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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Matching Classes to Classrooms


I’m a lucky woman. My sons are everything a mother could want—smart, handsome, accomplished, responsible, witty, thoughtful, kind and they each have their own apartment. Many years ago my first grade son was watching me work at home. I had the dining room table covered with room book pages trying to figure out how, if I moved half a dozen out of phase courses, I could squeeze open a TR 9:30 timeslot to add another section. He watched me for several minutes then said, “Is this why you went to college?” That night I wrote in his baby book—‘Age 6. First sign of sarcasm’.

I have a B.S. in psychology mainly because it’s a really interesting subject and it sounded cool to my high school friends. I worked my way through the maze of Registrar Office jobs until I found one where I could sit in the back of the room, by myself, and communicate via email. Nirvana. So Daniel, yes, this is why I went to college. ‘Age 62. One millionth sign of sarcasm’.

Today’s Topic is: I’m Not a Construction Worker.

There are a finite number of classrooms on campus and I can’t build any more. There are certain classes that are almost impossible to relocate.

Out of phase classes that run across two time slots are usually wedged in a room with other out of phase classes so we have a minimal amount of ‘dead space’. It’s almost impossible to move one of these classes to another room because there is rarely a room open with two time slots in a row empty.

Large classes. We have the lecture halls and we have 9A. There are a couple large rooms in building 6. We lost 7-211 which held 60. Rooms holding more than 40 students are hard to come by. If you are in one now I probably won’t be able to move you.

Everyone can’t teach in building 9; somebody has to teach in building 9A. Enough said.

Classes all in the same room. This may be doable if all the classes you teach are in phase and the same size. I can’t (ok, won’t) put a class with a max capacity of 27 in a room that holds 40.

Classes in dedicated classrooms. We try to keep dedicated classrooms to a minimum but if your department has one then I need to keep it full. That means you may have to teach in that room whether you want to or not. It sounds mean but if you want to move out it leaves a gap in room utilization unless I can find another class in your department to move in your vacated spot. When I can’t find a room for a class TR 9:30 yet have several designated rooms open at that time, it really frustrates me. I’m 62. Think stroke.

Prime time classes. Any class offered at 9:00 through 1:00 is hard to relocate. I actually have a couple classes TR 9:30 which I don’t have rooms for (at the time I’m writing this). I also have half a dozen room requests to relocate a TR 9:30 class. There’s not much I can do but spread the room book pages across my dining room table and try to eyeball dead space and start to move things around. After all, this is why I went to college.

Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
08/22/2013