A revealing nugget was buried in the “state of the university” speech given last month by the chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Philip Dubois concluded his talk with a few words about the “parking problem.” He said, “We will continue to have a parking problem as long as we insist upon scheduling most of our courses between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on four days of a work week.”
He recommended that the university spread “the distribution of courses across the instruction day and [make] better use of Fridays,” and said, “I will be asking the Provost, the deans, and department heads to take a much more aggressive stance with respect to the scheduling of courses.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, doesn’t that sound like inmates running the asylum? The faculty can schedule their classes at hours convenient to themselves, whatever the impact on others, such as students. (Just another glimpse of the academic life.)