Room TBAs foil 1st day of classes

IU Guides stationed at high-traffic areas of campus were met with a startling question from new students on their way to class yesterday.\n"Where is this building, 'TBA'?"\nEven as classes began, students and professors alike faced an unexpected source of frustration as OneStart continued to list the location of some courses as "TBA."\nThe Office of the Registrar has been working with schools and departments since February to negotiate class times and locations, said Roland Coté, registrar and interim vice chancellor for enrollment services in an e-mail. As of Aug. 18, though, the registrar still had not yet assigned classrooms to between 50 and 60 of approximately 6,000 course sections.\nSeveral IU Guides commented on the volume of students asking for information on the location of such courses, said Melanie Payne, associate director of the Office of Orientation Programs.\n"Some of these students may have simply printed their schedules off a week ago," Payne said. "(In that case), we help direct them to a computer to print off an updated version of their schedule. Otherwise, though, we direct them to the registrar's office."\nDifficulties with classroom assignments have escalated in recent years. A growing student population demands a larger number of course sections and, in turn, more available classrooms Coté said.\n"You have to think of the room assignment process as you would think of completing a jigsaw puzzle," Coté said. "All the pieces must tessellate in order for the final product to come to fruition ... Today, we have almost 50 percent more pieces (than 20 years ago), and the shapes and sizes of those pieces vary so widely that it's very difficult to make them all tessellate."\nWhile the number of available classrooms has hovered steadily at about 260 for the past 20 years, Coté said, the number of classes per semester has grown from 4,200 to 6,000 in the same period of time. In the absence of added classroom space, scheduling can result in chaos for students and professors.\nWhile Coté said all classes scheduled for Monday "had a room assigned for the meeting," some students and professors thought the notice came too late.\n"For my L101: Intro to Latino Studies class, they sent an e-mail around 10 a.m. today telling us the location of our 1 p.m. class," sophomore Lindsay Clark said Monday. "This was after they'd sent out an e-mail around 8 a.m. saying the time of the class had changed, even though it hadn't. Basically, the registrar was trying to correct the problem but just kept messing it up."\nDespite the confusion, though, almost everyone in the class found his or her way to the right place, Clark said.\nMaurice Garnier, professor of sociology, also suffered scheduling complications. He was assigned to teach a section of S100, an introductory sociology course, just two hours before it was scheduled to begin, he said.\nHe also experienced difficulty when a 300-level course he was slated to teach lacked a location until Wednesday.\nWhen the class finally was assigned a room, Garnier found it was "inappropriate" for the purposes of that class because it lacked an Internet connection.\n"In over 30 years at IU, I had never faced such a situation," Garnier said.\nThe late classroom assignment also prevents instructors from familiarizing themselves with the classrooms they will be using, he added. \n"These last-minute arrangements must be even more troubling to less experienced faculty," Garnier said.\nCoté expressed his sympathies.\n"The lateness of room assignments does have a cascading effect," he said.\nSome instructors like to visit their classrooms before their classes begin so they can feel out seating arrangements and the technology setup, among other things, Coté said.\n"This problem reached crisis proportions last fall," Coté said. "We found ourselves in a situation very similar to where we are today. However, we were also coping with other radical changes in registration procedures and other processes brought about by the implementation of our new Student Information System."\nDespite Coté's efforts, frustration ultimately lingered for many professors and students.\n"I received many e-mails from students who naturally wanted to know where the class was to meet," Garnier said. "How do I feel about that? Not at all pleased"