Rumors of schedule changes confirmed and denied
Many students around campus have heard rumors about schedule changes taking place in the fall. Dr. Ken Harmon, provost and vice president for academic affairs, has confirmed some suspicions and denied others.
Harmon confirmed that there will be scheduling changes taking place fall 2012, because of capacity issues.
“Our classrooms are near capacity during peak times Monday through Thursday. We simply cannot accommodate additional growth unless we schedule classes during other times, especially on Fridays. Furthermore, we will not be able to request new buildings until we show we are effectively using our classrooms all days of the week,” said Harmon.
Harmon denied a rumor about the schedules being only Mon-Wed-Fri and Tue-Thu to say that the new schedules will have several options, and departments will choose whichever best meets their needs.
Though not all classes will be Mon-Wed-Fri, those that are will be 50 minutes long as opposed to the current 75 minutes in most classes, with the possibility that students may only have 10 minutes to get to each class, said Harmon, confirming another rumor about the Mon-Wed-Fri classes.
When asked about another rumor, that Tue-Thu classes would be reserved for freshman and General Education classes, Harmon simply said, “This is not true. We are simply providing a template to departments and asking them to schedule classes across all days of the week. The departments choose the class schedules that are best for their classes.”
The decision-making process for this involved a committee that included students, faculty, staff and administration. They met every week and made their best efforts to take inputs from all perspectives, said Harmon.
“Students and faculty play a critical role in these decisions, and they played an important role during this process,” Harmon said. “These types of changes could not be effectively executed without participation from all groups.”
“Frankly, I think KSU is one of the most efficient universities in the state and the region. We always have done amazing things with limited resources. With regard to our physical resources though, I think we were at a tipping point. We simply could not have quality growth unless we used our classrooms all days of the week, including Fridays,” said Harmon.
The university will experience this template for the first time this fall, and it will continue to change as needed throughout the semesters.
