Amanda Moore
Editor-in-Chief
March 24, 2006
Beginning in fall 2006, students will be free of the dreaded 12:20 p.m. class. The change, initiated by both faculty and students, will allow a 50-minute lunch break in the class schedule on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
After the 11:15 p.m. to 12:10 p.m. class ends, classes will not resume until 1 p.m. All classes after lunch will be delayed 40 minutes. The new afternoon class schedule will be as follows:
1:00 to 1:55 p.m.
2:05 to 3:00 p.m.
3:10 to 4:05 p.m.
4:15 to 5:10 p.m.
Academic Dean Mark Matson first considered the change when Vice President for Student Development Mark Fox informed him of the problem caused by the 12:20 p.m. class.
“[Fox] raised real concerns that our current class schedule has wiped out common lunch meal times for our students, which is creating a loss of communal spirit,” Matson said.
According to Matson, 40 to 50 students are getting sack lunches from the Grill or cafeteria on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Because the students do not have time to eat in the cafeteria with their friends, the social element of the cafeteria is lacking.
“A significant group of students are forced to eat sack lunches or spend very little time in the cafeteria,” Matson said. “I think the issue of creating collegiate community is an important part of our small liberal arts environment.”
At the same time Matson was considering this change, students were also inquiring about a possible schedule change to allot sufficient time for lunch.
SGA members investigated complaints students brought to them concerning the quality of grab-and-go meals and found the low quality to be caused by the mass number of meals requested, said junior Jon Toler, who serves SGA as academic committee chairman.
“I think this change will help to insure that all students are able to eat lunch in the cafeteria, to give students and teachers with full schedules a break in the middle of the day, and to limit the number of grab-and-go meals,” Toler said.
The only days affected by this change will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday. No change to the Tuesday or Thursday schedule has been proposed.
Although a few academic departments have expressed uneasiness about the change, Matson is confident this change will not cause many problems for scheduling afternoon classes.
“Most faculty like it because they also don’t have time for lunch,” Matson said. “It’s worth an experiment.”
The change will last for both fall 2006 and spring 2007 semesters, Matson said. After the academic year, faculty will evaluate the effectiveness of the change and decide whether or not to make it a permanent change.