Spring 2016, students will face a variety of changes to their course lists and schedules, including the addition of new classes and the elimination of the 8:05 a.m. class block.
The decision, made a year ago by the Registration, Records and Calendar Committee, will result in the pushback of classes by 30 minutes and an increase in the number of 75-minute courses offered.
“On average, students preferred 8:30 classes over 8:05 classes and the 75-minute classes over the 50-minute classes,” said Louis Hunt, senior vice provost and university registrar.
These changes will align Main Campus’ timetable more closely with Centennial Campus’, resulting in less scheduling conflicts. Another possible result is a reduction in the amount of congestion experienced by staggering the arrival of faculty and students to campus.
These timetable changes shouldn’t drastically change student life on campus, but, “can, in theory, push classes later in the day,” Hunt said.
Twenty-four new courses are being added to the course list, seven of which are GEP courses. New courses are added for a number of reasons. One of State’s goals is to maintain an innovative and relevant course list. Classes might be added based on student surveys, faculty suggestions or accreditation requirements.
“The faculty really help shape and manage the course list,” said Barbara Kirby, professor and associate vice provost of Administration and Curricular Programs.
When a faculty member wants to develop a course, the course first goes through the Courses and Departmental Committee where it is evaluated on its innovative values. From there, the course must be approved by a department head before moving to the college’s Courses and Departmental Committee where it is evaluated on its relevance to the rest of the course list among other factors. From there, it is pushed to the University Courses and Curricula Committee, where the prospective class is looked at by representatives from the faculty, library, student body and other relevant agencies and eventually finalized.
There are two student seats available on the University Courses and Curricula Committee. Members of the committee vote at committee meetings and have the opportunity to provide immense input on the student perspective. There is only one student currently on the committee, Mian Wu, a graduate studying educational research and policy analysis, while the other seat remains vacant. Student Senate President Cody Long serves as a placeholder on this committee and assigns senators to participate. He served on the last Council of Undergraduate Education as well.
“[The experience] was great; we got to talk about things like U.S. diversity, global knowledge and bringing the student senate and student voice into that,” Long said.
“The student voice on these committees is really important,” Kirby said.
Besides student evaluations, the committees seem to be one of the few forums where students get to voice their opinions.
“I think it’s a great idea — most people I know work late and want to sleep early, so this seems like a good shift,” said Austin Pate, a junior studying criminology.