Photo by Xinran Li ‘23
The Academic Priorities Committee has proposed a new class meeting schedule for the 2022-23 academic year, including a new faculty meeting time.
By Declan Langton ’22 & Sophie Soloway ’23
Editor-in-Chief | Global Editor
In a recent faculty meeting, the Academic Priorities Committee announced new proposals to the class meeting time schedule for the 2022-2023 academic year. According to documents obtained by Mount Holyoke News, these schedule adjustments center on changes to the Tuesday and Thursday morning class meeting times.
Currently, during the 2021-2022 academic year, class meetings on Tuesday and Thursday mornings run from 8:30 - 9:45 a.m., 10 - 11:15 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.. The final two blocks are reserved for First Year Seminars, according to the Approved Class Meeting Times document from the Mount Holyoke College website.
According to the documents obtained by Mount Holyoke News, the proposed change to Tuesday and Thursday mornings would remove the 8:30 a.m. classes. Instead, the first block would run from 9 - 10:15 a.m.. Additionally, there is a single reserved block for First Year Seminars from 10:30 - 11:45 a.m. In this proposed schedule, there is a reserved faculty meeting time from 12 - 1:15 p.m. Faculty meetings are held about once every month, as an anonymous source with access to the schedule told Mount Holyoke News.
Dorothy Mosby, interim dean of faculty and vice president for Academic Affairs, said this shift is poised to be an answer to faculty concerns regarding current faculty meeting times.
“The change to the class schedule is the result of faculty requests both before and after the pandemic to set aside designated time during the workday to principally hold the monthly faculty meeting and faculty standing committee meetings,” Mosby explained. “This change is largely in response to a desire for a better work/life balance.”
Because faculty meetings currently occur between 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., according to Mosby, many faculty members — especially those who act as caretakers for families after work — have expressed interest in earlier regular meeting times.
According to Assistant Professor of Economics Johannes Norling, class meeting schedules are set by the Academic Priorities Committee. Norling is a member of this committee, along with several faculty, administration and a student representative.
“When the committee considers changes to the class meeting schedule, it considers a range of possible effects, such as on academics, dining and athletics,” Norling said.
Dining was a particular concern for the anonymous source with access to the 2022-2023 proposed schedule.
“With the new proposed schedule, there would be just one large group of students getting out of class at 11:45 a.m., making the lunch rush significantly worse,” the student said.
Norling described the new open block as a time that will allow for “longer gatherings that currently are postponed to the end of the day.” Norling also believed that the new proposed schedule would have the opposite effect on the lunch rush, saying, “It also will allow students to spread out their use of the dining hall, which would then lessen the acuity of the lunch rush.”
According to another anonymous senior, Blanchard Dining Hall often becomes highly crowded around 12:15 p.m., when many students leave classes at the same time. This rush impacts students’ abilities to access the Dining Hall and also poses a danger to those with weakened immune systems, especially during the pandemic. For the anonymous senior, this is a motivator to stay away from Blanchard during this time.
“Part of the reason why I avoid the dining hall during the lunch rush is because I am immunocompromised,” the senior explained.
The senior also spoke about the lunch rush more broadly, saying that “the majority of the students I talk to avoid the dining hall during this time as well purely because it is very crowded. I have also talked to a lot of students who are neurodivergent, and they try to avoid the dining hall because it can be overstimulating during the rush.”
The anonymous source with access to the document raised similar concerns, citing the current “inaccessibility” of the dining hall to students with mobility issues and those with “anxieties relating to large crowds and/or sensory overload.” The student also explained that the “pileups at specific counters [prevent] students who need access to those counters for dietary restrictions/religious accommodations from being able to eat.”
This source also reflected back to fall 2021 when considering the lunch rush. During that semester, “the approved class meeting times for Tuesdays and Thursdays meant that some students got out of class at 11:15 am, while another group of students got out of class at 12:45 pm. Even with this staggering, the lunch rush on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons made for very very long lines both to enter Blanchard and to get food at any of the counters,” the student said. “While the availability of takeout options did help ease some of the issues with finding tables, the dining hall was still extremely crowded for at least the first half-hour following the time when the students got out of class,” they added.
Norling mentioned that the lunch rush was a consideration when creating the schedule. “The longer mid-day gathering period on Tuesdays and Thursdays next year is expected to help alleviate the lunch rush on those days,” Norling explained.
Mosby echoed this, stating, “The lunch rush was a consideration. It is hoped that the class-free Tuesday/Thursday late-morning/early-afternoon blocks will provide some relief and hopefully some students will decide to enjoy lunch those days at a more relaxed pace.”
Despite the administration’s attention to the lunch rush, the source with access to the documents expressed concerns about next year’s lunch rush while reflecting back on their experience two years ago.
“In the Spring of 2020 … the lunch rush was so bad that students were eating outside on the freezing patio, sitting on the ledges between booths and even sitting on the floor,” they said. In fall 2020, Mount Holyoke’s population was 1,915 students, according to U.S. News. Per Mount Holyoke website, the population has recently increased to 2,200. Should takeout dining no longer be an option in fall 2022, the lunch rush would include more people than the student experienced in spring 2020.
The senior continued to express concerns about dining access for immunocompromised students during the pandemic.
“If changing the schedule increases the lunch rush, I think a lot of students will stop going to lunch altogether,” they said. “If the lunch rush increases, I do not think this proposal will be well-received by the students due to the overwhelming crowds and the potential of getting [COVID-19].”