Explanation of Schedule

Classes meet Monday – Friday; 8:30 – 4:30. Faculty who wish to schedule a class outside of this time period must request special approval from the Academic Program and Standards Committee.  The following general guidelines were used when the weekly schedule was developed (and approved in 2002):

• courses in a department must be offered across the full 5-day schedule, recognizing that individual faculty are not required to teach five days per week every semester
• full use of facilities and student access to courses - 1st priority
• maintain current model of multiple sections of courses in order to keep course capacities low
• departments required to spread the course offerings across the weekly schedule each semester: a second 50-minute course may not be offered in a 50-minute time slot unless all 50-minute time slots have been used. Likewise, a second 75-minute course may not be offered in a 75-minute time slot unless all 75-minute time slots have been used.

The schedule includes the following features:

• 50-minute 3 times per week slots
• 75-minute 2 times per week slots.

After 1:30 in the afternoon, slots can be combined to create 3-hour seminar slots

Wednesday afternoons are designated as the preferred Senior Seminar meeting day, however, other afternoons can be used.

After 1:30 in the afternoon, faculty can choose additional two-day combinations for 75 minute meetings.
Monday/Thursday; Tuesday/Friday have priority for access to facilities.
Tuesday/Thursday and Monday/Wednesday have next priority.
Monday/Tuesday, Monday/Friday, Thursday/Friday have next priority.

Science departments can begin labs as early as 12:30 if they choose.

First-Year Seminars will meet 11:30-12:20 MWF, 12:30-1:20 MWF, 11:30-12:45 MF, 11:30-12:45 MW, or 11:30-12:45 WF.

8:30, 9:30, and 10:30 Monday to Thursday or Monday to Friday are the common times used for sequenced courses which fulfill the college language requirement, and which are recommended for first- and second-year students. Please take this into consideration when scheduling courses that fulfill a requirement for this group of students.

Workshop science courses, studio art courses and other courses meeting on a two-hour time slot can co-exist with this schedule and may be offered in the morning or the afternoon.

The official course schedule ends at 4:30, providing students with greater ability to schedule courses with sports practice/matches.

8-9 Tuesday and Thursday mornings are not class meeting times. These times are open for meetings.

In recognition of the 'lunch crunch' in the Dining Hall, the schedule runs through the time for serving lunch to help spread out the demand in the Dining Hall.

Because of the additional 2-day/wk 75-minute time slots, the 12:00-1:15 Tuesday/Thursday slot has been removed from the approved teaching schedule.   This time period is available for Faculty meeting (1st Tuesday and Thursday of every month), open for departmental programming, departmental meetings, presentations by majors, opportunities for informal gatherings of faculty to share their research, etc.