The Faculty Senate approved a proposal for a new block schedule at its meeting last Thursday, Prof. Tim Hickey (COSI), chair of the Faculty Senate, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.The proposal, which includes switching classes currently on Friday afternoons to Thursday afternoons, will now be sent to Provost Marty Krauss for final approval, according to an e-mail to the Justice from Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Malcom Watson (PSYC), chair of the block scheduling committee.

Watson and University Registrar Mark Hewitt presented the proposal to the Faculty Senate at the meeting on Thursday. Hickey wrote that the proposal passed by a large majority, but he was not sure of the exact numbers of the vote. "The faculty senate felt that Professor Watson and the Registrar, Mark Hewitt, made a convincing case for the new schedule," he wrote.

Watson wrote in his e-mail that Krauss will now make the final decision on the block scheduling proposal. "The Provost will now decide whether to accept the new block schedule and institute it starting next academic year. It is her decision whether to accept it or not."

In an interview with the Justice, Krauss said that she has been working with Hewitt to determine the deadline for making a decision on the proposal since it will affect the scheduling of classes for next year and said that she expects to make a decision "within the next couple of weeks."

"The block scheduling committee has worked really hard and revised their recommendations, . and there seems to be a good consensus around those revised recommendations, so I would suspect those will be implemented," she added.

According to an Oct. 26 article in the Justice, under the block scheduling proposal approved by the Faculty Senate, "Only afternoon schedules would change. Whereas afternoon classes are currently scheduled on a Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Friday block system, they would instead be scheduled on a Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday block schedule." The changes would also have classes start on the hour or half-hour as opposed to 10 minutes past the hour or half-hour and two 80-minute blocks could be combined into one 3-hour block.

Watson wrote that he expects a decision from the provost "very soon, possibly this week." He added that if the provost approves the block scheduling proposal, "The registrar will need to get instructions to all departments and programs so that they can submit their course schedules for next year."

"If the provost rejects it, we may just stay with the current schedule," wrote Watson. He continued that alternative block scheduling proposals that were discussed in previous weeks are no longer on the table. According to an Oct. 24 e-mail from Watson to the Justice, alternative proposals included one submitted last year that called for more drastic changes to the scheduling system and another which was a combination of the more drastic proposal and the proposal presented to the Faculty Senate on Thursday.