The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, January 22, 1997           TAG: 9701220380
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   42 lines

ODU CONSIDERS NEW PLAN FOR FRIDAY CLASS SCHEDULES

Tired of those Monday-Wednesday-Friday classes? Old Dominion University is thinking about getting rid of them.

The Faculty Senate is considering a proposal to overhaul the university's course schedule. As it stands, the schedule - similar to those at other colleges - generally has two tracks: 50-minute classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, or 75-minute courses on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The proposal, from a Faculty Senate panel, would replace the Monday-Wednesday-Friday track with 75-minute classes on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays would be left open for 150-minute classes.

Exceptions would be made for professors who wish to continue the Monday-Wednesday-Friday routine, such as foreign language teachers, who believe languages are best learned through regular, repeated instruction.

``It's hard to conduct tests in only 50 minutes,'' said G. Hill Price, a computer science lecturer who helped craft the proposal. ``With that amount of time, it's hard to have visual presentations, videotapes, things of that nature.''

The proposal was released but not debated during the Faculty Senate's meeting Tuesday. It could be voted on as early as next week.

The administration, which has the final say, will consider the proposal if the Faculty Senate approves it, said ODU's provost, Jo Ann Gora. ``It may make sense,'' she said. But it could not be enacted in the fall because next semester's course schedule has already been set, Gora said.

The new schedule might free many students from Friday classes. But at Webb Center Tuesday, several expressed hesitation.

``It could work out,'' said Chace Cooper, a freshman from Virginia Beach. ``If you schedule your classes around Friday, you're set.'' But he worried about getting stuck with one of the two-and-a-half-hour Friday classes. Labs can last that long, and ``with labs, you almost lose consciousness,'' he said.

John Hanley, a junior from Alexandria, said he thought three-day-a-week classes were the best, from an educational standpoint. ``From Thursday to the next Tuesday, I might have a lot of trouble remembering what it is we did and what's going to be expected for the next class,'' he said.

KEYWORDS: OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY CLASSES


by CNB