For more than 25 years, classes at The University of Memphishave been the same length. Classes that normally meet Monday,Wednesday and Friday are 55 minutes long, and classes on Tuesdayand Thursday are one hour and 25 minutes.
Recently, Rhodes College has been in the midst of a controversyconcerning shortening the length of classes. They are consideringshortening their Monday, Wednesday and Friday classes by 10 minutesto 50 minutes, and their Tuesday and Thursday classes by 15 minutesto one hour 15 minutes.
Ironically, many Rhodes students are against this, while thefaculty is in favor.
Thomas Nenon, assistant vice-provost for academic affairs at TheU of M, said The U of M evaluates class lengths each semester.
"We used to do it pretty often," Nenon said, however two tothree years ago they adopted a calendar template.
U of M registrar Noel Schwartz said class length has not been amajor issue during her 25 years here.
"It has worked so well for us to get the number of classesscheduled in the day we need," Schwartz said.
Nenon said, "If we wanted to shorten periods, we would have toadd weeks."
Nenon added that The U of M has considered shortening periods,however the Fall session would have to be extended and in turn,pre-Summer and Summer school sessions could probably not beoffered.
"We don't have leeway," Nenon said.
U of M class lengths comply with the TBR guidelines on classtimes. The guidelines state, "All terms including Summer,intersession, and special compressed terms provide approximately750 minutes of instruction per semester hour of credit hourawarded. When providing alternate class formats, the institution isresponsible for documenting equivalence in terms of instructionaltime, student effort, and/or student achievement."
Olivia McGregor, a 20-year-old junior at The U of M, said,"Tuesday, Thursday (classes) should be shortened because when yousit in there that long, your mind goes off and it gets kind ofboring and tedious after a while."
However, McGregor said she believed classes on Monday, Wednesdayand Friday are the right length.
Ryan Roberts, a 24-year-old graduate student, said, "That'sridiculous. Why would you even come to class? What would you getaccomplished?"
Schwartz said before she came to The U of M, the University heldTuesday, Thursday, Saturday classes. This proved to be a problemfor students, so officials changed it.
Nenon said the most recent change to scheduling was about 16years ago when the campus expanded and it became increasinglydifficult to get across campus between classes.
According to Nenon The U of M changed the time between classesfrom 10 minutes to 15 to enable students to make it to class ontime.
Lawrence Abbott, assistant professor of accounting at The U ofM, said, "One of the biggest problems is from the testingperspective."
Abbott said that 10 minutes more for testing really does make adifference.
"I would be against it. It wouldn't help my productivity with anextra 10 minutes (for research)," Abbott said.
