Lawrence will implement a new daily class schedule beginning fall term 2006. The change, approved by the faculty
in May 2005, is designed to allow greater flexibility and more choices in student scheduling.
The new schedule is primarily designed to distribute existing classes over a wider range of class hours. On Tuesdays and Thursday, classes will be held at the same times as under the current schedule, but Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays will have six classes instead of five.
As under the current system, all classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be 70 minutes long with a 10-minute break between classes. Morning classes – at 8:30, 9:50 and 11:10 – will also remain unchanged. The extra class hour will be held during the 12:30 period that is now held open for lunch recess and will result in the final class on these days ending at 4:20 instead of 4:00.
According to Professor Edmund Kern, a faculty member of the Committee on Curriculum which proposed
the new daily schedule, this was not the first time a change of this nature was proposed. The committee initially proposed an extra class hour on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in 2001. This proposal was approved by the faculty in November 2001, but was rescinded in November 2002 and allocated
to the newly-established Calendar Task Force, a committee charged with the analysis of and suggestions for the improvement of daily and yearly academic
calendars. In December 2004, the Calendar Task Force completed a report which included a number of recommendations for changes, one of which was the addition of a sixth class hour. The Committee on Curriculum was again charged with the task of proposing a new class schedule, and proposed the current schedule in April 2005.
In light of the suggestions from the Calendar Task Force, the Curriculum Committee considered a number of daily schedules, some of which had classes beginning at 8:00 a.m. or 8:15 a.m. According to Kern, the early start time was dismissed because the committee
felt that the decision would not be popular among students and a significant number of faculty members.
New schedule slated for 2006-2007
