

E-mail

Print

Twitter

The loss of the 10 classrooms in Alison Hall means that 122 classes will need to be relocated next semester and for the duration of the renovation project. The already high demand for courses at mid-day puts an additional strain on the centrally scheduled inventory of classrooms.

The four most desired class meeting times currently are the 10:10-11 a.m. period on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays; and the 9:30-10:45 a.m., 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and 2-3:15 p.m. periods on Tuesdays/Thursdays.

The only way to meet this need for space is by scheduling more classes earlier or later in the day or on the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

In order to optimize classroom use, courses meeting in general purpose classrooms may need to be assigned to different locations than in the past.

"We will need the full support and cooperation of departments and faculty to resolve this issue," UD Provost Tom Apple said. "We ask faculty to be flexible and not necessarily plan on holding class at the same time and in the same space as they have in previous semesters. On the positive side, when the remodeling is complete, we will have refreshed classroom space."

Some 3,000 classes are scheduled each semester using centrally scheduled classrooms. There are now 168 classrooms that are centrally scheduled each semester through the Office of the Registrar. An additional 210 spaces on campus are controlled by departments, and courses or labs in these spaces will continue to meet in those spaces.

The previous informal policy of rolling classroom assignments, in which faculty members were able to have the same classroom and time period from one semester to the next, is being examined and may need to be discontinued.

Increased demand for classroom space makes the rolling policy more problematic, and its elimination would make the use of the registrar's scheduling software system, CollegeNET Resource 25, more efficient. For example, the software can schedule classrooms back to back for professors teaching multiple classes.

Looking to the future, an ad hoc Faculty Senate committee is currently investigating issues related to classroom scheduling, including modifications to the current class meeting schedule.

Additional information on the course scheduling policy is available online in the Faculty Handbook.