The University's redesigned block schedule will take effect next fall, a change that administrators hope will increase efficiency and make more equitable use of popular teaching times and classrooms. Some students, however, say that streamlining Tufts' schedule could result in dining hall bottlenecks. When classes - staggered under the current schedule - all end at the same time, dining halls may be ill-equipped to handle the surge in traffic. Others say that the schedule could cause more problems for already-stressed student athletes.
Dean of Academic Services and Student Affairs Kristine Dillon, who spearheaded the campaign to revamp the old schedule, said that the new schedule optimizes both the use of time requirements and classroom demand. Dillon downplayed the potential for long lines at the dining halls, saying that many students would opt not to have classes surrounding lunchtime.
Dillon hopes that the plan will ease the heavy demand for classes and classrooms between 10:25 a.m. and 3:45 p.m. - the peak attendance period. By granting desirable rooms during unfavorable time slots and unpopular rooms during popular timeslots, administrators hope to alleviate such academic congestion. While the schedule will create more early-morning and late-afternoon classes, these classes will be held in better rooms.
The new schedule also utilizes extended blocks and seminar blocks with minimal overlaps. Now, only seminar classes will conflict with regular, 50-minute courses.
The schedule, however, is not without its drawbacks. While it eliminates the many timetable conflicts that have prevented students from taking a combination of lecture and extended-block classes simultaneously, it places extra pressure on dining facilities and athletic schedules.
The schedule provides an open block from 11:40 a.m. to 1:05 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays with no staggered release for lunch. The implications of this open block could mean long lines at the campus center and dining halls, as most students go to lunch as soon as their class ends, despite the hour and a half window.
Dining Services Director Patti Lee Klos said the new schedule will be somewhat of an experiment. "There will be more time in the open block, but whether or not students will avail themselves of it remains to be seen," she said. She also stressed that the Carmichael and Dewick-Macphie dining halls could handle the surge of students, but that the most congestion will be in the campus center.
Dillon also predicted that the new open block would not create a problem for the dining facilities, since both students and professors generally opt not to schedule classes around lunchtime. "Many teachers are reluctant to offer class at that time in the first place," she said. Additionally, an F-block and an F-plus block are scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at the same time as the open block to help alleviate this potential problem.
In addition to the dining hall problems, athletes may also experience scheduling snafus associated with the new schedule. In a simulation, the regularity of the proposed schedule either facilitated students' complicated schedules or did not present any problems, except for athletes. TCU senator and athlete Randy Newsom, who was one of the test subjects for the new schedule, said, "it would be impossible to take the five classes I am now taking and still play baseball."
In a letter to Tufts students, Dillon acknowledged that "some conflicts will inevitably occur." She said that Tufts professors thought the modified block schedule was instructively "a better way" than such a standard schedule.
The possibility of switching Tufts over to a "regular" college schedule with three-day classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and two-day classes on Tuesday and Thursday was dropped in an open forum a year ago after it proved unfeasible. The existing schedule with all its intricacies was developed after Tufts decided to abandon a schedule that included Saturday classes and still maintain the system of multiple patterns of three-day classes within the five-day week.
Another reason for the complexity of the existing schedule is that it accounts for the various modifications and extensions of the standard 50-minute class time. Such variations, such as a possible 4:00 seminar block, could possibly occur but have not, as yet, been approved.
