S6E10 - If I Had a Classroom, I’d Schedule It in the Morning

Academic Scheduling is an incredibly complicated part of the registrar’s responsibilities. There are multiple moving parts with competing interests often vying for a limited set of physical resources. Managing this process well is critical to successfully supporting your students through their academic journeys. Jessica Lansing and Ashley DeSantis, both from SUNY at Albany, share their process of working across the campus to improve the scheduling process.

Key Takeaways:

• Establishing, socializing, and enforcing a solid set of foundational scheduling practices is challenging but important work. Articulating ways that academic scheduling can support (or hurt!) student success is also important framing. Student-centric scheduling practices are best.

• It is critical to have buy-in and support from all levels of the institution when revising any scheduling practices. Academic schedule development can be fraught, but strong working relationships will go a long way to easing some of the issues. Support from the Provost’s Office and Deans will, too.

• The work is ongoing, collaborative, sometimes frustrating, and requires a commitment to communication, a reasonable amount of patience, dedication to maintaining the student focus, and the ability to admit and own mistakes. In short, academic scheduling is hard work!

Host:

Doug McKenna, University Registrar
George Mason University
cmckenn@gmu.edu

Guests:

Ashley DeSantis, Assistant Registrar
SUNY at Albany
andesantis@albany.edu    

Jessica Lansing, Associate Registrar
SUNY at Albany
jllansing@albany.edu  

References and Additional Information:

Leadership and Management

Technological Knowledge