The Block Scheduling Committee, composed of faculty, staff and students, has proposed that more biweekly courses that are 80 minutes long in session should be scheduled during the week than triweekly courses that are 50 minutes long per session, according to a campuswide e-mail sent by Provost Marty Krauss on April 9. The committee's report also recommended implementing a full schedule of classes on Thursdays so that classes end at 2 p.m. on Fridays. The committee has suggested that faculty meetings that are currently held on Thursdays should be consequently scheduled on Fridays. The committee report also recommends changing the starting time for classes to on the hour or half hour and ending 10 minutes before the hour. The report also recommends that the registrar should schedule classes such as the main science and larger lecture courses.

"The current practice of beginning 10 minutes after the hour is unusual and does not match the schedules kept by the vast majority of schools in our greater community," according to the report. The report states that by following starting and ending times for classes that are consistent with the greater community, it will be easier for students to make work study appointments outside Brandeis.

University Provost Marty Krauss, who is charged with evaluating the committee's report, said that these recommendations will be discussed this fall, and if passed, they will be used for the 2010 to 2011 academic year.

According to Krauss, the committee was created last year. Considering the different teaching methods and requirements on campus, Krauss said that the University wanted to schedule classes to accommodate different teaching lengths, such as those used by lab sessions, and to suit a variety of teaching environments such as those of advanced classes.

The report states that the proposals used data collected based on a university report regarding classroom use in fall 2007, as well as surveys about class blocks completed by faculty, staff and students. Data was also collected on the class scheduling practices at other institutions.

According to the report, all the recommendations proposed by the committee will work "on a model of interchangeable 'Lego' blocks in which different class lengths may be constructed by combining [class time] blocks."

The "Lego" blocks model will allow for 11 possible weekly three-hour blocks, according to the report. Prof. Malcolm Watson (PSYC) explained that such blocks are mainly used for graduate courses, lab courses and advanced seminars.

According to Watson, the committee has recommended reducing the number of triweekly course blocks from 10 to eight. Krauss said that the committee has recommended that triweekly courses should meet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, beginning at 8 a.m. and running until 2 p.m. because faculty and students complained about having the same course back-to-back. Watson explained that it was easier for students in triweekly classes to catch up on their reading and develop their thoughts if the classes were spread out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Watson said that the committee recommended increasing the number of biweekly course blocks from 11 to 16. Biweekly courses will meet on Tuesday through to Thursday, beginning at 9 a.m. and running until 9 p.m, according to the report. Watson explained that biweekly courses are usually advanced classes and that more of these 80-minute blocks should therefore be available because "sometimes when you're in advanced classes 50 minutes isn't really long enough to develop more discussion."

Watson explained that holding classes until 2 p.m. would make it easier for practicing Jews and Muslims to make it to their respective services. Krauss added, "It also reflects the fact that it provides an end-of-the week time for all kinds of other activities like seminars and speakers."

Watson explained the main problem faced by the University that the committee hopes to tackle. "There is a major issue that runs all this: that is we don't have enough class space. . We are in really tough shape relative to the number of students we have and so we have to utilize our class space really well throughout the day," Watson said.

Referring to the report, University Registrar Mark Hewitt clarified in an e-mail that the registrar already schedules all classes. "What [the report] is referring to is that with the reduction in 3-days-a-week blocks that there is apt to be more competition [between departments to get] those blocks and thus more care will have to be taken to make sure that courses students routinely enroll in are not set up to occur in the same block," Hewitt wrote.