After years of classes starting at 25 past the hour, a new block schedule will be implemented this spring.
Classes will now be starting on either the half hour or the hour, except for the A+ and B+ block, the earliest morning blocks, which will continue to begin at 8:05 a.m. Evening three-hour blocks will go until 10:00 p.m. instead of 9:45 p.m. and morning three-hour blocks will begin at 8:30 a.m. instead of 8:40 a.m.
University athletes voiced their concerns last year that too many classes were being scheduled in the late afternoon and evening hours, the most commonly-scheduled time for athletic practices. This block of time, between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. had over 300 classes scheduled during the 2003-2004 academic year.
Moreover, "classes starting at 25 minutes after the hour were generally confusing and there didn't seem to be any reason not to make the change," said Robyn Gittleman, the president's designee on the Educational Policy Committee.
For this spring, the "prime time" hours for scheduling the majority of classes will fall between the hours of 10:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
According to Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser, academic department chairs have been encouraged to schedule half of their classes in this prime time slot and half out of it.
In past semesters, the hours between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. saw the least amount of class scheduling traffic, and Glaser hopes to fill these mid-afternoon hours with more classes.
The new block schedule was decided upon and approved by a faculty vote last spring.
Transfer sophomore Victoria Zimmerman transferred to Tufts this semester from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. At Union, Zimmerman said that there was one set schedule.
"Everyday was the same, unlike [Tufts'] schedule," Zimmerman said. "It's intimidating when you first look at it, but I imagine that it allows you to get more out of it and enables you to take more classes - not much must overlap."
A new system of block scheduling was introduced to the University system during the 2002-2003 academic year by hired consultants who recommended that a more efficient block schedule could help free up classroom space instead of building all-new classrooms.
