Hit the snooze button one more time, while you still can: The Hemphill/Cavanagh scheduling paradigm has been officially scrapped, but the 8 a.m. start time is sticking around.

Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw accepted the Syracuse University Senate’s schedule resolution Monday, ending the recent scheduling debate. The paradigm will retain the current class pairing of Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Tuesday/Thursday, and Monday/Wednesday.

It will also add more 80-minute classes to Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and will have an 8 a.m. start time to accommodate these changes, said Andrew Thomson, an information studies and political science major and president of the Student Association.

‘I’m very pleased,’ said Robert Van Gulick, an assistant philosophy professor, and one of the creators of the accepted paradigm. ‘I think the process was a very democratic one. Everybody involved put in a lot of good work and it was a good result at the end.’

Students who have already duked it out with S.C.O.R.E for next semester’s classes need not worry that their schedule will change. The university will not implement the new paradigm until Spring 2005, because the implementation process requires one calender year, said Deborah Freund, vice chancellor and provost.

‘Computers need to be reprogrammed and departments need to decide what classes will get taught and when,’ Freund said.

The Senate accepted the paradigm, proposed by Thomson and Van Gulick, at its Nov. 15 meeting. It then recommended the schedule to Shaw, who considered the Senate’s recommendation before accepting the paradigm.

‘It was very good of the chancellor to solicit the Senate’s advice before making the decision,’ Van Gulick said.

The Thomson/Van Gulick paradigm proposal replaced a university proposal created by Robert Cavanagh and Ernest Hemphill that called for Monday/Wednesday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday class pairings, as well as more 80-minute classes. Many students and faculty members had complained that the unique time schedule of the Cavanagh/Hemphill paradigm would prevent part-time faculty from working at other nearby colleges, and that consecutive class meetings would detract from out-of-class work time.

‘The costs didn’t justify the benefits,’ Van Gulick said. ‘But it did have some good ideas.’

The approved Thomson/Van Gulick paradigm eliminates those costs, and many people are much more satisfied with it.

‘The student caucus was unanimous in support of the proposal,’ Van Gulick said. ‘And the faculty felt strongly for it as well.’

The selected paradigm is a much better solution than the Cavanagh/Hemphill proposal, said Graham Wallis, a junior computer science major.

‘The other schedule was pure hell,’ Wallis said.

But some students are curious as to why the schedule needed to be changed at all, and object to the increase in 80-minute classes.

‘I’d rather have 55-minute classes three days a week than 80-minute classes twice a week,’ said Katia Gil, a sophomore sociology major.

Freund will configure the exact details of the schedule and make any necessary changes by Dec. 1. Anyone will be able to view the detailed schedule and post comments on a future website.

Freund will establish the final plan by Dec. 16.

‘I look forward to seeing the details of it in December, and I’m confident it’ll be one to meet all of the various needs,’ Van Gulick said. ‘She’ll do a job that we’ll all be happy with.’

Published on November 17, 2003 at 12:00 pm