Many years ago, after consulting with our atmospheric sciences students, we worked to offer as many of our classes for majors before mid afternoon and on a MW or TTh schedule. Many of our students work off campus or are interested in outdoor recreation (or both) and wanted to have their classes scheduled in a way to allow them to attend school most efficiently.
So when University of Utah Provost Mitzi Montoya announced a few weeks ago that all departments would be asked to schedule no more than 50% of their classes between 9 AM and 2 PM, I knew it would not go over well with the students.
Indeed, this plan was met with overwhelming and near unanimous derision on social media. Today, the Deseret News reported that over 6400 people have signed a petition asking for this decision to be overturned.
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| Source: Deseret News |
The 50% "rule" will apply starting in spring semester. In Fall 2026, "scheduling expectations will also apply by day of the week. No more than 30% of classes should be scheduled during primetime on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, and no more than 30% during primetime on Tuesday/Thursday. At least 40% of courses must be scheduled outside of primetime hours."
A couple of arguments made for moving away from a "stacked schedule" (their term) by the administration have merit. One is that it can be harder for students to schedule required classes (or more commonly for students in my department electives) when they are compressed into a small time window. Another is that it exacerbates space problems on campus (classrooms, parking, etc.). Others I'm skeptical of, such as the stacked schedule increasing debt and decreasing value.
Ultimately this is yet another example of a rigid rule being imposed by the higher administration across all units without consideration of the diversity of course offerings and major plans that exist across campus. The enrollment distribution and demographics of my department is such that the 50% rule makes little sense. Our highest demand non-major classes have online options that don't even require students to come to campus. These are, however, a small percentage of the classes we teach. A greater percentage of our classes are small enrollment classes taken by majors. Spreading these classes out over the day will only mean our students are on campus longer.
Addendum:
Now also covered in the Salt Lake Tribune: https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2025/09/03/worst-possible-solution-university/.
6000 UU students signed a petition! From my experience on that campus, albeit a while ago, that is a huge number. I don’t think the rollout of this change went as expected for the administration. Would be useful to know what percentages of classes are in those prime MW or TR slots currently? Maybe this isn’t that big of a change, but without those data how would one know? Instead of some authoritarian top down edict on percentages that departments have to meet, maybe try getting the departments that have the worst percentages currently to just move one or two classes each semester for a few years. You know, incremental change sort of under the radar that changes perception slowly and doesn’t cause a fuss. In other words, leadership.
ReplyDeleteAh, admin is using mission aligned planning or MAP. "A framework that helps academic leaders make strategic, mission-aligned decisions using data, tools and collaborative planning processes.
DeleteAll that and we get a one-size fits all solution.
As a just-graduated former student who's very active- that would suck! I had just a few annoying class conflicts but never anything that would make me prefer this system. The days when I had a class at 10am and still had to be on campus at 4 or later were always the absolute worst- no time to do anything else with the day, and forced me to study in distracting on-campus spots. Here's hoping admin rethinks this and listens to their students for once. Glad I'm out!
ReplyDeleteThe republican in you is beginning to shine through
ReplyDeleteSeems like a strategy to boost the number of students living in campus housing. No one is going to commute to campus 3x day.
ReplyDelete