Author: The Occidental Weekly Editorial Board
The recent decision to institute ten minute passing periods next year is a necessary one, as the closure of Johnson Hall will require more students to attend classes in Rangeview and have to walk farther distances. Unfortunately, the newly proposed schedule eliminates the important shared lunch hour, making collaboration amongst students and faculty much more challenging to arrange.
The hour-long break between classes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday provides a critical time for the community building that is at the heart of Occidental’s small liberal arts experience. Students socialize on the Quad or attend guest speaker lectures. They eat together in the Marketplace and meet with their clubs, sports teams and professors. Tour guides proudly identify this time period as a unique feature of Occidental and its small, tight-knit community.
According to the letter announcing the changes, the decision was made by “the Occidental academic administration.” As this shift clearly affects students as well as all those involved with student life on campus, a more public forum should have been provided for this decision-making process.
While we applaud the recognition of insufficient passing times and proactive decision making by the administration, there are other ways to accommodate the extended passing period and preserve our campus-wide hour of social and academic interaction. One alternative would be to hold more classes in the evening, between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Increasing the number of evening classes would carve out room in the schedule for a free hour for all students and faculty. The college should also ensure that every single room in each of its available academic buildings is booked, even if that means putting Spanish classes in the Bioscience building or cognitive science classes in Booth.
The letter announcing the changes failed to openly acknowledge that the lunch hour would be eliminated. A prominent typo in the letter even leaves a false impression that the college is keeping the hour-long break, only moving it to between 10:45 and 11:45. A change of this magnitude should have been a last resort, keeping in mind the importance of the lunch period to the college as a whole. Though there will still be a break from classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the reduction from five days to two will certainly impact many student groups and the ability to interact with peers and faculty on campus.
This editorial represents the collective opinion of the Occidental Weekly Editorial Board. Each week, the Editorial Board will publish its viewpoint on a matter relevant to the Occidental community.
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