Engineering registration conflicts solved

Engineering students choosing their classes for next semester recently discovered that a number of required courses overlapped.

Chemical Engineering Professor Gregory Botsaris said that the block schedule, while better than its predecessors, had caused some of the problems and was still not perfect.

When they started choosing courses for next semester, second-year chemical engineers discovered that two required courses, Thermodynamics and Process Calculations II and a biology course were scheduled at the same time. Seniors also discovered that Chemical Process Design met at the same time as a required biology course.

The department responded to complaints by changing the spring course schedule and eliminating conflicts.

"They definitely understood our [concerns] and worked them out for us," Sophomore Chemical Engineer Rebecca Seabry said.

Botsaris explained that a University rule that forces departments to distribute courses throughout the day was a limitation and caused some of the conflicts. The rule restricts departments from scheduling more than 55 percent of their courses between 10:25 a.m. and 3:45 p.m., and Dowling Hall instructs departments to schedule a course in the early morning, late afternoon, or evening for every class it schedules during the peak period. Administrators also advise that recitations be held outside of this busy time period.

Botsaris said the School of Engineering is prepared to go to great lengths in order to accommodate their engineers' schedules.

"We do whatever we can," he said.

Botsaris also pointed out that schedule conflicts between engineering courses are rare because students' schedules are largely pre-determined and include relatively few electives. "Unless engineers didn't take a course when they were supposed to, there should hardly ever be a conflict," he said.

However, the rigidity of the engineering curriculum has caused some students to encounter problems when fitting required liberal arts courses into their schedule. Although liberal arts students are not required to take engineering courses, engineers are required to take at least five liberal arts classes.

Since its implementation, the block schedule has received mixed responses.

"I definitely think we're better off," Tufts Community Union Senator Rafi Goldberg said, "but a lot of people, especially athletes, still have scheduling conflicts."

By distributing courses throughout the day, classes are more likely to conflict with extracurricular activities scheduled for the late afternoon.

According to a report prepared last year by Associate Professor Charles Inouye when he was Dean of the Colleges, "this is the price to be paid for what we have gained: improved course selection for the majority of our students at some inconvenience to a minority of students."

Under the old block schedule, more than 33 percent of all courses were not assigned regular block times. Since the new block schedule was introduced, that number has fallen to less than ten percent, reducing a source of many previous conflicts.