Getting accustomed to the new timetable (#1435)

Topics/tags: Grinnell

Last year, on the recommendation of the Curriculum Committee, the Grinnell Faculty voted to approve a new timetable for course meetings. If I recall correctly, the primary goal was to add more eighty-minute time slots, since those have become increasingly popular. And so, instead of MWF 8:30–9:50, 10:00–11:20, 1:00–2:20, and 2:30–3:50 timeslots for such classes, we now have 8:00–9:20, 9:30–10:50, 11:00–12:20, 1:10–2:30, and 2:40–4:00 timeslots. Our fifty-minute, 110-minute, and 170-minute morning time slots have not changed (much), and the afternoon ones have only shifted by ten minutes. It should be easy to adapt, but I’m finding it surprisingly difficult.

Perhaps I should step back a moment and explain. Like most institutions of higher learning, Grinnell requires that courses be scheduled within fixed slots. Grinnell also accepts that different pedagogical approaches might require different length slots. For example, a laboratory will usually require one long slot per week, while other classes benefit from a short class each day (or every-other day). If I recall correctly, the most common Grinnell class is 3x50, or three fifty-minute classes per week. If we only had 3x50 classes, the timetable would be easy. We’d have classes every hour, on the hour, perhaps with a lunch break.

Of course, scheduling only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday would waste Tuesdays and Thursdays. And so Tuesdays and Thursdays have typically included 2x80 classes, which can be nice for some discussion-based classes that need time to delve deeply into a subject. Some of us even like 3x80, which brings us back to MWF meetings.

It also raises the issue of classes that meet for more hours each week, which include 2x110, 3x110, 4x50, and 5x50 [1]. We also need to fit those into the timetable. We also have labs that are either 1x170 or 2x170. One class even meets (or met [3]) 2x80 + 2x170. That class didn’t have a lot of outside-of-class work.

Unlike many other institutions, Grinnell also puts some interesting restrictions on course times. Historically [4], we have not permitted classes to start before 8:00 a.m. or end after 4:00 p.m. [5]. Why? You shouldn’t start too early because young adults’ brains aren’t generally ready for it. Some of us think 8:00 is also too early. We end by 4:00 p.m. so that students don’t have to worry about conflicts with athletic workouts or rehearsals, whether musical or theatrical. In exchange, our sports teams and performance groups don’t generally schedule required activities between 8:00 a.m.and 4:00 p.m. We also don’t (or didn’t) schedule classes over the lunch hour (to permit meetings) or Thursdays at 11:00 a.m., for College convocation.

What else? That’s right. We don’t schedule classes intended for first-years [6] between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday/Thursday because Tutorial [7] meets then [8].

Doesn’t the schedule sound like an interesting puzzle? Until recently, we handled it by a fairly straightforward decomposition of the day.

• 50-minute classes could meet at 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 (except Thursday), 1:00, 2:00, or 3:00.
• 80-minute classes could meet at 8:30, 10:00 (except Thursday), 1:00, and 2:30.
• 110-minute classes could meet at 8:00, 10:00 (except Thursday), and 2:00.
• 170-minute classes could meet at 8:00 and 1:00.

As I noted, the biggest change we made is to change when 80-minute classes are offered, and we did so by (a) allowing these classes to overlap with the lunch hour and (b) shifting afternoon classes by ten minutes. The first change led to the second, because 20 minutes is generally not enough time to get lunch in the dining hall [9].

• 50-minute classes can meet at 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 (except Thursday), 1:10, 2:10, or 3:10.
• 80-minute classes can meet at 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 (except Tuesday/Thursday), 1:10, and 2:40. Yay! One additional slot for 80-minute classes, assuming people are willing to schedule at 11:00.
• 110-minute classes can meet at 8:00, 10:00 (except Thursday), and 2:10.
• 170-minute classes could meet at 8:00 and 1:10.

The new schedule creates slightly more overlap. Unsurprisingly, 80-minute classes have always overlapped two 50-minute classes. However, we generally tried to schedule them within the 110-minute class slots. Now, the 9:30 slot overlaps two of the 110-minute class slots. Is that likely to be a problem? I have no idea. I just know it’s harder to get coverage from colleagues who are teaching 110-minute classes.

