Summer Scheduling
The following memorandum was distributed to the Academic Deans by Provost Julie Sullivan on January 26, 2006, to clarify procedures for scheduling summer classes and summer conferences.
During this past year, the members of the Space Committee have been investigating ways to improve cooperation between summer classes and summer conferences. They have consulted the College of Arts and Science (A&S), where class scheduling is coordinated, and Summer Camps and Conferences (SCC), where conferences are scheduled. They have identified three issues that could be resolved by better coordination of space:
- When classes and conferences meet in adjacent rooms, faculty who are teaching complain about the noise made by conference participants, while conference organizers maintain that they are paying the university to use the space for their activities.
- When classes and conferences share the same room on different days, workers from Facilities Management must provide staff to repeatedly move furniture in and out of the room; this is an expense for the university and causes unnecessary wear and tear on the furniture.
- Space for conferences is often requested well in advance of academic scheduling, forcing SCC to wait for confirmation that a particular room is not going to be scheduled for a class.
In spring of 2002, A&S and SCC reached an informal agreement to divide campus buildings between classes and conferences. At the request of the Space Committee, A&S has agreed to include the following statement in the College’s Faculty Handbook:
During the summer, academic classes will be scheduled in the Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, Shiley Center for Science & Technology, Olin Hall, and Hahn School of Nursing. Summer conferences will be scheduled in Camino Hall, Founders Hall, Maher Hall, Serra Hall, and Loma Hall.
The Space Committee would like to extend this statement to cover general purpose classrooms in other buildings on campus and recommends that Warren Hall, Pardee Legal Research Center, Guadalupe Hall, and Alcala West be reserved for classes and the University Center and the Jenny Craig Pavilion be reserved for conferences. Exceptions to this policy for special use classrooms, such as studios and computer spaces, are permitted. Accommodating special circumstances, particularly summer renovations, may require negotiation between the Director of Summer Conference Services and academic deans who are affected. The Director of Special Sessions should be included in the discussion of any special arrangements.
This agreement recognizes that academic classes and summer conferences are both important to USD, and both need to have space that can be scheduled as needed for their activities.
cc: Space Committee
Ms. Kim Parks