CSUN will be switching gears this coming Fall, leaving behind three-days-a-week classes and cutting down on the time students spend on campus. Supporters believe 50-minute classes are too short to allow for in-depth teaching and learning.
The new schedule will conduct classes Monday and Wednesday, Tuesday and Thursday, and Friday and Saturday. Three-hour periods will only be on Fridays or Saturdays.
‘The new schedule will maximize room use, we will teach a course all day Friday-lecture, field study and a lab,’ said Faculty Senate President Jennifer Matos. ‘CSUN is in a pinch about finding enough classrooms for lower-division classes.’
The change came at the request of the Associated Students senate, while a similar shift is happening at community colleges, which will not only make the campus classroom efficient, but easier for students to simultaneously go to CSUN and community college, according to Cheryl Spector, secretary of the Faculty Senate.
Some students are patiently awaiting the change.
‘This is going to be great, but those Friday and Saturday classes sound scary,’ said Daniel Kanooni, 20, sophomore geography major. ‘I wouldn’t take them if it was just a random elective.’
Students will be able to arrange their schedules in a way that requires fewer trips to campus each week, which saves driving, gas, money and cuts down on pollution.
One problem that always seems to be a factor for most students is parking.
‘I do think we’ll diminish the huge Tuesday/Thursday crush in the parking lots by spreading (the schedule) out so that some of it goes over to Monday/Wednesday on the new schedule,’ Spector said. ‘Moving more classes to Friday/Saturday should mean moving some parking to those days as well.’
Not all students, however, are convinced that the new schedule will ease the stress in the parking lots.
‘Parking will still suck, but I wish the new schedule came sooner,’ said Kevin Kanooni, 22, graduating senior, political science major. ‘It sounds like you could have a heavy load Monday thru Thursday and have Friday off.’
Changes will begin on Aug. 24, ‘the campus is going to take a wait and see attitude, and hope not too many students will end up with six day a week classes or one day a week classes,’ Spector concluded.
