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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Room Scheduling Accusations and Excuses #5


I know I am running the danger of giving away so many of the room scheduling secrets that anyone will be able to come and do my job. I expressed this concern to my supervisor who assured me that my job was safe as only an idiot would do this job for a living and there weren’t that many idiots to be found outside DC. With a sigh of relief I continue.

Unlike some of the other room scheduling issues, one I haven’t beaten to death yet is the problem of classes being in computer labs when they don’t want to be. This is a major problem for everyone involved because it means people who wanted a computer lab were turned away, that it is almost impossible to now move into a traditional classroom, and teaching in a computer lab when you aren’t using the computers is a nightmare.

The problem arises when the person who taught XYZ 101005 in spring 2005 requested a computer lab for one or all of their class meetings. I sweat and toil to get it for them and am, of course, successful. When we roll the master schedule to start working on spring 2006 XYZ 101005 will roll into the computer lab. Because computer labs are at a premium we keep the class in there so it doesn’t lose its place.

Between the roll of the master schedule to spring 2006 and the first day of classes, I battle like Brad Pitt as Achilles to protect the courses that are in the computer labs from the computer lab hopefuls. Imagine my dismay when on the first day of classes people email to tell me they are teaching XYZ 101005 in 11-109 and patiently explain to me that 11-109 is a computer lab and they are teaching an XYZ course (you idiot-implied) and could not possibly teach it in a computer lab.

I’ve turned people down who needed a computer lab to save it for the XYZ course. I can’t move XYZ to a traditional classroom because we are booked. They are stuck teaching in a computer lab. Everyone is incredibly unhappy. (I’m also a little angry but that is beside the point).

What is the solution to this problem? I can think of a couple things. There is the standard CHECK YOUR CLASSROOM ASSIGNMENTS EARLY. Don’t wait until the week before classes or, even worse, the first day of classes. Additionally, I can put an article in the MCC Tribune (if they are still allowing me to submit articles in a couple of months) reminding people to make sure they are not in a computer lab if they don’t want to be. When I write that article, I will list all the computer lab room numbers so you know what they are. I wish I had the time to send email to everyone in a computer lab asking them if they want to be there but if I had that kind of time my supervisor would find something more tedious for me to do instead. I need to keep a low profile.

Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
09/09/2005