More 8:10 AM Classes?

September 25, 2008

Some professors are grumbling about pressure from CMC's administration to hold more classes in the 8:10 AM time slot for the next few years.  Partially due to a lack of classroom space because of the West Campus construction and increased student enrollment, each department was asked to hold more classes at 8:10 AM.

Vice President for Special Projects and Senior Associate Dean of the Faculty Jerome Garris says the earlier classes are due to an effort by the Dean of Faculty to try to "expand the teaching day" so students are able to take a wide variety of classes.  Previously, many classes were bunched into a four or five hour period in the middle of the day.

Dean Garris said, "We'll have substantially more classroom space once the new [Kravis] Center opens, and it's conceivable that we could shift back to the regular schedule, but it's too early to say."

The Registrar's Office also confirmed that "there will be many more 8:10 AM classes next semester [than there were in Spring 2008]." In an e-mail, Registrar Elizabeth Morgan also noted that this semester there are already more 8:10 AM classes than last year:

"None of the course offerings for spring 2009 have yet been scheduled... I anticipate that we will have roughly the same number of courses beginning before 9am in the spring as we have for the current semester (about 25).Some of the contributing factors include: -5 CMC classrooms have either been demolished or taken out of service due to construction -More students are enrolled at CMC this year than last year -More sections of courses are required this year than last year, to accommodate increased enrollment"

The course catalog for the spring semester will be available online the last week of October and in print in early November.