Common Hour changes, limited to one day a week
A revised version of Common Hour was presented Monday to members of the USU faculty senate. In its latest form, Common Hour would be held on Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Jo Olsen, a former member of USU student government, was involved in the initial planning of Common Hour and presented the recent changes. Common Hour was previously planned to take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays but was revised due to scheduling conflicts with hundreds of university courses. The new system, Olsen said, drastically reduces the number of courses that would require complete displacement.
“There are fewer than 20 classes that wouldn’t be accommodated,” Olsen said.
As explained by Olsen, this would be achieved by converting those classes held Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:30 a.m. into a twice-weekly, 90-minute format. All classes occurring after 12:30 p.m. on those days would be “rolled” back 30 minutes to begin on the hour.
“Implementing the roll helps with not having to move as many classes,” Olsen said.
When Common Hour was first announced, students and faculty expressed concern about their courses being moved from the afternoon hours to either early morning or late afternoon slots. With the revision, Olsen said this scenario is avoided.
“Students won’t be taking a course at 7:30 (a.m.) that wasn’t already taught at 7:30,” Olsen said.
Paul Jakus, chair of the department head executive council, said the changes were made to avoid relocating the large number of classes affected by the original proposition.
“You’re pushing the entire academic schedule into late in the day,” Jakus said of the previous Common Hour format.
Jakus said there are classes that don’t lend themselves to a 90-minute length that will need relocation, but the majority should be able to adapt to the twice-weekly format.
“I teach a class that could easily be done in 50 minutes or an hour and 15,” Jakus said.
During the senate meeting, a question was raised regarding those courses that would still require relocation. USU Registrar John Mortensen said most of the courses in question have unique schedules and will need individual adjustment.
“Most of them are classes that don’t occur during regular bell time,” Mortensen said.
Discussion on the revisions was brief during the senate meeting. Some questions were asked for points of clarification, and one member of the senate commented that USU had a common hour in the past but the program was terminated due to low student attendance at lectures.
“That seems odd that we disrupt all of campus for an event that accommodates 200-300 students,” said Craig Petersen, economics and finance professor.
Olsen said the common hour will provide time for more than just event scheduling, giving the example of students working on an assignment in groups.
“Students are very good at filling those gaps in,” Olsen said.
While implementation of a major change will always raise concerns, Jakus said the Wednesday compromise minimizes the issues created with common hour.
“What I do like about the compromise is it definitely gives the Common Hour a chance to succeed,” he said. “You don’t have as many dominoes falling down the line. It becomes much easier to implement.”
Jakus said the feedback to the new proposal has been mostly positive. The majority of lingering concerns have less to do with scheduling conflicts and more with whether or not Common Hour is a worthwhile endeavor. Jakus was optimistic about the program’s goals, especially its potential to allow time for faculty and student group meetings.
“If students use it for that, that’s great, and it will be worth the effort,” Jakus said.
Mortensen and the staff of the Registrar’s office ran multiple scenarios for Common Hour, looking at what times and days of the week would require the greatest class relocation. The Wednesday proposal, he said, leaves only 15 courses that will require special assignment after exemptions are accounted for.
“If we have to have a Common Hour this one is the least cost,” Mortensen said.
Labs and classes longer than 90 minutes will be exempt from the changes, for a total of 52 such courses in the latest version of Common Hour. Mortensen said once a final version of Common Hour has been officially approved by the administration, schedulers will turn the classroom allotment and course selection over to the various department heads.
– b.c.wood@aggiemail.usu.edu