One month in, students react to schedule changes
Both students and faculty express frustration with the changes and how they were made
Philosophy Professor Peter Achinstein agreed, and proposed polling individual faculty, since "this is potentially a very important change."
According to Dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost Paula Burger, some faculty benefitted from the new schedule because it fit better with "certain kinds of courses."
Now that the schedule has been implemented, many professors have expressed strong opinions about the schedule.
Professor Jin Kang of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department said the schedule gives him "a little more flexibility and reduces class conflicts between departments."
"However, it does affect how we schedule our research and makes it a little more difficult. There used to be a clear separation between the days you taught and the days you did research, but now you kind of have to mix your schedule," he said.
Economics Professor Stephen Shore felt the old schedule was more conducive to learning.
"Having courses back-to-back gives students more continuity of experience because they get to see related material on back to back days. If you have a class that's separated by more days, often students will forget or not think about issues in the class and it takes more time to get them up to speed," he said.
Shore also noted that the loss of the long weekend has caused problems for both athletes who used the time for athletic events and professors who would attend conferences on the weekends.
Political Science Professor Richard Katz said that the old schedule was unique to Hopkins and was better for students and teachers alike.
"The old schedule was good for faculty research, it was good for students who wanted to engage in internships and it was a good recruiting tool," he said.
According to the same 2006 meeting, Katz expressed similar frustrations with the schedule when it was in its initial development stages.
Burger asserted that students were front-loading their schedules with the intention of freeing up their Thursdays and Fridays, and that "we are more of a commuter campus than we realize."
According to Dean of Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost Paula Burger, some faculty benefitted from the new schedule because it fit better with "certain kinds of courses."
Now that the schedule has been implemented, many professors have expressed strong opinions about the schedule.
Professor Jin Kang of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department said the schedule gives him "a little more flexibility and reduces class conflicts between departments."
"However, it does affect how we schedule our research and makes it a little more difficult. There used to be a clear separation between the days you taught and the days you did research, but now you kind of have to mix your schedule," he said.
Economics Professor Stephen Shore felt the old schedule was more conducive to learning.
"Having courses back-to-back gives students more continuity of experience because they get to see related material on back to back days. If you have a class that's separated by more days, often students will forget or not think about issues in the class and it takes more time to get them up to speed," he said.
Shore also noted that the loss of the long weekend has caused problems for both athletes who used the time for athletic events and professors who would attend conferences on the weekends.
Political Science Professor Richard Katz said that the old schedule was unique to Hopkins and was better for students and teachers alike.
"The old schedule was good for faculty research, it was good for students who wanted to engage in internships and it was a good recruiting tool," he said.
According to the same 2006 meeting, Katz expressed similar frustrations with the schedule when it was in its initial development stages.
Burger asserted that students were front-loading their schedules with the intention of freeing up their Thursdays and Fridays, and that "we are more of a commuter campus than we realize."
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Russian Wives
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