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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

The Annual Fall Classroom Scramble


I’m back on the job and changing everyone’s rooms around, whether they want me to or not, as fast as I can. Due to last minute course assignments with special needs, last minute information about professors or students with special needs and last minute increases in enrollment, room changes will take place right through the Labor Day weekend. Please plan to get up a little earlier on Tuesday morning and do one last check of your room locations. They may have changed late Monday night while you were sleeping, (which means we have to get up even earlier so we can put the room change signs up before everyone gets here!)

If you have already requested a room change and haven’t seen any positive action that doesn’t mean I am ignoring you. If I can’t accommodate a change immediately, I let it stew around while other changes are made and cancellations take place to see if an appropriate place opens up. This will continue throughout the first week of classes. If I don’t feel there is any hope to ever make your room change I will let you know. This is a perfect example of ‘no news is good news’. If you hear from me, we have problems.

While we don’t have a hard copy form for requesting room changes we do have a format that is helpful. Here is an example of a perfect room change request:

I need a smart classroom for ENG 123-321, CRN 81651, MWF 8:00-8:50.

That’s it! You are welcome to include additional information such as “I think you are a room scheduling genius”, “Did you know you look exactly like Demi Moore?”, or “Everyone in my department has chipped in so you can take a cruise during Intersession”.  These things are nice to hear but do not affect my ability to find you the best room I can.

A couple of other things to keep in mind regarding room changes. I take room changes via email and not in person or over the phone. The phones in Registration and Records are insane the first few weeks of classes and the lines outside our windows are constant. It will slow all of us down if you try to reach me by phone or try to break into the office to see me. You will get a faster response by email.

The room numbers on the first floor of Building 9 have been changed to accommodate the new classrooms in the Wolk wing. This will be confusing for a few days. Also, there are two new classrooms in the Wolk wing, 9-126 and 9-128. These are new smart rooms that hold 35 students. If you wander around Building 9 looking for them you will need to branch out to the Wolk wing to find them.

Right before classes start I always like to remind everyone that we are in this process together. Finding the best room possible for each course is important to me. Teaching is challenging and we don’t want to add to a difficult job by depriving you of the facilities you need to meet your goals. Unfortunately, our success in attracting and retaining students also means our facilities are stretched to the limit and there aren’t enough perfect classrooms to go around. Working together we can, hopefully, get you into a classroom that works for you, imperfections and all.

One final and very important note: I want to acknowledge the wonderful work Joanne DiMarco did covering summer room requests while I was on sabbatical. In addition to the usual summer challenges of multiple sessions and increased outside users, she had to work around the construction in Building 9 and the loss of a considerable number of classrooms.  She did an amazing job and set a standard of room request turn around that you all know I can never match! I now know I can disappear for long periods of time and she will have everything under control. I can’t wait until my next escape!

Best wishes for a wonderful fall semester!

Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
08/29/2008