Whoops. That was more background than I had planned. Oh well. In any case, I wrote this musing primarily to report that I’m struggling to adapt to the new timetable. I’ve been teaching in the 8:30–9:50 slot for a decade or so. When I look at the clock to see how much is left, I count the minutes until 9:50.

That created a problem in class last week. Students were working on a lab. I looked up. It was 9:15. I said to myself, Why was I worried about this lab? They still have 35 minutes left. Except they didn’t. They had five. At 9:22, a student came up to me and said, I need to get to my 9:30 a.m. class. Can I leave now? It took me a minute or two to figure out why they were asking.

Then I figured it out. Damn!

I apologized to my students. It’s my responsibility to get them out on time. And I’ve been trying hard to internalize the new end time.

Of course, I face other issues, too. 8:30 a.m. was a great start time. I could get to campus at 7:50, head up to the classroom, putter [10] around setting up for class, and be ready by 8:20. Now, if I get there at 7:50, I’m racing to get to class on time. Unfortunately, class setup involves multiple steps (starting Teams on two computers, checking the sound, starting screen sharing on one, opening appropriate Web pages, configuring the desktop, etc.), so I need the time.

Yes, I realize that I can just wake up 30 minutes earlier. And I am waking up earlier. I just don’t like it. And, as with class times, my mind hasn’t completely adapted. I can be sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, look at my watch, see that it’s 7:30, and tell myself, Oh, you have plenty of time before class.

I’m not doing much better with the ten-minute shift. I’ve almost walked into a colleague’s class at 2:20 a few times. My class used to be at 2:30. Now it’s at 2:40. I was also confused as to why a colleague wasn’t in their classroom at 2:00 p.m. Oh, that’s right; their class doesn’t start until 2:10.

What about the end of the day? Am I tempted to tell my students to stop at 3:45 so that they can turn in their work by 3:50? Surprisingly, no. By the time I reach that part of the day, I’ve finally adapted.

Will I also adapt to the other parts of the timetable? Almost certainly. We’ve shifted times before. For my first decade or more, we had 75-minute lunches, and afternoon classes didn’t start until 1:15 p.m. I’ll admit that I’d almost forgotten that.

However, for the time being, I’m frustrated at needing to adapt. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and all that jazz [11].

Postscript: When I started writing, I struggled to tag this musing, not least because the initial focus was the last few paragraphs about my struggles with the times. Is it about Grinnell? Teaching? Me? Or perhaps it’s a rant. However, I’m not really complaining, except about myself. There’s always the fallback of miscellaneous, but I prefer to limit what I dump there.

Fortunately, as I wrote the backstory, it became clear that much of this musing is about Grinnell, so I can easily place it in that category. Aren’t you thrilled for me?

Postscript: I’ve left out the policies on scheduling classes within the timetable. For example, a department with two sections of a course should schedule one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Departments are asked to schedule at least one class in the earliest slot and at least one in the last slot. Departments are asked to limit the number of courses in the most popular slots. So much fun!

Postscript: I haven’t commented deeply about teaching credits for different-length courses. Perhaps I will someday. For now, I’ll just note that I think that the College needs to revisit this issue, particularly for Studio Art.

[1] No, teaching a 3x80 class does not accrue more teaching credit than a 3x50 or 2x80. Nor does a 2x110, a 4x50, or even a 5x50. At least I think they don’t; I am not privy [2] to all arrangements at the College.

[2] privy, meaning aware of confidential knowledge; I realize it also means outhouse or perhaps even single seater.

[3] I know that there was some pushback on this schedule of late.

[4] That is, within my thirty-or-so years at the College.

[5] 3:50 p.m. in recent years; 4:05 p.m., in the more distant past.

[6] Should it be first years or first-years? I prefer the former, but Grammarly encourages me to use the later.

[7] Grinnell’s one required course; a small, writing-oriented seminar for incoming students.

[8] Some of us question this scheduling of Tutorial, too.

[9] Let’s see … Class runs 11:00-12:20. Ten minutes to get to the DHall. You need to leave at 12:50 to get to a 1:00 class. Yeah, it would be twenty minutes.

[10] Why does Grammarly think I should use potter rather than putter? Is it because I use British quotation style?

[11] What better way to end a musing than a pair of pointless aphorisms?

Version 1.0 of 2026-09-09.