Classroom Scheduling Protocol

The Registrar’s Office makes classroom assignments in University facilities. This office maintains a central record of all assignments which is the only official source of information about class meeting locations. While the registrar endeavors to allocate to each class the room best suited to its needs it is not always possible to assign an individual class to the room preferred by the instructor.

Due to the pressure of space—as well as the difficulty of developing student schedules—deans and department chairs should observe the following parameters when building their class schedules:

  • Approved class meeting times for both the main campus and the Parkview campus as found on the class meeting matrix must be used in class scheduling.
  • The Registrar’s Office will communicate to the departments—following round one of scheduling for each semester—any and all sections which fall outside of the scheduling parameters so that these can be corrected prior to completion of the final schedule.
  • Requests for exceptions to the scheduling parameters must be submitted in writing with sufficient rationale for consideration. Requests go first to the college dean. After college approval requests will go to the Registrar for final approval.
  • Course offerings must be spread throughout all the available day and time periods:

    • Courses with three or more sections should be distributed between morning, afternoon and evening hours.
    • Courses with three or more sections should be distributed across the days of the week.
    • Courses offered by a department should be evenly spread between two-day and three-day class meeting schedules.
  • Departments should distribute courses offered in the evenings across the days of the week from Monday to Thursday as well as between the early and later evening periods.
  • An overall review of proposed schedules is the responsibility of the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Modifications of the proposed class schedules may be necessary for space reasons.
  • Only the Registrar’s Office may change the room to which a class is assigned. The class may not be moved from one class period to another without the approval of the Dean and is subject to space availability as determined by the Registrar.
  • Courses required for the major should not be offered at the same or overlapping times unless offered in multiple sections. Co-requisites should be cooperatively scheduled by the involved departments to avoid time conflicts. Pre-requisites may be offered in overlapping times with the sequel course.
  • Generally, only laboratories, clinical experiences or approved studio classes may be offered for more than two consecutive hours between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Departments and colleges should make a concerted effort to stack these courses. Other requests will be scheduled on a space-available basis.
  • Courses that require breakout or discussion rooms should be scheduled throughout the hours of the day as well as the days of the week to facilitate student scheduling. All courses requiring breakout or discussion rooms must be shown in Banner with two meeting times—the first should be the common lecture time and the second should be the breakout or discussion.
  • Faculty assignments must be made during round one of schedule building for the Registrar to accommodate faculty preferences or back-to-back scheduling. All instructor assignments, changes, and deletions in Banner are the responsibility of the academic units.
  • If the department offers a course that requires a student time commitment that exceeds the time for which a room is needed the course must be listed with two meeting times. The first meeting time is the time for which the room will be scheduled. The second meeting time lists the additional time required for the student but can be assigned to NOBLD.
  • Multiple courses that meet together (e.g., ADA/SWRK/HOL or one department such as DANC) that are scheduled in the same room at the same times and days must be approved by the college dean.