New schedule poses problems and positives

With the economy in crisis and the cost of higher education continuing to rise, Texas A&M University-Commerce has to find creative ways to continue to attract more students. 

Considering a large majority of the students that attend A&M-Commerce commute to campus, the leadership of A&M-Commerce have decided to design a class schedule that allows these students to come to school only four days a week, instead of five. 

The new schedule will affect the spring semester, and the  spring schedule that reflects the revised schedule is now available for students that are registering for next semester's classes. 

This new scheduling is the result of a lot of hard work and is not without it's detractors. The university hopes, however, that the positive impact of this schedule will negate any negative impacts that it might have. 

"Faculty Senate requested last year that we survey students regarding this issue," said interim provost Dr. Mary Hendrix. "We conducted the student survey and the results indicated that many of our students commute more than 50 miles one way and many are working over 30 hours per week.  The results indicated that the majority of our students desired a schedule that would allow them to acquire their coursework in a two-day format." 

The new schedule, despite it's upside, is not in the best interest of all students. Students that live on campus and already have packed schedules just don't find the new schedule practical.

"However, some students, particularly in the music department, indicated that a two-day schedule would not work for them. The deans of the three colleges collaborated to develop a schedule that met the needs of both groups," Hendrix said. 

A&M-Commerce is not the first university to institute this kind of scheduling. Other universities have implemented it with varying degrees of success.  but this change will not we a flawless one.  The leadership here know that there will be some problems with the new schedule, but hope that in the long run it is beneficial to the student body. 

"With any change, there will be issues that we may not have considered and we want to be responsive to students' needs. I encourage students to let us know if there are concerns so that we can address them," Hendrix said.