WESTMINSTER – “The times they are a-changin’” once said Bob Dylan in his 1965 hit titular single. FRCC faculty may have found themselves remarking a similar sentiment in regards to the change to the “time break,” the period of time during FRCC’s daily hours where there are no classes running, which has shifted for all three campuses. It has shifted from 12:00 to 1:00 PM each day on solely the Westminster Campus, to each Thursday from 3:00 to 5:00 pm on all campuses.
According to Matt Jamison, the Associate Vice President for Academic Success, there may be exceptions to this rule. He stated “science labs and some of our Career Technical Education programs” may schedule classes during this period, but he also stressed that “the majority of programs will not have courses scheduled during this window.”
This is connected with FRCC “working to create a new student-centered schedule – one that focuses on our students and what works well for their busy lives and schedules,” Jamison explained. He further elaborated that “In the past, FRCC had a campus schedule of classes at each campus that lacked commonality. Classes started and ended at different times, two campuses primarily offered Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday classes, with a few exceptions, and another offered Monday/Wednesday/Friday and Tuesday/Thursday classes with a few exceptions. FRCC started offering real-time remote (synchronous) classes during the pandemic.” Jamison also stated the schedule has been updated to allow for a 15-minute break between classes and that classes proceed “throughout the day so that students can choose for themselves when they want to take a break.”
This schedule was also implemented for attendance purposes, as the Academic Success department at FRCC took note of the fact many students would leave campus at noon and would not come back for their afternoon classes. Jamison summarized that “The common course scheduling grid was developed to keep students engaged and give students the ability to schedule classes in an efficient manner” and advised that “We would encourage the WC clubs to take advantage of the 3-5 PM window on Thursdays.”
How the Academic Success department chose this specific time period for no classes to be scheduled was explained by findings with a consultant who “facilitated separate focus groups with students, faculty/instructors, and staff to gain insight into the preference of days of the week and times courses should be offered” as well as student, faculty, and staff surveys regarding this preference as well.
The findings reflected a college community-wide desire to have student groups, activities, and one-on-one meets with instructors occur at FRCC. It was decided Thursday afternoon was the best time frame based on feedback from students about them not wanting to “schedule classes before and after these connection times due to busy schedules.”
As for its implementation, Kristina Kahl, a Lead Faculty member of the Westminster Campus’s Sociology department, stated that this break change also applied to the same rule on Tuesdays as well, but Matt Jamison did not return a request for comment regarding this.
John Kinsey, a faculty member in the Humanities department on the Westminster Campus, said he understood the reasoning behind these changes, but he felt that “the ultimate result is less options for students, not more. If a student was taking courses on multiple campuses, diverse scheduling could pose a problem.”
He continued, stating that “While FRCC instructors teach for Colorado Online, their [Colorado Online] schedule is outside our control, ergo the impact a unified, college wide schedule would have on online courses is largely a moot point. If courses are offered at the exact same time on three different campuses, that means that students have only one option (that can be actualized in three different locations).”
He explained the impact, which wasn’t incredibly high, this new system has had on him as an instructor: “In the old schedule, we all more or less had 12:15 to 1 open Monday through Thursday. This meant that we could schedule at least four different meetings and activities (as well as have a regular lunch). Now we only have Thursday afternoons, which means we only have one time to meet … [Instead of several times in the week,] I only have time in my schedule for one. This limits instructor and faculties opportunities to engage in the broader community and silos us to only teaching.” Overall, he thought it “would be beneficial to revisit this initiative and reassess its effectiveness.”
Timothy Mellon – the Assistant Director for Westminster’s Student Life – has had his own experiences with the break changes, though he was not completely knowledgeable about these changes. “The big change for Student Life at WC is that this hour was typically when we would see most clubs meet, when we could host activities and events ensuring time for students to participate, and when we could partner with faculty/instructors to collaborate on projects,” he emailed The Front Page.
Mellon, like Kinsey, remarked that he also hoped that this would be changed and that the activity hour of 12:15 to 1:00 pm be added to all campuses, elaborating that “Ever since grad school, where I attended an institution that had an “activity hour” I have been in favor of such a schedule. It is of my opinion that this hour helps engage students that is otherwise not accessible without it.”
