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A missing Monday and a supernumerary Tuesday
To the Editor:
The current semester's schedule of classes includes just 13 Mondays, and it has 15 Tuesdays. There are 14 of the other weekdays.
The result is that students with a M-W-F class schedule have 2,230 classroom contact minutes, which is less than the SUNY and state Department of Education-mandated 2,250 minutes. Students on a T-Th schedule have 2,500 minutes of classroom contact hours, rather more than needed.
Thus, there is 10 percent more class time for the same course scheduled on T-Th than for those scheduled on M-W-F. There is no plausible pedagogical objective served by such discrepancies.
The solution is to follow a Monday schedule on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. There then would be 2,280 classroom contact minutes for those on a M-W-F schedule, which meets the requirements; the T-Th number of contact minutes would still be rather more—2,420. This results from 3*50 being less than 2*80. (See other letter).
This has the further advantage that students who don't have a M-W-F schedule can leave without missing any class the Friday before Thanksgiving week, and students with a M-W-F schedule stay for two days of classes, rather than just one Monday class that they tend to skip.
Sincerely,
John C. G. Boot
Professor
Deparment of Management Science and Systems
A calendar with one-week-shorter semesters
To the Editor:
Our current Fall and Spring semesters last roughly 16 weeks: 14 weeks of classes, 1 week of vacation, 1 week of exams. It cannot be less than that, because the M-W-F schedule of three weekly 50-minute classes requires 14 full weeks to meet the required number of classroom contact hours, 2,250. With a 180-minute exam period, the semester has 14*3*50 + 180 = 2,280 minutes.
The T-Th schedule, however, meets the standards with just 13 weeks of classes, for 13*2*80 + 180 = 2,260.
Thus, if we change the structure of the calendar to follow a T-Th schedule of six 80-minute classes (starting at 8, 9.30, 11, 12.30, 2, and 3.30) on (say) M-Th and on T-F; with three-hour classes scheduled for Wednesdays (starting at 8, 11, and 2, and allowing for a 10-minute break in between), we could compact the semesters by a week, with great benefits all around:
Less set-up time (blackboards, computers, projectors); on average one fewer class per student (and faculty member); about 7 percent less traffic and parking; more time for student services, such as registration, financial aid, and so on. It also would, by my reckoning, cost 3 percent less to run.
If the current semester had been scheduled as suggested here, we could have started after Labor Day, and with one Tuesday changed to a Monday schedule (see other letter), we would have met all legal requirements.
We would be able to schedule three full semesters each year, allowing students to speed up their progress or, in any event, to graduate on time. Those six-week summer sessions, which never leave enough time to 'think' and 'digest,' would be sins of the past.
Sincerely,
John C. G. Boot
Professor
Department of Management Science and Systems