Despite acknowledging the lack of unanimous support among students and faculty, the deans of the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering have announced that a major change in class scheduling will go into effect in the spring semester of 2008.
Classes will convene on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday format (MWF), with different sections occupying longer time slots on Tuesday and Thursday (TTh). This type of schedule, which is already in effect at the school of public health, mirrors those seen at many peer institutions such as Brown and Duke universities.
The current schedule, which has been in effect for over 15 years, directs students to class on Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday and Thursday-Friday time slots. While free time at the end of the week is often a valuable opportunity for volunteer work, internships and other activities, administrators maintain that the large block of time deters productivity. University officials claim that the new schedule will encourage smoother pacing and ease stress among students.
Paula Burger, vice provost for academic affairs, who chaired the CUE that proposed a review of the current schedule, feels that students would benefit from a less compacted course schedule.
"Students often front-load their schedule, which creates unhealthy, stressful situations," she said.
Burger added that the schedule changes come with support from many faculty members.
"Some faculty felt the current schedule was dysfunctional and didn't offer students the time to breathe and be reflective. Some had to change the nature of how they taught upon arriving to Hopkins," she said.
While recognizing the advantages of the current schedule especially as a time for independent study for both students and faculty, Adam Falk, dean of the school of arts and sciences, suggested that it usually fosters an attitude of "binge studying and binge playing" among students. The new schedule will prevent this, he asserted, and will not take away time for research or internships.
"Our peer institutions have similar schedules, and their students have no trouble getting internships. The new schedule will help recapture more of the week for academics," he added.
After engaging in conversations with faculty, students and administration, Falk assessed how changes in the schedule would affect student life.
"The central reason for the change is that students would benefit from a less highly compressed course schedule. With the current schedule, many popular classes take place between 9 a.m. and noon on MTW, making room scheduling and signing up for classes difficult," he said.
Falk acknowledged that the change could not be expected to be the defining solution to problems of stress among students attending Johns Hopkins. Rather, it would act as a significant initial step towards easing students' class load.
"There's no silver bullet that will solve all problems of stress. This project has been in the works for over four years. Following the shift, students' lives should be richer and better balanced, with a better integration of social and academic," he said.
Students have expressed divided opinion over the upcoming scheduling changes.
"We're college students; we can decide for ourselves what schedule works best for us. The new schedule really limits our decisions," sophomore Sarah Jane McCruden said.
"With the way classes are set up now, we get our reading assignment for the week and we can get ahead," sophomore Amelia Vereb said.
"I like the idea of a more spread out schedule because back-to-back classes make it harder to study. I like this balance and there's more continuity," junior Ed Cuervo said.
